What’s the Red Flags When Hiring a Construction Firm?
Now, maybe you want this project to you can improve the environment of your business, your office, that’s honesty, pretty common. But it’s not always as easy or as straightforward in finding a firm, well, the right firm at least.
Because behind every perfectly worded pitch and confident handshake, there can be some serious warning signs hiding in plain sight. The last thing you want is to spot that everything is going absolutely horribly with a construction firm, and then it’s too late to back out. So, what are the red flags here?
The Price Sounds too Good to be True
There’s always that one company that throws out a number so low it almost feels like winning the lottery. Sounds great, right? Like, you’re sitting there thinking, “Wait, how can they do all that for that price?” Well, actually, they can’t, or at least, not without cutting corners somewhere that’ll come back to haunt you later. Oh yeah, this is far more common than you’d even expect. Well, you see, lowball bids almost always mean cheap materials, rushed labor, or surprise “extra costs” halfway through the job.
So yeah, a fair bid shouldn’t make you nervous; it should make sense. Really, it’s fine if you don’t know or understand costs, but you’ll need to Google it. Usually, there are blog posts out there (and there’s even AI) that will give you a real ballpark range.
Does the Paperwork Feels Off?
Now, just like in most industries, it’s all in contracts, right? Well, it’s honestly no different here. Yeah, contracts are everything in construction. They spell out who’s doing what, when, and for how much. So if the contract feels weirdly short, confusing, or full of “don’t worry about it” comments, that’s a serious red flag. You absolutely can’t make the mistake of not worrying about it. Actually, you’d be shocked at how many businesses sign something without fully reading it, only to find out later that what they thought was included actually wasn’t.
But other things go into this part too; there needs to be construction insurance, there needs to be proper licensing, permits, and plenty of other things should be looked into as well. Professional firms won’t skip any of this, and they’ll absolutely show you proof of all of these (and proof of almost anything you ask for in the first place). Compliance is absolutely everything in construction, well, that and safety (and they usually want to meet deadlines too).
So yeah, the ones that brush it off or get weird about paperwork usually aren’t as legit as they claim to be.
Can they Prove their Own Work?
Every reputable construction firm has a track record, meaning it can be photos, references, reviews, well, just something that shows they’ve done this before and didn’t leave a trail of unhappy clients behind. Yeah, Google reviews help, of course, and sometimes on Facebook pages, there might be some reviews too.
You want transparency, you want a trustworthy company, and they won’t be defensive if you ask for samples (and it might help to reverse image search pictures of their work, too).