• Welcome to the new and improved Building Code Forum. We appreciate you being here and hope that you are getting the information that you need concerning all codes of the building trades. This is a free forum to the public due to the generosity of the Sawhorses, Corporate Supporters and Supporters who have upgraded their accounts. If you would like to have improved access to the forum please upgrade to Sawhorse by first logging in then clicking here: Upgrades

For those who use to build

Probably 30 years ago my boss suggested I buy the book "Contractors Guide to Change Orders". It is more about how to get paid for the change orders rather than being able to minimize them. He joked that change orders were our enemy (I was on the architectural/engineering side of my career at the time). I wished I would have had some of that knowledge when I was on the construction side of my life.
 
I had a policy of informing clients that excessive change order requests would result in a charge, whether they went ahead with it or not. It didn't cost to ask a question, but it did if I had to gather prices, source products and labor and create official change orders. It was rare I ever did it but for those who abused it I was able to recoup the cost of my time. That stopped my bellyache.
 
Ultimately the cost to prepare a CO does not pencil out against the total project cost. Changes will happen, limit the cost to cost + 15% and you may find them to be reduced. Low bid + CO's can lead to delays.
 
Ultimately the cost to prepare a CO does not pencil out against the total project cost. Changes will happen, limit the cost to cost + 15% and you may find them to be reduced. Low bid + CO's can lead to delays.
My CO's also had a time element. If I thought that there was even a chance the CO would impact the schedule I built in a number of days for potential delay.
 
Top