Page 14 - What You Need to Know to Find the Right Builder

price at the end of the contract and it often runs into many thousands of dollars.

Find out which supplier the builder will suggest the allowance items are
purchased from and meet with their salesmen to get a rough idea as to what they
expect the final cost to be. Also, don’t be afraid to go to another reputable store
and get rough pricing. Avoid the big box stores and sale prices. Instead, look at

actual retail prices. You may get lucky and hit a sale at the right time when you
select your final materials, but you may not, so assume you will be paying the

higher number.

Stuff happens

No matter how much preparation a builder puts in before the contract is
signed, there is always going to be the possibility of problems arising during the
construction. For example, there’s just no way to know what you might run into

while digging for the foundation. Will you find an unusual number of boulders,
underground water, poor soil condition? When drilling a well will you hit water at
300 feet or will you have to drill to 800 feet? That said, if the quality builder did a
great job before the contract was signed the unforeseen obstacles would be

minimized. Once the well is in and the foundation is poured, there should be very
few problems that arise. That doesn’t mean changes or add-ons won’t come up

during the build.

Often a builder will come up with ideas like adding a closet or adding a shelf
unit. They may decide to throw that in out of the kindness of their heart, but

usually they will ask the client to pay for the extra work if they want to add it on.
Sometimes a client will ask for additional work themselves such as pavers for a
patio or adding a hot tub. All changes to the scope of the work should be handled
with a written change order. Don’t just tell the builder verbally to go ahead with

the work. Get the details in writing including the cost. A written change order acts
like an extension to the original contract and must be signed by both the client
and the builder. This way the cost of the change would be predetermined and

agreed upon, so there are no surprises.

During a build, a bad builder may try to make excuses for why things are
taking longer than they should, or why they’re costing more than they should but

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