After wading through estimates from home improvement contractors, you’ll finally arrive at a price for your project. It should be a number you can count on. But for too many contractors the bottom line is just a starting point with only one way to go from there–and that’s up.
Contractors call them extras. Homeowners call them budget busters, among other things. And they can kick in before work starts (who pays for permits?) and continue until the job is done (who pays for clean-up?). To keep costs in line, you need to sort through legitimate charges on one side, bogus extras on the other, and make some sense of the gray area in between.
Legitimate extras. Most of these stem from changing your mind after the job has started. Now that the new kitchen is almost done you decide the floor should be ceramic tile instead of vinyl. It dawns on you that the basic broom closet would be more useful as a pantry lined with adjustable shelves. It’s difficult to plan every detail of a big project ahead of time–even for architects and decorators. But there’s no reason a contractor should pay for obvious upgrades and additions.
In theory, of course, a change of mind could lead to a price reduction. But not many consumers who budget for granite counters suddenly have a yearning for Formica.
Bogus extras. Most of these stem from mistakes in the contractor’s calculations, but sometimes, it’s a try to increase profits after a low-ball estimate. Mistakes may be omissions–simply forgetting about piers for porches or locks for doors. It happens. But if the work is shown on the drawings or listed in the specifications, it’s not your omission or your job to make it right.
Less-obvious omissions result from contractors minimizing the work in order to get the contract–a dangerous but understandable tendency. Most bids are competitive, and contractors needing work don’t want to price themselves out of consideration. But low-ball bids may come with a boatload of extras that were included in higher bids. Knobs and locks turn out to be the cheapest, flimsiest hardware, and you want something better? It’s extra.
Building in protection
So how do you protect yourself from extra charges or corner-cutting? Planning upfront is a start. Here’s a look:
Plans and specs. On any major project, there should be plans (drawings) and specifications–a document that lists the details of lights, flooring, windows and more–by manufacturer, model number and color.
Even on small jobs, a detailed spec list will prevent substitutions of inferior products and materials. It also reduces clutter in the contract, which should say that the plans and specs are part of the deal. Compiling the list can be tedious. But if you can’t find those recessed floodlights on the wiring plan or listed in the specs, the new porch is probably getting one bare bulb and anything else is extra.
Codes. Many homeowners complain about nitpicking codes and inspections–with some justification. But on-site scrutiny from the local building department is another safeguard against bogus extras.
A building inspector will check your project several times: first the plans, then the foundation, framing, wiring and more as work progresses. And if work isn’t up to code, an inspector can stop the job until the corner-cutting contractor makes corrections.
In the end, no matter what the drawings and specs may show, the contractor is responsible for meeting building codes. Building legally is never an extra.
Orderly changes. Some changes are inevitable, for instance, if a product listed in the specs isn’t available. Accommodate that and other major alterations with a change order. It records what will be different from the intended product or material and how much it will cost, if anything, to switch.
Basically, it’s a mini-contract that’s negotiable until you and the contractor sign off on the change.
The before and after
Project planning and clean-up come with costs too. Be sure to cover the bases.
Permits, fees and inspections. Your contract should cover construction-related costs. Particularly on older homes these can mushroom if you encounter lead-based paint, a leaking oil tank, asbestos insulation or siding and other conditions that require special handling.
Clean-up. Most contracts say that the work area should be left broom clean. But will that cover piles of dirt from the excavation, a demolished deck, old appliances? Spell it out ahead of time because debris removal is expensive these days–particularly construction debris in a jumble of pipes, wires and wood that doesn’t quite fit in little bags for the local recycling center.
