Builder Payment Schedule - No financing
munzer420
7 years ago
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7 years agolast modified: 5 years agomunzer420
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Please explain the contract and payment process when hiring contractor
Comments (18)Steve from BeautifulRemodel has given you excellent advice as well.....................the suggestions that I gave do seem over whelming, but in your instances this could basically consist of a one or two page contract at most........it doesn't have to be a War and Peace novel length document. In this case it could very well be the following: 1. Your name, address, site address and your phone number. 2. His name, his company name, his license number and his phone number, his insurance information and his bond information. 3. A summary description of the work involved, the area to be worked on, the materials to be used and the quality expected (i.e if he's doing an overlay for a finished floor you want a levelness of 1/4" - 1/8" per 10' depending on the finish floor materials selected). 4. The contract amount for work covered. You said it was about $10,000. Show a 10% deposit payment due at signing of contract. A materials payment when presented with a receipt for said materials. I suspect the reason he want to be paid in cash, is this is an off the books jobs for him and the daily payments are for the day labors he will be using........... I can tell you no commercial job is paying him cash on a daily basis. I'm not really big on paying daily.......this is a good indicator he's using day labor to do the work and that's iffy as to experience and quality. Don't get me wrong, I've used day labor myself before and been very pleased with their work quality........I've also been totally disgusted with the work quality and fired them before lunch. The key is this, is he going to be on site supervising the job the whole 5 days or is he just sending out day labors to do the work while he's on one of his commercial jobs? I would require his daily supervision on the job and that all payments other than the deposit would be made minus a 10% retainage to be paid at the end of the job. Whether or not you pay in cash is your call.........I would advise against it. 5. Since he says the job will take 5 days, this needs to be shown on the contract........the start date and the finish date. This could take a single page or two at the most.........the main thing is you want the particulars spelled out in a written contract. Should the work be defective or the work not completed on time without anything in writing you have nothing to stand on. If he has problems with these conditions and signing a contract, you should see red flags and fireworks going off telling you that this is not a good fit...........find a new contractor. Although I'm pretty much retired now save the occasional custom residential design, I still do some small home repair jobs in my neighborhood for my neighbors who are mostly elderly and living on fixed incomes (i.e replace a window or door, replace a sink, add a storm / security door). I usually do the work for the price of the materials and a very minimal labor fee (I could make more working at McDonalds). Most of the jobs, if they buy the materials I'll do the work for a pie or a cake........and let me tell you, there are some good cooks living around me, all home made......but even with this, I provide them with a one page contract. Any contractor who would object to a simple contract like this is suspect in my book....See MoreHelp! I need to Pick a Builder & Can't Get up! Vacation Home
Comments (3)Contact local designers and tile shops for their suggestions. They usually know who does the best work and who is the most trustworthy. Who pays on time, etc. The lowest price isn't always the best way to go. Some builders underestimate the costs of allowance and/or materials to get the job, then charge change order fees for the inevitable overages. One way to avoid this is to go ahead and choose your finishes before you get the quotes. The more specific you are, the easier it is to compare quotes. Also, talk to a current client and a past client within the last 12 months of all potential builders. I've found that personality plays a big role in the builder/client relationship. If you are detail oriented, highly communicative (which is my assumption based on your dilemma question) you will want to hire someone who itemizes their bill and is willing to discuss details. Check their licensing online to make sure it is current. Also check their insurances, etc. It's a big decision and worth the extra work to verify. You do want to be conscious of their time. Where I can charge for the time I work on a project during the planning phase, builders usually can't. It doesn't create a good builder/client relationship if they feel they've been taken advantage of by the client from the beginning. Some will charge for the time it takes to calculate costs. Some of my builders use cost plus, others give a flat management fee. I've found that either way the client ends up paying about the same. My preference, however, is cost plus. In our area it's usually 15-20%. I've been hired by several clients who chose the wrong builder without our help and were very frustrated and disappointed with the results. Best of luck to you!...See MoreHELP! Builder saying he doesn't want to put my trim tile in here. :/
Comments (182)It's YOUR money and YOUR house...don't pay him until the job is completed to your satisfaction. Do I understand you had the pencil molding available before he even began the job? If so, it's a double whammy on his "professionalism" to have not used it. NO, it won't be "sticking out too far" because he's not just going to glue the pencil molding to the mastic that was improperly stuck in to fill in the gap...he's going to remove that mastic and install the molding properly. Even I, a DIY grandmother, knows you measure the area and account for spacing when you do tiling, cutting tiles where they need to be cut as you go instead of doing a half-arse job and hope nobody notices. DON'T pay him in full until the job is done PROPERLY...vacation rush or no vacation rush! If he didn't have time to do a quality job before his vacation, he shouldn't have accepted the job!...See MoreSwitching builders early- should I pay the first one anything?
Comments (26)One more thing - "building codes" are nothing but absolute *minimums* designed to protect life safety. That's all. Code enforcement does not concern itself with project scheduling, with aesthetics or artful workmanship, nor for the most part with usability of the design or 1001 other aspects that make a house a home... and that make it possible for you to RESELL it later. A screwed-up job is a forever disaster. "How bad can it be?" Ohhhh it can be much much worse than you can possibly imagine. How about spending years litigating an UNFINISHED project that you'll still be paying a large monthly mortgage on, and may not even be able to to occupy - while the low-ball builder you hired is long out of business. How 'bout dealing with years of constant out-of-warranty repairs and remodeling to correct substantial defects of omissions from the original job - or even just having to replace things in 5-6 years because your low-ball builder did not have an adequate budget to install items that would last the length of your mortgage? How 'bout losing your marriage over the stress of a failed construction project - I've seen that dozens of times. You want horror stories - we've got 1000s of them. And then there's the ability to re-sell the home later for what you have in it. Low-ball now and you'll regret it forever. The 'fix" of course is to scale back your project to one that, instead of being at 100% of your budget.... is 75% of your maximum budget. Follow the principles in Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House". Build smaller - but with good solid universal design. Hire absolutely the best builder with the best reputation in the area - and then let him/her do his/her job without second-guessing their well-tuned process or micro-managing. THAT is how you have a successful project....See Moredeegw
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