Contractor concerns - should I be worried

[iRONic]

Ask TangoJuliet what he would do. Then do the complete opposite!

 

[Jimzz]

Its funny but some contractors had to raise their prices as they lost jobs due to coming in to low. 1 guy on a tile forum asked others and when they saw his estimates told him to raise his prices a little more. After he did that he got more jobs.

When there is a price differance make sure to ask what they will do and what materials they use. Sometimes the higher ones have full time people while the cheaper have part timers/pickups. Could be differance in materials like 2x4 walls vs 2x6 and insulation on top of that.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

wow you actually had to post this on these forums??
If I was the contractor and knew you were asking on these forums....well just never mind...

??????

I didn't post the guys name, or his competitors. I simply said I was concerned about "a" contractor's quote.

I've expressed these very same concerns to him directly, so I'm not sure why he would be upset to see me discussing it on a public forum. . . particularly when his name is not associated with the discussion. Not to mention that he doesn't know my ATOT nickname. Something tells me he does not frequent these boards.

 

[bonkers325]

the difference is almost always in labor costs and overhead. maybe he goes with non-union labor and has much lower overhead due to decreased downtime between projects. huge construction companies operate in the same fashion - complete the job ASAP and move onto the next one and keep your guys working. every day your guys arent working, you're bleeding money which becomes overhead that needs to be accounted for when you bid your next jobs.

also, it sounds like he has many jobs in your area. the price difference could be due to low mobilization costs. if he has a crew in your area anyway, he can bid lower due to lower mobilization/demobilization costs.

 

[BoomerD]

So you've looked at his work and talked to former clients...none of which raised any red flags. You've talked to him about the price...and it sounds legit...

What's the big concern?

 

[jaedaliu]

Is he licensed and bonded?

Maybe his crew is a bunch of guys without formal training, but work really hard and care about doing the job well.

If you ask 10 people about his work, and they all say he did great, on schedule, and on cost, you probably don't have much to worry about.

 

[momeNt]

wow you actually had to post this on these forums??
If I was the contractor and knew you were asking on these forums....well just never mind...

Well what? Turn down the work because he is cautious.

I'm sure the contract knows that the remodeling business is filled with people that run up costs after low-ball quotes, and I'm sure the honest contractor still understands when people are skeptical.

So what are trying to say?

 

[phucheneh]

Your math is funky. There is a 29% variance between the low and high quotes.

With the two given numbers, your average price would be 70k with a 12k variance either way. 12k is 17% of 70k.

It's not my math; just using different logic. The point was simply that I didn't see that as that huge a difference when you consider one is the lowest and one is the highest. Given a large enough sample, more would fall in the middle range of 65-75k.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if a one-man-show with little overheard quoted you 30k for something and a giant contractor quoted you 100k. Assuming equal competence, you'd just be paying for speed.

 

[TXHokie]

I'm in the midst of a kitchen remodel now. Had 6 quotes and my variance was about 25%. Didn't go with the cheapest nor the most expensive. Went with the guy that seemed easy to work with and reasonable price based on previous work references. Inspector is giving us fits now and this is where the easy to work with guy comes in handy. Once they demo the kitchen all kind of surprises popped up requiring some changes and so far it's only costing us the additional building material. I've been told to pad 10% for the total job and if I'm within that, I'm happy.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Is he licensed and bonded?

Maybe his crew is a bunch of guys without formal training, but work really hard and care about doing the job well.

If you ask 10 people about his work, and they all say he did great, on schedule, and on cost, you probably don't have much to worry about.

New Hampshire does not require contractors to be licensed. But he is fully insured and (I believe) licensed in Massachusetts.