3 telltale signs of a bad contractor before the job starts
I’ve been thinking about some of the bad contractors I’ve used in the past for fairly simple projects and wanted to share my thoughts. Here are three big signs that a contractor is going to let you down.
1) The job foreman is not present during the job spec. I’m all for sending an engineer out to help draw up a quote, but if the person actually leading the job isn’t present when their scoping out the job, then it will take an incredibly talented engineer to be able to identify all the hazards.
2) Confined space, hot work, etc. are not discussed during the job spec. Making provisions for these components will change the price of the job and potentially personnel. Contractors should open up that dialogue before the job, not during.
3) Contractor accepts a job without doing a site visit first. Unless it’s an incredibly simple job there’s no reason not to do a site walkthrough prior to providing a quote. Who knows what will come up during the job to initiate a change order. Save yourself the headache and just schedule a site walkthrough before you issue your payment.
Let me know what you guys think. Feel free to add to this list.
Comments (3)
We vet all of our contractors prior to allowing work on site. We currently use a third party to review but I have done this manually in house before also. We look at things like history of OSHA logs and citations, written programs, training documents,etc. this tends to give a higher caliber of contractor. The work upfront is cumbersome but the payoff is worth it in the end.
