How to Select your contractor!!!

Contractors vary in skill level and personality like all of us so deciding on who to choose to construct your project can be an exercise in frustration if you do not know what to look for.

 In the case of commercial and public construction projects the contractor is selected through a process called a tender. In this system, the contractors submit bids and the successful bidder is decided primarily on who submits the lowest price. This system does not always result in the best qualified person getting the work but you must have an extraordinary reason for not picking the low bidder to avoid litigation.

For residential projects, formal contracts are less common and the system has traditionally been a little different. Pricing on house construction projects is very competitive as a rule and typically for smaller sums of money than their commercial counterparts so it is far less likely that you will save large sums of money by picking one contractor over another. So how do you decide? 

Good question!! Your selection should not be based on price alone as mentioned above. Your selection will need to be made based on your comfort level with the available contractors and their reputations in the community. First you should get to know the contractors in your area. 

• Ask your design professional for a list of people they are confident can do the job for you.
• Qualified builders are typically members of the local home builder’s associations and carry the provinces home warranty insurance that is mandatory on all new homes. Make sure they can provide you with registration numbers. If they cannot. oh, well. Life moves on and so should you.
• Book an interview with 4-5 contractors from your area. Ask them about their businesses, how long they have been operating? How long they think it might take them to build your home? Have they done work of similar scope? They should have questions for you also. If they don't, stay away? No construction project is completely understood in a short meeting.
• Ask for references. If they cannot provide recent examples of their work. Again, stay away.
• Check with the references. Ask their references what problems occurred and how they were solved. Most contractors are good when things go smoothly. The good contractors solve problems on the fly and do so while putting your mind at ease and finding cost effective solutions.
• Decide (from that list of 5) 2-3 who you think you trust and feel are qualified to perform the work.

So now you have narrowed it down from those  3 guys that could all do a pretty good job. How do you choose the right guy? 

The good news here is that by this point you have a good idea about each of them and it is likely that your designer knows them also (provided your designer is also local). This is the point where I would suggest having them all price the home. In the end the contractor that you feel comfortable with is the one that you should choose. Get the quote in writing and sign a contract for the construction.

If this information is helpful, please contact me to investigate the process further. 

Prepared by    David B. Bennett Licensed Technologist OAA

 November 2017