Gents, my wife and I will be adding an addition to our home this year. Right now we’re in the design phase w/ our architect, and I can see where we’ll need some input fr/ a contractor very soon. Is there any published literature on the best way to select a building contractor or does anyone have any recommedations? Right now “word of mouth” is all we’re going by.
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Do a google search on "choosing a contractor". I'm sure this will give you many pointers.
Here are a few off the top of my head.
Is the contractor:
Licensed?
Insured?
Incorporated?
Established?
Ask him which suppliers he uses. Call the suppliers and ask if they will let you know if he's dependable or not.
Jon Blakemore
I don't think it's much different than if you're hiring people for job at the office, you interview them.
When you call, do they promptly return calls.
Do they show up on the day and at the time they say they will, or call to apologize and say they will be late. If they can't make the first appointment what makes you think they can make a schedule over the course of construction.
Are the lights on when you talk to them, ask them questions and their thoughts about a project.
Like anything you get what you pay for, the cheapest is often that way for a reason.
Getting a contractor in early is a great idea, a good one will often have ideas to help the flow of project and potentially save you money. One idea is if you find someone you like is to pay them an hourly consulting fee, without any obligation by you to hire them for the job. They are then compensted fairly for their time, you get the advice you need, and most importantly you get a good sense of the person or company.
There's been a lot of discussion on this. You'll fund much in the archives.
If I could summarize my opinion in just a line or two, the critical element is to hire the right contractor, then all goes smoothly. You can't fix a bad contractor by writing a detailed contract nor riding his case all through the job. The best predictor of future human performance is past performance. Therefore, talking to references and seeing his work with your own eyes are the two key methods that should weigh most heavily in your search and decision.
So, yes, word of mouth is good, but you need to follow up with detailed questions and check multiple references as well as see actual work.
Berk,
I'm in the same situation as you, looking to add on to the house. It's been a frusturating process.
We interviewed many architects with little success. Many told us they mostly do commercial work and had never done a residential addition. Several told us that they only do residential work when commercial is slow since commercial pays better. Many of the architects showed up at our house for the initial interview without a portfolio of work to show us. In general they were all very unprofessional.
We finally gave up on the architects and starting interviewing builders. First builder we interviewed was within our budget, however he did not give us confidence that he could do the design work. He lacked professionalism, but seemed to be an experienced builder.
Next builder was from a design/build firm. When we meet with him we were upfront about our budget. He seemed to agree that we could do the work within our budget of $100K. He emailed the next day saying he could do it for $175K. He refused to show us a breakdown of his estimate. He wanted us to pay a $5,000 design fee upfront. We said goodbye to him.
Next builder we interviewed was another design/build firm. The firm has two owners. One is a former accountant who runs the business side. The other is an experienced builder who runs the construction side. The former accountant is the one we interviewed. He was very professional. He had professional quality handouts of information for us. He had two large portfolios of work to show us. He explained that they would develop a basic design for our addition on Softplan CADD software. Softplan would then generate an estimate for construction of the addition and that would be the quote. They give allowances for things like Kitchen cabinets and bath fixtures but other than that they would honor their original estimate unless we changed the design. We really liked their professionalism and honest upfront way in which they deal with us.
Bottom Line: Keep interviewing builders until you find the right one for you. When you call the references ask if they ran into any unforseen problems during construction. Ask them how the builder handled the problems.
Mike K
Mike K
Amateur Home Remodeler in Aurora, Illinois
however he did not give us confidence that he could do the design work. When you called him for the interview, did he represent himself as being a design-builder? Many excdellent builders can handle the design of ceertain parts of a project, but only a few can offer complete design services. If you liked him otherwise, why not ask him if he can recommend a designer.
He wanted us to pay a $5,000 design fee upfront. That's fair. The initial in-home consultation would be free, but after that you are using his services. Maybe you could have asked him to do a less detialed initial design for less money. He should have been able to guestimate the cost a little closer, assuming he has done that type of work before, so not using hi may have been a good move.
Softplan would then generate an estimate Softplan is a good program, but it only creates reports based on the information it has available. It's like when people say "just have the cad program design an addition for me". Well, the cad program doesn't do anyhting ... it's the human operator that does all the thinking. Point being, Softplan could generate a material list based on the plans, but the dollar amounts in the estimatre would be a function of the values entered into the program. And it would truly be an estimate.
We really liked their professionalism and honest upfront way in which they deal with us. That is a key item in choosing a contractor. If you aren't comfortable dealing with the contractor in the early phases, it won't get any better once construction begins.
ask if they ran into any unforseen problems during construction. Any project that doesn't have unseen problems ... wasn't much of a project.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
He wanted us to pay a $5,000 design fee upfront. That's fair. The initial in-home consultation would be free, but after that you are using his services. Ed, I don't mind paying a design fee. But not to a contractor who is 75% about the agreed apon budget without justification. Well, the cad program doesn't do anyhting ... it's the human operator that does all the thinking. Point being, Softplan could generate a material list based on the plans, but the dollar amounts in the estimatre would be a function of the values entered into the program. And it would truly be an estimate.Ed, this contractor stated that his firm took three months customizing their softplan estimation program to get it accurate. He told me they download current material costs on a regular basis. They have labor and markup builtin. Unless we discover some problem with the existing house such as wiring that does meet code the estimate is the final price. Remember, this guy was formally an accountant and is used to dealing with hard numbers. Any project that doesn't have unseen problems ... wasn't much of a project.Exactly. The point is to ask the homeowner how the contractor SOLVED the problems that came up during construction.Mike KMike K
Amateur Home Remodeler in Aurora, Illinois
Glad to hear that you didn't have aproblem with the up-front design fee. In your original post it sounded like that was one of the reasons for not using that contractor. I agree that his initial estimate sounded like an unfair come-on, or maybe he decided later that he really didn't want the job so he bid it very high.
Keeping current material and labor costs in the Softplan program is an important element. Piffin uses Softplan, and if I remember correctly, he says the material takeoffs are not real accurate. Also, the estimator can put in diffeent markups for labor and material, like allowances for waste, etc, to cover contingencies. I guess my point was ... if you were selecting the contractor cuz he used a computer program to automatically do an estimate ... that would not necessarily be good logic.
Don't mean to get into semantics with you, but How the contractor solved the problems may not be relevant. What you want is a contracotr who is up front and open and honest about unforseen issues. Whenever I have something come up, I advise the client as soon as practical, and try to have a recomended solution and one or two alternates, with estimated costs. Trying to hide stuff from the client usually backfires.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
You have gotten some good advice already but word of mouth really is the best way to find a good builder. It is a source that is not controlled by the builder, unlike references, portfolios, etc. and it is a source that is only limited by the amount of time that you want to spend looking for the builder for you. It will be the best time spent by you in preparation for your project. You should be able to ferret out at least five builders who are suitable and the main object of your interview will be to determine if you are both personally compatible. Good luck.