Contracts With General Contractors: Scheduling, Pricing, Scope

When hiring a general contractor for a variety of potential needs on your property, it’s important to pay close attention to the “contract” part of their title. That term isn’t present by accident — these kinds of jobs will involve a contract between you and your handyman, one that will specify exactly which work is being done and all the other important particulars of the job.

At Crown Finish, we’re proud to offer a huge range of general contractor and handyman services, from cabinetry and flooring to hardware, electrical, garages and numerous other areas to cover your entire home or building. We’re proud to offer robust contracts for our work to all clients, protecting both them and us and ensuring there’s a full agreement in place ahead of any job we perform for you. This two-part blog series will go over some of the important areas you should be considering as you negotiate your contract, including those you may ask for in writing.

Scheduling Details

While precise scheduling down to the day is often unrealistic in contracting jobs, which may involve delays based on material availability or weather, you can use your contract to specify when in particular certain tasks are expected to be completed. If priority work needs to get done before the full job is finished, or if it shouldn’t start until after other parts of the house are up and running, you should include this type of information in your contract.

Key dates to utilize here include the expected finish date, plus start and end dates for any specific tasks that need to happen in a particular order.

Pricing and Payment

This is another critical section of the contract, as you’ll want to make sure both you and the contractor are clear on what’s expected financially. Will the contractor be paid upon completion of the work? Weekly, or even monthly? Will there be a down payment required?

Be sure to also clarify who is responsible for what costs. If the contractor needs to purchase materials, for example, will they be reimbursed? If something breaks or is damaged during the job, who pays for it?

Scope of Work

Often listed in the same area of the contract as pricing, the Scope of Work is a detailed explanation of everything that will be done as part of the job. This can include anything from specific tasks to the type of materials that will be used.

It’s important that both you and the contractor are clear on the work that will be done, as changes down the line can often lead to misunderstandings and disagreements. A complete and thorough Scope of Work will help prevent this, while also giving you more confidence in the quality of the work to be done — and allowing you to make any necessary changes ahead of time.

For more on the elements that make up a contract with your general contractor, or to learn about any of our handyman services, speak to the staff at Crown Finish today.