House in Progress Diary

Big construction companies often maintain an entire department to plow through the documents and drawings of each project they bid on. They find every item that could possibly be misconstrued and make a note of it. They don't ask for clarification on these items; instead they figure how much they will be able to make off of them, then bid the job at or below cost, since they know how much profit they'll be able to wring from change orders.

Sadly, this is pretty common pratice, especially on large projects. Even worse, many of the contractors doing this KNOW that they're unfairly screwing the client. I've heard several offhand or under-the-breath comments along the lines of "They can afford this because they're a big corporation/rich people/government." Government projects are especially targeted, and working on public buildings I've even heard people justify it to themselves as getting back what's theirs since they're so overtaxed. Clearly they haven't thought that position out very well. Not only do we taxpayers get ripped off, but we also pay more up front in preperations to guard against these practices. The architects make sure every word of every sentence (and sometimes punctuation)is as airtight as we can make it before it goes out to bid. I can't tell you how much more time and energy (ie money) we have to put into "Contractor-proofing" our documents because of these practices. You've heard of escalating costs because of defensive medicine? We practice defensive architecture every day~ and so does every other firm that wants to stay in business... and every client pays for it. Some of it comes out of our profit, too, and some of it just eats away at time we'd otherwise spend making something special. It makes us less likely to design anything that's not totally pedestrian because that would be an opening for an unscrupulous contractor, and it also helps to make architectural services prohibitively expensive for clients who would otherwise hire us. So less work for us and more crappy buildings out there.
In researching older buildings I'm very often struck by how simple their construction documentation is, and I'm jealous of architects who never had to include pages of legal agreements or clutter up sheets with legalistic notes telling contractors specifically things like "use decent quality materials". We also pay thousands to stay up to date on all the various research documents that we have to refer to. In addition to the drawings (laden with legalistic notes) we usually produce a spec book for each project. It's usually over 500 8.5"x11" pages~ often over 1000 pages. That book is produced in multiples and distributed, and everyone's copies usually just sit on a shelf until each party is satisfied that they're not going to get sued.

In this spirit, I must point out that there are many good contractors around, and this behavior only makes life tougher for them, too.
>>Sigh

wow. Sorry to post so much there.

Construction isn't the only industry that does this. I know a chicagoland autobody shop owner whose boat is named "Change Order" ... guess what paid for the boat?

How terrible! Our friend Dave wondered about getting the book so he could be "in the know" about the practice.

This does make me feel sad for great craftspeople, honest architects and homeowners with integrity. It's as if everyone must approach everyone else with the assumption that they WILL be cheated, and good will is killed before the job's begun.

I hate to say it folks, but the swindle works both ways.

As a site supervisor for a company that builds new enty level homes, my least favorite part of the job was the final walkthrough before the folks closed on the house.

They would look me straight in the eye and ask me to give them thousands of dollars of upgrades for nothing and then some of them would literally yell at me when I told them that that was not included in the house they bought.

I might have been fun for them to try and get something for nothing, but they made me feel like crap. I ended up not doing this job anymore because I was sick of those final walkthroughs.

I hate to say it, but without proper paperwork (change orders)either the contractor is a jerk because he won't do the work for nothing, or the contractor is a nice guy, eats the cost and eventually goes out of business and it is all the harder to find a good contractor who cares about his work.

There are some bad apples, but try not to spread the rot to all contractors who are out there trying to make a living and trying to do a good job

I can definitely believe there are bad buyers out there. It's disappointing that people willing to be belligerent can just press a builder like that. Its even more disappointing that it had that kind of impact on your career--that's horrible.

It seems like this all comes down to finding good people to work with--both as buyers and sellers!

To the unnamed contractor above, I DIDN'T mean to bash the countless trades that are really invested in doing the right thing. In fact, I think most of us on the smaller scale are pretty diligent, and in fairness, I've also seen architects try to write notes so vague that they can interpreted however the architects want to after the fact. The very nature of the professional relationships can be conflicting, so it's all the more important to focus on collaboration. That makes it so much more important to work with people you know, trust, and actually admire. When I moved states, one of the hardest things was knowing that I wouldn't be able to call on the network of great craftsmen that I'd built up in NYC. Now I have to think, "Well, Tom would know what to do with this, but without him maybe it would be worth a site visit/meeting/extra drawing."
If one member of your team recomends someone to you, take it seriously. It's probably not about a kickback or a friendship, but that they're trying to make their own job run smoother by having someone they know they can rely on. That's a good tip that you can rely on them, too.

As to the buyers, yeah, I've seen that, too. I designed an expensive built-in with many requirements for a couple. Early on, it was decided that one of their requests would be dropped because making the unit demountable (and thus portable if they moved) was interfering with every other requirement. Almost $10k later, as the cabinetmakeer was packing up, the husband discovered that the piece couldn't be moved and started to get really pissed about it. I offered to show him his sign-offs on the design, but luckily his wife took care of the situation as only a wife can. She just kind of looked at him... and something in her tone of voice as she said that SHE'd been perfectly clear on it, and I'D been perfectly clear, and what was his problem.... well, he ended up satisfied, but it was close!
Margins are just so tight for everybody these days, and it's so competetive.