Need Help Writing Contract

Originally Posted by Hoof Hearted

need help on writing contract
hi all
could anyone give me advice or point me in the right direction where I might find good advice on writing a job contract?

it's for a small job- about 600 sq ft of old wood flooring needs removed and replaced with new tiles.

I think it should be simple as I don't want to scare customers away with too many BIG words they cant understand.

Also I've heard talk of what's called a "change order" being added so that your not screwed if you open up a project and there's more costly problems than originally anticipated. Does anyone have experience with this?

also does anyone have advice as to what forms, are simple easy and cost effective?

input on any or all these ?'s would be appreciated. thanks

Originally Posted by WildWill

This is one old as hell thread. Thanks for dragging it up though Tarah as it was an interesting read.

Originally Posted by TarahGruber

If you join the AGC they have construction contracts that you can use included in the membership.
http://www.agc.org/

Originally Posted by Hoof Hearted

My bad Doub,
My apologies to anyone else I may have disrespected. I guess I just feel like nobody's ever heard of a beginning general contractor before. You know, someone like me who just dove in the deep end just as I've always done in life. The result is you either sink or you swim. So far I'm still treading water just fine.

I've been in the construction business for more than 18 yrs, and I've made other people a lot of money over much of that time. I've done just about every thing to a house you can do except burn one down. But I've certainly taken part in quite a few teardowns and rebuilds, including two of my own, in which I "played" general contractor quite successfully and was able to make a few real dollars and a quite a few more in current equity.

I've designed and built add-ons, waterproofed basements, roofs, siding, did doors and windows for about two years, notched and chinked cabins, rewired complete houses, designed plumbing systems, problem solved, all phases of bathrooms and kitchens, wraparound porches, walk-in showers, researched, hired and fired, jacked up houses to replace rotten sill plates, landscape, retaining walls, disassembled antique barns for furniture and other uses, hardwood floors of all types, laminate too, dug, mortared and lined in-ground pools, sidewalks, decks, chimneys, operated back-ho's and many other excavation machinery, tell me I can't do something and you just all but sealed the deal on me getting it done right the first time.

Of course I've made my share of mistakes along the way but I never have grown tired or bored with the next challenge.

This brings me to my next point. ARI, when I try to apologize for not choosing my words better and then rewording it so that you might better understand me, you say I'm "back pedaling". Should I not try to correct my mistakes? My grandfather who was a mason and a commercial artist, told me that "ALL builders make mistakes. Only the good ones know how to fix them." And at the end of the day, does it really matter to you whether or not I'm a general contractor?

Bottom line is I've gotten a lot of the advice I've needed and would really appreciate any more knowledge that you might be willing to share, just don't go thinking you can't learn something from me as well.

So here's the lowdown.

I was propositioned(by way of referral) to redo a tile floor for a nice couple who just so happen to live in a really nice home. The person who gave me the referral hired me to general contract the reconstruction of her second home which was mostly destroyed by the floods last summer. The reason she hired me to general contract is she was a friend and co-worker of my wife and knew that I was near completion of my own rehab and that I would soon be available.

She had three bids come in from other builders all between 50 and 70 k. I came in at 28 k and gave her higher end finishes than any of the previous three promised her in their contracts.

But before I did, I acquired insurance and my "General Contracting" license, although as I said earlier, it's NOT required in my locale. I obtained all the proper permits, always met and often exceeded code. I stayed on time and in budget and the homeowner and I are good friends to this day.

I'm not trying to make a killing, I'm trying to make a living while I continue building my portfolio.

So...back to the tile floor I was asked to take a look at. When I arrived at the house, a quite large and expensive mansion, located in a quite prestigious neighborhood, I showed the homeowners my portfolio, which has quite a few high-end finishes involved. When they saw what I could do and listened to what I had to say, they realized they had found just the right guy to remodel their 5 bedroom, 5 bath house. The few things they had done to it recently turned out to be a nightmare because of the hacks who came in and gouged their pocketbooks and butchered their house.

Now, granted, I was poopin' bricks, for I had never worked on a property of this caliber, although it wasn't the work that scared me, it was the potential lawyer bills. You see, in the past, I either worked for other contractors, or I "played" general contractor and successfully completed a lot of jobs on little more than a hand shake and a some scribbles spelling out the terms on a statement pad. As I was researching contract clauses, I came across your website and I signed up.

I'm thankful I did, although, now I'm probably spending more time trying to prove my worthiness than I am actually absorbing the information I need to further my growth as a general contractor.

And Dave, I understand you were trying to stick up for me with your enlightened words, and I'm sorry if you felt like I had disrespected you in any way. That was not my attention.

I called my former custody lawyer yesterday and he had me fax his office what I had came up with and his firm did indeed make a few minor changes to the wording, and added a clause or two along with removing a couple at no charge.

I'm confident these contracts are both binding and fair to all parties involved, including, the homeowner, the sub contractors, and most importantly, to myself, the GC.

Perhaps my biggest safety net is that instead of writing a single contract for all the work, I've meticulously broken each project into mini projects, spelling out exactly what is to be done, and exactly what materials will be needed. If any thing goes wrong, we have a small dispute instead of a BIG one and the price of the contract isn't worth taking to small claims court.

If someone could tell me how to upload docs to this thread, I'd be glad to let you all see them. Perhaps they could be further improved upon or may even turn out to be useful to someone viewing this thread.

CA, you stated in a post that you used a clause which clearly spelled out the terms for "unforeseen conditions". Would you mind posting that clause so that we might better have an understanding for it?

Again, my apologies for being so ignorant and not being more humble in my approach to learning. And again, THANK YOU for all the help you given me.

As you read this thread and you think of me, I want you to really ask yourself- "Who farted?"

Hoof Hearted-

Originally Posted by Reading pa

You say your a GC. Look at all his threads started. Your just want to be GC. But just a hack milking the system.