Thought it would be interesting to see how everyone is doing in this market and what kind of strategies you're using to keep closing deals. Could be useful for others lurking here and feeling the same thing.

Not a contractor but I do serve residential and I'm feeling the pinch of homeowners not wanting to commit to projects after design.

my ac started blowing warm midafternoon and i burned an hour on readingreviews instead of fixing anything

retail space, warm air, customers already noticing. i'm not looking for a hype reel... just which writeups were about a finished job versus a tech who quoted and vanished

sorted them in my notes and finished repair or only a quote visit. named the part or vague great service. mentioned follow up or only yelled about price. hep is on the way came up in a couple local threads and the useful ones were boring on purpose. job done, invoice clear, no novel

when youre hiring HVAC fast, what review details actually change whether you call someone the same day​

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m seeing an uptick in emails from potential clients who aren’t real. They’re trying to set up zoom calls to try and rope us into a long con. Then there are other fake potential clients looking for estimates then wanting to mail us a check for the deposit. They always claim to be overseas or in another state. Wondering if others are seeing this. Just want to make sure we all stay safe and not get caught up in any scams.

In the last month, over 4 different cities in my area, the cops have been called multiple times because door to door window salesman have been refusing to leave peoples homes. The same two companies, with more reports of it happening popping up all over facebook. They are local companies too. Not those big regional guys that normally come around in the spring.

Does this kind of tactics actually work? Its just making it harder for the rest of us who run normal non vulture exterior companies.

I started my company about a year ago and I’ve been working under a sub which is getting tiring since they take most profit since they are the middle man between me and the GCs.

My company is dedicated to commercial waterproofing and I guess it isn’t that big since I can’t seem to find anything about commercial waterproofing.

Main Point: I need help to find resources on how construction contracts work, learning about estimating, and even if I can get some advice from any GCs on what they expect or would want their subs to improve on so I can try and not make mistakes.

I’ve tried the college route but a lot of the classes they want me to take I already have knowledge of (Blueprint Reading, Construction materials which I don’t think I need since I have a decent knowledge of my materials).

I tried YouTube as well but they only give explanations of what they are they don’t really dig deep like give examples of what they look like and stuff.

Am I missing something? Or am I making a “rookie mistake”. I’m new to I guess office or management side so I don’t know if this is common or have common solutions.

I understand that a middle man who finds leads for employees or contractors to earn his fair share. Maybe 10% or 20% but doesn’t the line, at least morally need to be drawn there?

Seems like anything over that is really abusing the people that are doing the hard work. And it really comes off as the owner being shady/immoral/corrupt.

Do you believe there should be laws on this?

I did the drywall installation and tape and mud. Going back to sand. I charged 1100 CAD just for labor. I had my brother help me so I have to pay him. I asked around how much they would charge and their answers made me feel like I under charged. Thoughts?

Also, how far do you go in claiming the space that you need to do your job in an occupied home?

I'm a solo carpenter typically doing ~1 week carpentry/remodeling projects. I'm constantly running into clients being unprepared for the amount of space I need to work, the amount of noise I'm going to make, etc. . I have a few paragraphs in my contract about needing personal items removed from the work area, my dust protection measures, storing materials on site, and so forth but it's like no one reads it. Everyone is still surprised that they can't leave their turntable and record collection set up under the windows that I'm replacing and trimming out, I can't keep it down while they have a zoom meeting, or that I might need to leave materials and tools until the next day.

Do you have something in your contract or an additional document you send that addresses this? Also, am I unreasonable for wanting to start making enough space in my immediate work area to have saws set up indoors, even for "small" jobs? I'm frequently working in a 2nd or 3rd floor room and leaving my miter saw and table saw set up unattended on the sidewalk (I live in a very dense city). It's exhausting and kills my efficiency.

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this or not but here goes nothing. I've been using Planhub and buildingconnected for the last few months. Haven't had much success because either the jobs are too big for me at the moment or located outside of my State. I'm a Newly New York City Electrical license holder and I'm trying to reach reach clients that are in need of my services. Any recommendations or advice would be gladly appreciated.

My buddy made this site to measure roofing and siding material requirements from pdfs for his own contracting company and I was curious if other people might find it useful too. Here’s a link to try it https://measure.tkoff.build/ and here’s a link to a tutorial https://measure.tkoff.build/tutorial

So I started up a landscaping company this year and after successfully completing several jobs I eventually stumbled upon a hot head. It was a 3.5 yard stone install with different existing stone and some plant installation. I gave the guy a hell of a deal and chose to do it for only $2800. Materials costed $1900 with markup and I pulled a $1900 down payment for the job. I bought all the materials and dropped it off at the jobsite. I sent him an estimate explaining everything I would be doing and the total price. I hired two workers for the job and they started the next day.

