Quote:
Originally Posted by outlaw
Although I agree with not (USUALLY) paying anything up front, I do believe excellent and reputable companies can get a deposit up front for large jobs. I remember when considering T&D (very good recommendations) for a large ($80-90K) job, they also required a substantial deposit upon contract signing. I may have remembered wrong, so if others have had a different experience with T&D, please respond.
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We did a large addition job with T&D. They required no money at the signing of the contract. They had milestone draws of concrete 20%, trusses 30%, drywall 30%, first paint 15%, and final inspection 5%.
They bid and finalized the contract using allowances for flooring, tile, granite, plumbing, and cabinetry. Everything that came after the contract signing is done is a change order, which is due 100% at the next scheduled payment. (For example: $4,000 granite allowance gets credited against $5,000 actual granite amount all at once, regardless of the original milestone percentage spread at contract signing.) So, assuming you have picked out all your finishes between contract signing and first draw, it is very likely, if you have above builder grade selections, that your first payment will exceed 20%.
There is also a provision in their contract that reads, "If not paid when project is completed a 5% interest fee can be charged to full amount of project. Note: Punch items and manufacturing defects will not hold up the completion of job. Payment is still due once major scope of work is complete."
T&D is very busy and has lots of crews and projects going at any given time. Getting your job off the ground is a bit of a process, and we have learned a lot. Getting an actual start date for our project was difficult. We were delayed well beyond our original planned start date. Once construction actually started though, we could see daily progress, going faster than we anticipated. The days when someone was not on site daily were mostly inspection days, which was expected, and very few others.
A "shout out thank you" to TOTV members as well, as our research on this site led us to T&D. T&D is not known as the lowest price, but seemed to have the least amount of complaints about doing business with them, their timeliness, and the quality of their work. We were also concerned about the financial stability in our choice of general contractor, and did not want to personally find out the horrors of the FL Construction Lien Law (i.e. from unpaid material suppliers and subcontractors), so T&D fit our needs here as well.
We were our own construction managers and have learned that the more you know, the better to manage your expectations of the process, the timing that all parts of a project takes, and the appropriate financial contributions schedule.