How To Select A Contractor

What To Look For In A Contractor
Finding a contractor capable of handling the complexities of building or renovating a church is not as easy as consulting your local yellow pages under General Contractors.  A contractor who mainly does additions on homes may have the skills to complete the construction or renovation of your church, but may not have the manpower or commercial sub-contractor network base to handle a project as large and complex as building a House of Worship.  Similarly, a large general contractor who builds office buildings and other large structures may be able to handle the complexity of church building, but may not be interested in focusing their attention on small project such as building a typical church and have the patience and knowledge to work with a committee.

  
Interview a construction company with a proven track record of working with churches.  While there are many honest and quality contractors that would have your best interest at heart, there are many organizations that are not who could turn what should be a pleasant experience into a disastrous nightmare for the congregation.

Before hiring a contractor for any project, it is important that the contractor present a certificate of insurance for general liability, automobile insurance and worker’s compensation insurance naming the church as additional insured.

Depending on the dollar volume of the project, it may be prudent to require that the general contractor post a performance and payment bond. A bond is a type of insurance policy that financially protects the owner in case the contractor is unable or unwilling to complete the project or pay his employees or subcontractors.  The requirements to secure bonding are strenuous; thus, smaller contractors are unable or unwilling to post a bond.  Since the building’s owner pays for the costs of the bond, it should only be required on larger projects or projects where there are unknowns as to the financial stability of the contractor. Typically, we recommend that if there are doubts about the financial stability of a contractor, then you should be looking at hiring another with better qualifications. 

There are 4 general ways to contract with a general contractor:

Traditional Competitive Bids
For this method of construction, your architect should help you in determining a bidders list of 3 to 5 contractors with good references from other churches.  Your architect should help in publicizing your bid process with several local bid services.  These “plan rooms” which contractors subscribe to,  publish a listing with description and contact information of the various projects open for bid in the subscription area.  It is typically free to advertise your project on these services.  The contractor who is bidding requests from the architect a bidder’s package which contains all of the bidding and construction design documents, including blueprints, and material specifications.  Then on the given date, a bid is submitted to either the architect or owner via fax, hand delivery or mail.  The “owner” then is free to interview as many bidders as they want to interview them before awarding the job.

 
Construction Management – Self Build
This process is one that can save the church money, but we do not recommend due to the inherent financial risks to the church.  To self build, the church will need to operate under the construction license of someone, typically a member or friend of the church, thereby potentially saving the typical contractor’s overhead and profit.  This could be approximately 6% - 8% of the construction cost.  However, there is a lot of work in coordination of subs, ordering of materials and the coordination of the construction.  If the church is not willing to spend the large amount of time, or does not have the experience in construction, this option is not advisable.

Design-Build
Design-Build is a process where the General Contractor has on staff an Architect that work for him.  They will offer their services to design and build a building and typically “guarantee” lower cost than others methods of construction. The problem with this method is that you are getting reduced services and there could be a conflict of interest between the architect and contractor.  The question to ask yourself is, “Who is the architect working for - the church or the contractor?”  Many times, design and construction decisions are made to benefit the contractor and not the church.
Rardin & Carroll Architects has provided the same type of “Design-Build” benefits by teaming up with other contractors, having separate contracts with the church.  This team approach eliminates the potential conflict of interest aspect identified above. 

Cost Plus With Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP)
With this method, the church will interview several invited general contractors and ask questions concerning experience and fees.  The church would hire one of the general contractors who, in turn would receive bids from subcontractors and vendors maintaining the competitive pricing to keep cost down.   The general contractor would submit a list of all of the subcontractors who they plan on using on your project with their pricing for your review and approval.  This will give you the opportunity to research and veto any companies you don’t want on your project.  With this type of contract arrangement, the general contractor will guarantee a maximum construction cost, with any savings going to the church.  With the other methods listed above, any savings to the contractor would be called profit that would stay in the pockets of the contractor.

One way that you can build church unity and save money on your building program is to use volunteer labor. Volunteers can participate in many minor area from cleaning up to crafting stained glass windows. The general contractor should be responsible for quality of the workmanship and for maintaining the schedule. The key to an effective volunteer program is to insure that those who give their time are able to be productive and not cost the church more than someone who can achieve the work more quickly.

Questions To Ask When Interviewing A General Contractor

How long have you been in business?

In what kind of work do you specialize?

How many employees do you have?

How long has your project manager been with you?

Will you use your own crew for the work or will you subcontract all or part of the job?

Are you licensed to contract in our state?

Who will be the job site superintendent on our project?

How much insurance do you carry? What about general liability insurance, worker’s compensation insurance?

Are you a bondable company? To what limit?

Have you ever had a claim against either your insurance carrier or your bonding firm?  Explain.

How long do you expect the outlined scope of work will take to complete?

What is your best “church” project? Why?

What about church members who want to volunteer their time and talents?

Describe your experience in church related buildings and facilities similar to the project we are proposing.

Describe your bidding process during negotiations and how a final price is reached.

What responsibility does your firm assume for the work of subcontractors? 

What cost savings initiatives are available to us through your system?  What is your "track record" on similar projects as far as staying within budget and savings initiatives to the owner? 

What type of contract would you propose for the work that we desire?  Design/Build, Cost Plus, or Lump Sum?

Based on our construction budget, what range would your fee be for the project (both Overhead and Profit and General Conditions)?  What kind of fee would you propose - fixed or percentage of construction cost?

What items are included in “General Conditions” as compared to “Overhead and Profit”?

What is your policy in meeting with the Building Committee of the church?  A committee representative will be working with the architect and the contractor as a team during construction.  Is this acceptable?  If not, explain.

If released within the next thirty days, give a rough time frame as to how you would interface with the Architect and the project in general.  Is your work load such that you could begin and finish our project in a timely manner?  What is your track record of completing projects on time?

Are there local projects we can visit of similar nature to the one proposed which you have completed during the last five years? Can you provide listing of these with a contact name?