Finding a Needle in a Haystack: Selecting a General Contractor

Trying to find the right General Contractor (GC), is like finding a needle in a haystack! We finished the architectural plans and were excited to start the bidding process. With a project this large it’s important to make sure you acquire multiple proposals for the following reasons.

• Discuss plans and project to ensure your bid includes all elements of the project
• Uncovers new ideas or possible issues that one GC may point out that another misses
• Allows you to compare and understand pricing for different project stages

I thought this would be an easy process. I assumed we would meet a few GCs, find the right fit and start working. The reality was much different.

The worst experience was the first GC who said, “You should probably ask your husband about the finances and cost.” I promptly escorted him out and thanked him for coming. Though I wanted to sit him down and explain its 2022 and woman have advanced in society. After all the research I did on the renovation and process, it was a little disheartening and took some of the fun away.

Luckily, the experience with the remaining GCs was much smoother. We had a lot of interesting conversations and I learned something new each time. When we started to get the bids back it was a bit shocking. First, the prices on HGTV are not realistic. Second, though they all had the same information, there was a large range in prices. We compared all the bids to determine why there was a variance. In many cases we were able to determine items left out that would like turn into change orders and additional fees.

If you go through this type of project, its important to stick to what you want and watch out for GCs that are telling you what you want to hear. Its important to listen to the details and compare what you are hearing from each GC.

A great example are the varying conversations about our hardwood floors. We had original floors from 1910. I really wanted to restore them. We had GCs that said, “Yes, we do this all the time.” Another said, “They aren’t in good enough condition to save. We could leave the hardwoods and put plywood on top and then new hardwoods on top of that.” The good GCs explained and showed the issues and the pro’s and con’s with timing and costs. Though these are challenging conversations who will find the GC who understands your goal and will partner with you.

In the end we selected MagLux as our GC. They had a strong proposal and included all necessary costs. We sat down and talked through all the details and what to expect. This GC was also the only one that seemed to be fully on board with what we wanted to do. When we talked about wanting to save a portion of our hardwood floors and reuse them to create a vent hood, they said they could, but we would find much cooler beams in the house to use. They had me at old historic beams 🙂