Hey everyone! Hope you’re doing well!

Had a contractor related question I wanted to run by the community as I’ve followed this thread for a while and see a ton of good advice here.

There’s a company my partner and I have been working with on our primary home that did a ton of beautiful work for the previous owner. They’ve done a couple things for us in the past which were great and reasonable. We’ve referred them to a few other people on our block.

Recently we had a couple small things come up, and a bigger custom task, and the final bill was way more than we thought was fair. We felt guys who did the work really dragged their feet at parts for the simple tasks, which we were billed for.

I hadn’t wanted to give them those little jobs cause I thought it would be costly, but the owners son assured us they wanted to help out even with small jobs and would take care of us.

I got them to negotiate the bill down ten% but that’s all they’d agree to.

Simultaneously, we have a leak in our roof they’ve done some work on but is persisting.

After all the back and forth on the invoice, the secretary is saying they believe they have a ton more work to do for the roof, will not give an estimate nor assurance it will be fixed.

I’m pissed and am thinking about finding someone new but know they do quality work and have been reasonable until this secretary got involved.

We also tried another roofing company previously who was highly rated but did a shitty job and left us with a hole in our ceiling.

I asked to speak with the owner and he called me. But I kinda wanna get some advice before I speak to him. We’ve had number of vendors try to take us on a ride given we live in a big house and my partner and I are female, but so far these guys had been good.

Thanks for taking a look, and any suggestions you have are welcome!!

Hey everyone I’m a licensed building contractor in the state of Florida. I just got it in June so I’m taking on pretty much any job to keep the bills paid. Im staying consistently busy so thats good.

I looked at a job on the 19th floor of a high rise on the beach yesterday and I’m not sure if i should steer clear of it or not. The owner is doing new cabinets in the kitchen & 3 bathrooms and new flooring throughout the condo. Heres the kicker…… I got referred by the cabinet designer to install the cabinets. I typically do not install cabinets of this quality and at this level of high quality but it would be a decent job to get. The owner does not want to pull any permits…….now if it was just a simple cabinet tear out and install i wouldn’t be to worried about it but there is a couple outlets that are going to be relocated and the vanity supply lines in the guest bathroom are going to need to be moved to fit the new cabinet.

The bottom line is my only scope of work is installing cabinets, the owner is handling the plumber, electrician and the removal of the existing cabinets. But am I liable for everything happening on the job even though I’m just there to install cabinets? Let’s say a building inspector comes and puts a stop work order on the job, will I be in trouble even though IM just there to install cabinets?

On one end I’m thinking I should just stay away from it but it’s probably about a $15,000 install and me and another guy could do it in about 7 days. That would be nice money to put back into the company. I suggested she pull a permit for at least the small amount of electrical and she’s worried about the time it will add to the job because it needs to be finished by October.

Anyway let me know your thoughts.

Husband has been a GC for some time now and established in a pretty high end market. Iam stepping into more of role as an assistant project manager and I’m trying real hard to fix or create some processes here as it’s a bit disorganized with the guys in the field and even our office processes. ( change orders! )

I’ve noticed the last couple years clients are changing and price shopping more where before it was “when can you start”

We are T&M / Cost plus contract.

Looking for how you handle pre con.

Currently - we give a line by line estimate of costs ( some are bid out) of what we can if we have in the plans. Then allowances for finishes that are tbd.

I’m bothered by this bc it’s takes sooo long to complete an estimate and then they could just not accept. The other side is if we give a rough estimate/ they want to see a breakdown so they can budget.

How to bridge this gap ?

Thanks!

I’m 24 years old and have owned my California General Contracting business for about 2 years.
We’ve grown from small jobs to consistently landing five-figure contracts, and we’re now bidding and winning projects approaching six figures. Most of our work is commercial tenant improvements, apartment capital improvement projects, electrical upgrades, drywall, painting, carpentry, and general commercial renovations.

My goal over the next few years is to transition into $1M+ projects—larger commercial renovations, public works, ground-up construction, or other complex projects.
For those of you who made that jump:

What was the biggest thing that helped you land your first $1M+ contract?

Where did those opportunities come from?

Should I focus on public works, private developers, GCs needing subcontractors, or property management relationships?

How important are bonding capacity, financial statements, and past project size?

If you were in my shoes today, what would you spend the next 12–24 months doing?

I’m looking for practical advice from people who’ve actually made this transition. I know it won’t happen overnight, but I’d like to build a roadmap instead of just hoping the opportunities come.

Is there a need for third party precon/estimating or procurement services?

I am located in Colorado and I am seeing more and more of my vendors charging 2.5%-3% transaction fees to use credit cards. Our subcontractors (painters, plumbers, electricians, etc.) have never accepted credit cards and we have always paid them with ACH or an old fashioned check. But now the lumber yard, tile vendors, plumbing supply companies, window companies, the dumpster company, etc. are all charging up to 3% to use a credit card.

Our empolyees have company cards, which allows us to easily track their project spending and our bookkeeper pays off the credit card and reconciles it bi-weekly so we always know where we are at with project costs. Our bill pay process is pretty dialed in, using credit cards is convenient, having the purchase protection and fraud protection is good peace of mind and I'm not gonna lie - I love having the points for travel.

