Quick Guide to Hiring a Contractor

by Tony Chavira

Hiring a good, reliable contractor is risky business indeed. You’re taking one of your personal American dreams and placing its execution in the hands of some guys you hope can get the job done to whatever your specifications are within your budget. You might not know how much materials like tile or carpet cost, how much labor costs, or how well (or badly) the building industry is doing. On top of all of that, starting out from scratch it tough when every quote you get will make you feel like you’re getting taken for a chump.

It’s unfortunate that so many people have contractor horror stories, whether they work in large companies or just want to add a wing to their homes. It’s like hiring someone for any job: it’s just hard to figure out who you can trust. Everyone bids out to multiple contractors, but you always end up wondering if you’re actually getting what you pay for or if they’re railroading you. You don’t want to hire someone and ultimately regret the decision to go with them.

I want to burst a quick bubble about hiring contractors: railroading you is part of every contractor’s job. It’s how they make their money, and you’d be doing the same if you were a contractor. You’d want to mark up the price of each of your projects so that your company didn’t have to walk that razor-thin line between getting a paycheck for completed work and paying employees salaries. That said, there’s going to be some markup and service fees associated with the final cost like any other business.

So what can you do to mitigate your fears of supreme buyer’s/renovator’s remorse? Exactly two key things:

First, Get More Bang For Your Buck

Once you know your budget, you’re going to have a few options at your price level. Some contractors will promise all kinds of things, while others will offer very limited services that you may not have a lot of control over. The best way to soothe your fears of getting screwed is to a) ask for a marketing package, b) ask for a list of recent projects, and c) ask for a list of references. Once you have those completed projects in-hand, it’s time for you to call their past clients up and start a little dialog. Here’s what you ask them:

1. What were their budget ranges?
2. What were their timelines for completion?
3. How many changes did they want? How much work did they want to get done?
4. Did the contractor deliver everything they promised on-time?

Now this next part might sound sort of weird (especially if you’ve become one of those people who prefers e-mailing to calling people on the phone), but after you get a satisfying answer to each of these questions you’re going to ask if you might be able to visit their completed building. I know, it’s always weird thinking about letting strangers into your office, home or wherever, but at this point you’re almost always going to be dealing with someone who works (and spends) at the same level as you and understands your concerns. Besides, even if they say “no,” it’s no skin off your nose. But if they say “yes,” you don’t have to impose ... you just have to look closely for little details. Do you like how the light fixtures attach to the walls? Do you like how the carpets are placed along the floor? Do you like the tile work? Does the stucco or paint job seem patchy to you? Remember, you’re not looking at the materials or building design, since an architect or interior designer did those. You’re looking to make sure that hallways are perfectly straight, windows are perfect rectangles, and wooden floorboards are perfectly aligned. Little things you wouldn’t typically pay attention to unless you were looking.

If you’re satisfied with the contractor’s job on that project, there’s a good chance you’ll be satisfied with the quality of a project they do for you too. If not, don’t have any qualms about dumping them like yesterday’s garbage. In fact, dump them like today’s garbage while you’re at it.

This one’s supposed to look like this. Yours isn’t.

Second, Trust Your Project Manager

The project manager I’m talking about here isn’t the architect, although many people confuse these two roles. Most contracts for architects are deliberately structured to say something like “Construction Observation” and not “Construction Administration” for a good reason: the architect cannot be responsible if the contractor screws up their drawings. There’s no point in suing an architect for a crappy construction job if their drawings are correct ... the contractor screwed everything up, so they should pay the price. But in court, an architect’s contract that reads “Construction Administration” or “Construction Management” will give a sleazy contractor the ability to throw all of the blame onto them, and legally they’ll be right.

Once you’ve seen the quality of work from a contractor’s past project, their prices seem reasonable, and you feel like you’ve shopped around enough, you’ll want to meet with their project manager. A contractor’s project manager is the dude who gets things done, they know the ins and outs of the project, can read the architect’s drawings clearly, and know the actual team of people who’re going to build your castle. You want to sit down and meet with him or her to see if they’re a cool, easy-to-work-with person, but there are also several questions you’ll want to ask them:

1. Do they really understand your vision for the project?After looking at the drawings and materials and talking to you, do they seem to have a good grasp of how to approach this project right away? If you feel like the answer is yes, it probably means that the project manager’s done something like this before. In case you weren’t sure, that’s a good thing.
2. Do they have any questions about what you want, what the architectural drawings say, or about any of the design details? If they’re asking too many questions, you might have an indecisive or slow project manager on your hands who’s looking to put the responsibility onto someone else. On the other hand, if the project manager has no questions they clearly don’t care what your vision for the project is and they’ll probably cut you out of the decision-making process at some point. Oh, egos.
3. What’s the timeline going to look like, realistically? You already know what it’s going to cost, but a project manager who can’t give you a realistic idea of what the timeline’s going to be after they’ve seen the drawings might inadvertently (or worse, deliberately) prolong the project’s completion. The longer it takes to build your project, the more billable hours the contractor will accumulate. Sometimes—if you have a project with a ton of little detailed work, for example—that’s a good thing. Sometimes—when you just need a simple service and someone to take care of it cleanly—they’re manipulating you.
4. What does your architect or interior designer think? In many cases, contractors are referrals from your architect or interior designer, and their project managers are people that they already know they can get along with on a day-to-day basis. Of course, you want to make an independent decision about the contractor, as it’s your money being spent here. So after sitting with the project manager and seeing their plan for action, let your architect or interior designer make up their own mind about them, and give you the pros and cons of the situation. (See my last article to make sure you’re working with a good architect.)

The scariest part about building something (unless you’ve been doing it for a while) is that you’re putting a lot of money on the table, and therefore are taking a calculated risk that things will turn out the way you want them to. If you’re working in facilities for a company, you’re putting your job at risk, and the completion of a project on-time and on-budget is a reflection of your professionalism and pay grade. If you’re building something for yourself, you’re willingly putting your hard-earned money into something you want to turn out perfect. Sometimes you just need to trust people to do the right thing. Just make sure that others trust them too.

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