Questions
The nine things every client asks before they sign.
Most of them are about what happens when something goes wrong, because that is where building contracts are won and lost. The answers below are the ones written into our contract, not a softer version for a website.
What does a fixed price actually mean here?
It means the figure on the front page of the quotation is the figure on the last invoice, unless you change the drawing or we find something that was not on it. Both of those are variations, both are priced and signed before any work happens, and both appear on the final account as their own line so you can see exactly what moved.
What do you need before you can fix a price?
A full drawing set: floor plans, elevations, sections, a foundation and structural layout, and an electrical and plumbing layout. A schedule of finishes if you care which tile goes down. With that we price in ten working days and the price holds for thirty days.
I only have sketches. Can you still help?
Yes, but not with a fixed price. We will walk the site, give you a range per square metre from our rate card, and put you with a draughtsman or an architect to get the set drawn. That is their fee, paid to them, not marked up by us. When the drawings exist we price properly.
What happens if I change my mind halfway?
You get a variation sheet: what changes, what it costs, how many days it adds to the programme, and a line for your signature. Nothing is ordered and nothing is built until it is signed. We have never sent a bill for work nobody agreed to, and we do not intend to start.
What if it rains for a week?
Every contract carries five weather days. Rain beyond that moves the handover date, and we tell you the week it happens rather than at the end. The Red Hills job on the finished page ran two weeks late for exactly this reason, and it is on the site because pretending otherwise would be worse.
How do the stage payments work?
Eight stages, each a percentage of the contract, listed on the rates page. A stage is invoiced after it is signed off, not before. Five per cent is held back from every stage payment as retention and released ninety days after handover, once one more walk-through is done.
Who buys the materials?
We do, and the rate includes them. If you would rather supply something yourself, say so before we price: we will take it out of our figure, put your item on the programme as a date we depend on, and the day it is late is a day the programme moves.
Are you insured, and who carries the risk on site?
Public liability and contractors all risks to fifty million Jamaican dollars, and the certificate goes in your file at contract signing. Our people are covered and the works are covered until handover. Ask any builder for that certificate before you pay them a deposit.
Is the same crew on my job the whole way through?
The same foreman from set out to handover, and you have his number. The gang changes with the trade, as it has to, but the person who answers for the job does not change halfway.
Ask the foreman, not a call centre.
There are four of us in the office and one of us answers the phone. If your question is technical you will end up talking to whichever foreman knows the answer, and if the answer is bad news you will get it straight away rather than on a Friday.
Before you sign with anybody
- Ask for the insurance certificate and read the expiry date on it.
- Ask for the price of two jobs they finished last year and the final account for each.
- Ask what happens to your money if the job stops halfway.
- Ask who signs off each stage, and whether you are one of the people who signs.
- Ask for the programme in writing before you pay a deposit, not after.
We would rather you asked us those five questions than took our word for any of this.