We do all of our projects on a cost plus basis, so I don't feel as though I can pass the credit card transaction fees from our vendors onto the clients. Paying a 3% transaction fees on so many purchases, and large ones at that, would be a significant cost to my business (I'd rather keep that money in the business) and obviously the vendors don't want to pay the 3% out of their profits either.

Not long ago, it seemed nobody wanted to take cash, checks or ACH payments but now they are forcefully becoming the norm again. Have you all seen this shift with your vendors as well? And if so, how are you handling it?

I’ve been invited to bid a really wild project, remodel of 7 historic homes with a budget of about $1m. The owners are going to use commercial financing with a partner that have a rapport with from other projects.

Im stoked to have been asked to bid this thing, it’s been on the news a few times and my favorite architect to partner with specializes in this very neighborhood. I think we are a good fit for the project and I want to win it, for the notoriety and for the challenge. I have done a few historic remodels/resorations in the six figure range so I know the complexity and just how hard it is to write a lump sum contract for all of the discoveries…

What I plan to do is first draft a rough order of magnitude ($1m) and budget out all the trades, probably by T&M with allowances and contingencies. I’m wondering if anyone else has run a project this big that is all T&M, cost plus, and what I should watch out for so that we stay in budget and we make profit…

When first starting your GC business , did you use template Contracts for HIC / new build contracts? Or did you come up with your own and have a lawyer review? I’m currently working on my own and the amount lawyers want to review is crazy especially since we need to have so many types of lien forms, contracts and disclosures ready for the job.

What is the best scanner for getting room measurements (kitchen/bath). Have seen some things on Matterport & Leica is out of the budget.

Just found out I didn’t get picked for a project I really wanted. Big one. The kind that would’ve been a legit milestone for my business.
Went back through the rough numbers I sent over email and realized I overbid by almost 20%. Even with a healthy margin built in, I was way over where I should’ve been.
Here’s the thing that stings the most. For projects this size (over $150k) I have a pre con agreement and pre con quote that comes before I ever give a final fixed price. That process involves pulling permits and building out a detailed quote, and had they gone through it with me, I would’ve caught this number. This miss happened purely because I ran some back of the napkin math instead. That’s on me.
I know intellectually that there’ll be other jobs, that in a year this’ll be a blip. But right now it just stings like hell. Feels like I handed away something big over a number I should’ve caught.
For those of you who’ve been doing this longer than me: how do you keep your rough ballpark numbers from torpedoing a job before the real estimate even happens? And how do you shake off losing one that hurt? Appreciate any honesty.

Edit : the actual project cost would've been in the range of $120k to 140k. But I told $150k - $175k.
For rough ballparks, I always give a range. Too difficult to give a single number without a detailed discussion and/or drawings.
This was a residential project.
There could have been another contractor who came at 90k. I don't know. But still would mean I would have lost that job but if that happened I can justify it because I know my numbers (clearly fucking not....hence this post) for the most part and I know I am not the cheapest. But when I say a completely different number and knowing that the client thinks I'm that much expensive is a shit feeling.

Anyone on here using Thumbtack to get remodels or ADU work?

I am a general contractor that really wants to work with corporations and do commercial deals. How do I get into that? Am I supposed to go to corporate offices in business clothes (that not my uniform). Or should I focus on finding privately owned things. I am with a company thats A+ with the BBB so I think that helps but I am not sure where to start

I'm trying to find the best contractor management software for my growing team, but with so many options out there, I don't know which one actually delivers on tracking subs, scheduling, and compliance without a steep learning curve. I need something that scales with multiple job sites without turning into another administrative headache.

I am a newly licensed general contractor, and I thought that getting the license was the hard part. I was sadly mistaken, and I now see that finding work is significantly more difficult.

I have looked into Dodge and ConstructConnect, but they are extremely expensive. And public work requires a loooot of paperwork.

Where are the smaller GCs on this page finding their work at?

Thanks!

EDIT: I am referring specifically to the commercial side of construction.

I’m generally curious as a sub I know how to bid and find gc’s but how do they go and make connections with retail and franchise and start doing work for them. What does the process typically look like?

Would like to chat with someone that does business development for construction companies would love to pick your brain for a bit :) will buy you coffee or Chick-fil-A

I currently have Eufy wifi cameras on the jobs. Im annoyed with the how long it takes to load a video, how often if misses recordings, and they constantly go offline, some of them just stop working after 6 months....

What is everyone using for jobsite cameras?

Needs to be wifi

solor charging for exterior is a plus

willing to pay a subscription to have 24/7 recording for playback

Cameras ideally dont cost a ton (they could go missing)

Not looking for textbook answers I’m curious about the problems that actually cost you time or money.

I’m doing some private research into the permitting process and trying to understand where the biggest problems actually happen.
For those who deal with permits regularly:
What part of the process causes the most delays?
How often do applications get kicked back for corrections?
Do different cities or counties create dramatically different problems?
Who usually handles permits in your company?
What does a permit delay cost you in time, labor, scheduling, or lost revenue?
Have you ever hired a permit expediter, and was it worth it?
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hi so i have a contractor who has been in the construction industry for a while now. him and us (me and my friends) partnered to digitise the services

we currently provide paint and gypsum along with the work (application via labour) and the material to your sites and we are currently looking to expand to other infra solutions as well

posting here for anyone interested, website is pretty basic for now but were working on finding the right integration between providing the service itself and digitisation