Questions to Ask a Construction Company in an Interview
For owners interviewing builders before signing a contract. Twenty questions on licensing and insurance, who runs the site day to day, how many jobs they have going at once, schedule risk, what the bid excludes, change orders, payment and lien waivers, warranties, and callbacks.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Have you built this exact kind of project before, and where can I go and see one?
Why ask it
General experience is not the same as having solved your problem. A builder who can name a comparable job and arrange for you to stand in it is offering evidence. Photographs of unrelated work are not evidence.
Are you licensed for this scope, and can I get your insurance certificate directly from your insurer?
Why ask it
Forwarded certificates can be expired or belong to a different entity than the one signing your contract. Asking for it from the source, and checking that the name matches the contract exactly, takes one email and prevents the worst outcome on this list.
Who is on my job every day, and who is the person I call?
Why ask it
Owners are usually sold by a principal and then managed by someone they have not met. Get a name for the daily supervisor, a name for the decision-maker, and what happens when the first is on holiday.
How many jobs will you be running at the same time as mine?
Why ask it
This is the most reliable predictor of whether your site sits empty for days. Ask how many are active now and what stage each is at, since a company finishing two and starting three has a crew problem coming.
Can I have the owners' contact details for the last three jobs you finished?
Why ask it
The last three is a sample. Three references is a selection. Ask those owners what went wrong and how it was handled, because every job has something, and the answer is about behaviour under pressure rather than the finished photograph.
Has a client ever taken you to arbitration or court, or filed a complaint about your license?
Why ask it
Long-running builders often have one, and a straight account of it is reassuring. A flat denial you can contradict with a public records search is the end of the conversation, so do the search either way.
What is the schedule, and which parts of it depend on things you do not control?
Why ask it
Permits, inspections, utility connections, and long-lead materials sit outside a builder's hands, and a schedule that ignores them is a wish. Naming those dependencies is the sign of someone who has been caught by them before.
What would push this past the finish date, and what have you allowed for that?
Why ask it
Ask for the two most likely causes of delay on your particular job and how many days of slack the schedule holds. A builder promising a date with no contingency is either inexperienced or is telling you what you want to hear.
What is not in this bid that I should expect to pay for?
Why ask it
This is the single most useful question when comparing quotes, because bids differ mainly in what they leave out: permits, disposal, temporary services, finish materials, unforeseen conditions. A builder who lists exclusions readily is easier to trust on the rest.
How do you price change orders, and do I approve them before the work happens?
Why ask it
You want written approval before work proceeds and a stated method for pricing: fixed markup, time and materials, unit rates. Verbal changes settled at the end are the leading cause of the final invoice being an argument.
What is the payment schedule, and what is due before anything happens on site?
Why ask it
Payments should track completed work, tied to identifiable milestones. A large sum requested before mobilization is a warning, and so is a schedule that leaves you fully paid up with weeks of work still outstanding.
Will you provide lien waivers from your subs and suppliers with each payment?
Why ask it
Owners can be pursued for money a builder collected and never passed along, which is how a paid-in-full job ends up with a claim against the property. Making waivers a condition of each payment closes that gap and costs you nothing.
Which trades are your own crews and which are subcontracted, and how long have you used them?
Why ask it
Neither model is better, but long relationships with the same subs mean the schedule can be held and the quality is known. A builder assembling an unfamiliar team for your job is carrying that risk on your behalf.
Who pulls the permits, and who meets the inspectors?
Why ask it
A builder who asks the owner to pull permits may be shifting liability, and it is worth asking why. You also want to know who is on site when an inspector arrives, since a failed inspection with nobody there costs days.
What allowances are in the bid for finishes, and what happens when I choose differently?
Why ask it
Allowances are where a bid quietly becomes a lower number, and the amounts are often below what an owner would actually pick. Ask for each allowance figure and go and look at what it buys before you sign.
How will the site be left each night, and how are you handling dust, access, and bathrooms?
Why ask it
If you are living there, this determines your quality of life for months. Ask about barriers, floor protection, where materials will be stacked, where crews park, and what time they arrive, and put the answers in the contract.
When something gets built wrong, who catches it and who pays to fix it?
Why ask it
Mistakes happen on every job. What matters is whether the builder has an inspection routine of their own or relies on the owner to notice, and whether rework is absorbed or turns up as a change order.
What is your warranty, and can I read the written terms now?
Why ask it
Ask for the document rather than the number of years, and read what is excluded and what triggers it. A warranty that only exists in conversation is worth exactly as much as the conversation.
Who handles a callback a year from now, and how do I reach them?
Why ask it
Small companies dissolve and reform, and warranties follow the entity rather than the person. Ask who to call, whether that number is answered by an office or a mobile, and how long past clients have waited for a return visit.
What have I not asked that I should have?
Why ask it
Builders see owners make the same mistakes, usually about decision deadlines, budget for the unforeseen, or living through the work. Someone with a real answer is giving you the benefit of jobs that went badly for reasons the owner controlled.
Interviewing Builders and Comparing Bids
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Comparing Bids Properly
Compare Exclusions, Not Totals
Line up what each bid leaves out and what allowances it sets. Two quotes twenty percent apart are usually the same job with different amounts of it written down, and the cheaper one becomes the more expensive one through change orders.
Give Every Builder the Same Documents
Bids based on different assumptions cannot be compared. Hand each one the same drawings, the same finish list, and the same list of questions, and ask for the price broken out the same way.
Visit a Site That Is Still Open
Finished work is staged and photographed. An active site shows you how they store materials, how tidy they are at four in the afternoon, and whether the supervisor knows what happens tomorrow.
Verify Credentials Independently
Check the license with the issuing board and the insurance with the insurer, and confirm the legal entity on the contract matches both. Do this before you talk about price, so it is routine rather than pointed.
Protecting Yourself in the Contract
- 1Put the schedule in the contract, with start and finish dates and a mechanism for extensions
- 2Tie payments to completed milestones you can see, and hold back a substantial sum until the end
- 3Require written approval of any change before the work is done, with a price attached
- 4Require lien waivers from subs and suppliers with each payment application
- 5List every allowance and what it covers, so a substitution is a documented decision
- 6Name the daily supervisor in the contract, and require notice if that person changes
- 7Agree how disputes will be handled before there is one, and read that clause carefully
Common Pitfalls
Paying a Large Deposit to Hold a Slot
Money paid before mobilization buys you nothing and funds someone else's job. Keep any advance modest, tie it to identified materials, and be wary of urgency about a start date that only exists if you pay today.
Making Decisions Late
Owners cause a large share of delays by choosing tile, fixtures, and appliances after the trades need them. Ask for a schedule of decision deadlines at the start, and treat those dates as seriously as the builder's.
Budgeting Nothing for the Unforeseen
Opening walls reveals things nobody priced. Set aside a contingency of your own, do not tell the builder it exists as spare money, and decide in advance who approves spending from it.
Letting the Punch List Go
Final items get harder to close once the crew has moved to the next job. Walk the work with the supervisor, write the list down with dates, and keep the final payment until each line is signed off.