Top 10 Tips for Working With Contractors

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011


By Jay Johnson

 

We’re often asked about our tips for working with contractors. Upfront due diligence is where it all begins.

  • Get personal recommendations from past and current clients; they’ve already been through the Contractor Wars.
  • Search the Internet when you get contractor names. You’ll find client horror stories, pending lawsuits, and glowing testimonials.
  • See each contractor’s work in progress. Only active jobsites show you how clean and organized the contractor will be on your project. A dirty jobsite with only a few workers lolling around is a major concern. Set jobsite meetings with little notice to get a truer picture of the contractor’s working style.
  • Look for good paint jobs; they require lots of costly hours, and it’s the first place a contractor starts to cut corners and lowball quality.

To start project bidding, here’s our advice.

  • Provide a very detailed set of construction drawings. The more drawings, the better. Add small perspectives of tricky details to avoid misunderstandings.
  • Write up detailed descriptions of the entire project in a Word doc – like you’re describing the project to a friend over the phone. This verbal description should repeat and reinforce what’s in the construction drawings. For instance, our pet peeve is when thermostats above light switches aren’t centered, but typically installed left or right, depending on the construction stud location. Show thermostat centering in the drawings, draw a small perspective, and describe it in your project description.
  • Request unit costs for as many items as possible should you decide to add them later, e.g. the unit cost for an outlet or a recessed light. The old saying “Ten dollars to get on the camel and twenty dollars to get off the camel” means if you add a drawer to a cabinet, you might get charged $300, but if you eliminate one, you might only get a $100 credit. (Extra benefit: specific costs from bidding contractors will help your client make decisions upfront to avoid future charges.)

Get three quotes from different contractors for any project. Then what?

  • Study the quotes in detail. The contractor you select should spend great effort preparing your quote. If you get a quote for a substantial project and it’s only one page long, that’s a red flag.
  • Check each contractor’s quote for inaccuracies. Sometimes contractors cut and paste language from a previous quote, leaving irrelevant data that pertains to someone else’s project. If the contractor is slap-dash with your quotes, it’s a predictor of trouble.
  • Be wary of a contractor who underbids a project in order to get his or her foot in the door with you and your client. Compare the three bids; if one is substantially lower than the others, don’t touch it. If the other two are closer to one another, fall back on your due diligence work and instincts (e.g. your chemistry with the contractor) to make your final recommendation.

Congratulations on hiring your contractor! Our recommended next steps are:

  • Set the project pecking order. You’re the liaison between the client and the contractor. Your client shouldn’t be contacting the contractor directly or vice versa.
  • Make it clear to your client and the contractor that you want to have as few change orders as possible throughout the job (unforeseen conditions are legitimate additions to the budget, of course). We tell our client the twenty-dollar-camel story so they make all their design decisions with us before construction begins. At the same time, we tell the contractor that we want to pay for as few change orders as possible. Warn the contractor that you’re not going to run to the client for petty cash or constant charges; better to add an upfront 5% for “errors or omissions” in the budget.
  • Keep the mood on your project friendly, light, and businesslike. Always be considerate and complimentary, and treat everyone with great respect and courtesy – but be firm when you have to and stand your ground.

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In November 2006, Manhattan-based blogger Jay Johnson and his partner Irwin Weiner ASID applied the popularity of watching videos on the Internet to the house-and-garden arena. The idea for Design2Share was born. On D2S, they share their insight, tips, and strong opinions about how people design and decorate their homes, entertaining over 300,000 visitors a year; their syndicated original videos had over 22 million video views in 2010.

 

Photo credit:

 

Photos © Irwin Weiner Interiors