Yeah residential construction is a battle of communication. Commercial is a battle of documentation.
That would be a red flag for me. Usually the quote process and honeymoon phase comms are good at least decent. Then comms degrade over project.
These pre construction meetings are important to set expectations. How many projects have you done? I am no expert but have done a couple.
I hope I’m not preaching to choir here. I can add or back off. This should be the honeymoon.
You should have a contract, check lists, updates, schedules, draw schedule, inspections (personal and county) , change order procedures and mark up fees pre determined etc etc. Trust but verify everything. Take picture, sketches, and notes of as built everything especially things that get covered up or underground. Good to get a list of suppliers/vendors and any subs.
Deposit. Get some interim release of lien for materials and any labor for this deposit negotiate for some % complete release if deposit is much more than material costs.
Draw schedules are notorious for front loading and usually bank controlled or inspired. Banks aren’t constructors and their draw schedules don’t reconcile easily and usually don’t have good retention.
Your on point.
So i've never done jobs like this for my "personal" career I've never been able to afford (I guess more justify paying someone else to do something I could), so I always did it myself. This is really a first in my personal life using a contractor to do something at my house. On my day job side (specialty contracting), I do it all the time. Estimating, bidding, contracting, managing, and eventual closeout. I could build this thing myself, but its gonna take me the better part of 6-8 months. I just don't have the ambition or time with work/kids.
Also I need a COI from the contractor, thats a big one for me.
24 hours after no response from last time I mentally wrote him off, but he did come back a little bit later with a vary attractive price even with all my critiques and updates. So I am still on the fence, there is some amount of money worth a headache, but what is it? His payment terms are also more attractive.
I also went out and got a stand alone quote for insulated, black garage doors (no openers) to the tune of $8.5K installed. So there is a good $6K in doors that one guy includes vs the other guy, good to know.
My variance battle continues. Filled out the endless forms, get to the end and find a requirement for a survey with proposed building layout. GRRRRR, now I need to pay a service for this when it could still be rejected. Nothing like a waste of money (and time to fill out 7 pages of stupid)....
Our home inspection is finally scheduled for Monday for final bank sign offs, been waiting nearly 2.5 weeks.
Been nothing but cold temps and drenching rains. I need to get my french drain installed. Hope to go out and get some perforated drain tile today/tomorrow, and a load of clean stone next week. Trying to line up the BILs backhoe for the trench.