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Questions to ask your contractor

Pick your trades and get a printable list of questions to ask before you sign — payment, permits, allowances, and who is actually on site.

Ask them identically of each contractor. The differences in how three people answer the same question tell you more about how the job will run than the bids do.

Which trades are in your job?

27 questions — 19 for every contractor, the rest specific to the trades you picked.

Before anything else

  1. Is this a fixed price or an estimate that can move? If it can move, what moves it?
  2. What is not included that I should expect to pay someone else for?
  3. Are permits inside this price, and are you pulling them?
  4. How long is this price good for?

Money

  1. What is the payment schedule, and what does each payment correspond to?
  2. How much do you need before you start?
  3. How are change orders priced, and will I see one before the work happens?
  4. Which lines here are allowances rather than prices, and what happens if I go over?

Schedule

  1. When can you start, and how many working days from start to finish?
  2. Will my job be your crew’s only job during that window?
  3. What is the longest lead-time item, and has it been ordered?
  4. What happens to the schedule if an inspection fails?

Who is actually here

  1. Is the work your own crew or subcontractors? Which parts of it?
  2. Who is my point of contact, and how do I reach them?
  3. Can I see your licence and your certificate of insurance — general liability and workers’ comp?
  4. Whose name is on the permit?

When it goes wrong

  1. What is your warranty on labour, and how long?
  2. If something is found behind a wall, what is the process before extra work starts?
  3. Two recent clients with a job like mine I can call?

Tile

  1. Is the tile itself a price or an allowance? What per square foot?
  2. Is waterproofing behind the shower walls included, and what system?
  3. Does the price assume a straight set, or the pattern I asked for?
  4. Are niches and a bench included?

Cabinets & countertops

  1. Stock, semi-custom, or custom — and which line?
  2. Is hardware included, or am I supplying pulls and knobs?
  3. What stone group does the countertop price assume?
  4. Are fillers, toe kicks, and panelled ends in the price?

These are the generic ones.

RehabRocket writes the specific ones — built from what your bids actually say, with your numbers in them, addressed to the contractor who wrote each one.

See specific questions

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