Part 3: What to Ask in Person
The third phase of selecting a contractor involves actually meeting up with them in person. This gives you an opportunity to see first-hand how well they communicate and to get a sense of their personality, how they approach the work, and the depth of their knowledge, both about building and business.
It is worthwhile to interview at least three contractors, and possibly more, but not because they will necessarily come in with better pricing. The goal of the interview is to understand the subtleties of how each one does business, to gauge their expertise, and to get a sense of whether you like their personality and approach enough to sign up for having them in your life for an extended period of time. If you don’t like the contractor personally, feel lukewarm about them, or get a sense they either want to sounds like they know it all, or clearly don’t know essentially things, it can be a red flag. You want to feel comfortable on a gut level that you can trust your contractor to look out for your best interests AND be capable of executing the work.
It’s also helpful to meet in person to go over each estimate. The level of detail you will get during that meeting will give you the best sense of how thoroughly the contractor understands your project. It will also provide you with an opportunity to ask questions that come up and to better understand the differences between the estimates you receive.
There are number of questions you can ask to draw out the specifics of how contractors do business, and who will actually be at your house doing the work.
Who supervises the projects on a daily basis? This will tell you if the contractor and their employees are continuously supervising work on site, or if they only drop in occasionally.
What kind of contract they prefer: Cost Plus (time and material) or bid? Some contractors will offer both, and even a hybrid T&M with a guaranteed maximum. Others will insist on only one kind and that may not be the kind you want.
How their billing works: do bills arrive every week, once a month, at milestones? What kind of documentation comes with the invoices, and do they include a percent completion analysis. Is there a deposit? Is there retainage?
Hourly rates and markup: This will tell you relative hourly cost for the contractors’ employees on site. The markup is the percentage by which the direct costs of the project are multiplied to cover the contractor’s overhead costs. But even this information can’t necessarily be compared apples to apples on estimates. A little more on that in a future blog entry…
Understand how employees are screened and taken care of by the company: Does the contractor do background checks? Do they offer benefits? Both of these are signs of a contractor who cares who they are bringing into your home and wants to recruit and retain the highest quality employees.
How much work is subbed out: How much work does the contractor do with their own forces? What work will be performed by trade subcontractors? And perhaps most importantly, how does the contractor screen those subcontractors to make sure they are licensed and have current workers comp insurance?
Processes to ensure satisfaction: Does the contractor check in every few months after work is complete, offer an easy warranty process? Do they send surveys? Do they use a punch list system at the end of the project to ensure everything is complete?
Methods of communication: Does the contractor use email, call on the phone, send printed documentation? How often will you hear from them? How quickly will they respond to your calls and emails? Do they have an office? Is it staffed full-time?
Things they will provide organizationally: How will the contractor communicate with you about items that still need to be selected? How will you know when you need to move out of the house for the floor refinishing? Will someone be there each day when you get home from work to debrief? Is there a weekly or biweekly meeting with the contractor, clients and architect? Who takes notes? How do they handle the small details?
Change orders? Are they written, verbal, does the work happen before the price is provided? What constitutes a change order… is it a change in countertop material, surprise asbestos in the wall, or used to resolve allowances?
Next, Part 4: Final Steps