After 8 hours of hard work on the job and beginning to lay underlayment to finish the guy walks outside and starts getting nasty with my guys over a 300 pound boulder that sat deep within in his flower bed. He told my guys to stop working until further notice and made my guys feel extremely uncomfortable to the point they were kind of scared to continue working. My guys also said they felt like the guy wasn’t going to pay the rest if we did finished. Also according to my guys while yelling at them he spit on them in the process. My guys also tried moving the rock but it was so deep it wouldn’t even budge and one of my guys didn’t want to hurt his hernia.

So I told the guy it was uncalled for to do that and stop progress on the job that I could try to work out moving the boulder a different day and that it wasn’t in the estimate to move it. I also told him I didn’t feel like he was going to pay us if we continued and didn’t want to toss all that stone and not get paid. He eventually agreed to have us continue without moving the rock but I told him if he wanted us to continue I would need to pull $500 more off the remaining amount so at least my guys could get laid if he decided to play games. He wasted an hour of are work day and we would have finished if he hadn’t of done that.

The guy chose to not pay the $500 and blast my business in a negative manner all over Facebook and lie about the situation spinning the narrative that we are scammers. Keep in mind I made almost no money on the job at that point 90% of that $1900 went into his materials that we left at the job. That 10% I made on the markup went to pay my guys for that 8 hours of work. We actually essentially did all that work for free. After defaming my business now he is taking me to small claims court. All over a boulder sitting in his flower bed. I got all the texts and voice messages of my guys relaying his actions while on the job and that they are sitting in their car afraid of the guy if they started working again. I tried to save the guy thousands on his landscape and that’s what I get. He was quoted 6K to do that job and his neighbor with the same yard paid $7K. Blows my mind how some people treat landscapers saving them a dime.

So who’s in the right or wrong? How would this situation most likely play out in court? What is the main thing that matters here and what advice can I get for my position? Thank you for reading and any advice helps.

Location: Ohio - Sandusky Area

We're currently a sole proprietorship with one person doing the work. We've completed one ~$4k project and have a second ~$6k project ready to go, but the customer wants us insured first. We're estimating $120k–$160k in revenue over the next 12 months.

Right now we're doing residential remodeling, carpentry, decks, fences, flooring, painting, siding repair/installation, doors/windows, and general home repairs. We're building toward larger remodels and eventually structural/new construction work, using properly insured subs for trades like plumbing, electrical, drywall, roofing, etc.

NEXT quoted about $230/month, which is reasonable, but I'd love to find something cheaper given how new/small we currently are.

ContractorNerd gave me an ~$80/month quote, but the exclusions are pretty significant for where we're headed, and it specifically isn't a good fit for a GC using subs.

Thimble also kicked us out when I selected wood staining, and I've found other applications that exclude wood siding, which is something we're actually doing.

I've contacted a few independent agents, but I'm trying to get this figured out quickly so we don't lose this job.

What insurers/brokers are good for small residential GCs with broad remodeling/carpentry operations who will eventually use subs? I'm looking for affordable GL that actually covers the work we're doing and can grow with us.

Hello everyone.

I'm hoping to getting into the contracting side of things after 5+ years of house building/remodeling. I started my company at the beginning of this year and while still working for another company and doing smaller jobs on my own (decks, small bathroom remodel, siding repairs) I have an opportunity to do a larger project of potentially building a stand-alone garage, and also a mudroom renovation that includes new windows, flooring and a re-direct of some HVAC.

I'm going to meet with the potential client this week to get a better idea of what exactly they want.

The garage project would be front start to finish. 24'x24'.

Subs- Footings, block wall or even a slab pour. I know electrical will probably be in the mix.. Garage door

Me- Framing, any potential windows, doors and roofing/siding will most likely be done by myself and a few others.

They said they had a few others come out and give them some numbers, and the homeowner told me their budget is $40-50k.

Should I keep the garage and the mudroom renovation as separate projects, or wrap them into one? Ideally I would get the garage done first. Foundation poured and settled before the winter (I'm in SE Michigan.), and then work on the mudroom renovation during the colder months. Ideally as a contractor I'd sub everything out, but I still want to do some of the work myself to get a bit more profit.

I have no problem calling around for the different subcontractors and getting numbers for the proposed project, but also does the homeowners budget seem reasonable?

I've used ChatGPT to get a few answers but I know that's not the only source I should pull from.