Hiring a contractor to build you a house is a time for serious questions. Once you enter a contract, things get started, and it is much harder to change directions after that. Not every contractor plays by the same rules or has the same concept of excellence. Hopefully, you are considering a contractor that comes with recommendations and has years of experience. But even if you are, there are some questions you need to ask.
- Insurance and Licensing: If you are going to hire a custom home builder in south western Sydney, it is a good idea to ask whether your contractor is running a legal business with all the permits and certifications, as well as being covered by the appropriate insurance.
- Subcontractors: Will your contractor oversee the hiring of the subcontractors? And if so, do they also have all the appropriate insurance and certifications?
- Local Building Codes and Council: You should ask whether they have worked in the specific area that you intend to build in, and if they are aware of the local building codes and regulations of the local council. And if not, whether they will make sure that is taken care of before any construction begins.
- Your Construction Plan: Most building projects will have a certain amount of flexibility built into them. Assuming you have already agreed to a set of plans, you should ask if you could do a walkthrough of a previous construction using the same or similar plan. Also, you should have a clear idea about how customization and upgrading is possible, and in which areas are you able to make changes.
- Warranty: You need to know exactly what kind of warranty is available. In a new home construction, everything is new, and you should have some peace of mind that there will be many years before any sort of upkeep or repairs are required. Find out the warranty on structure and services as well as any built-in appliances.
- Updates and Communication: It is good to know how often they expect to update you about progress on the home. Some contractors prefer to have long time frames between upgrades so that more accurate information can be exchanged, and weekly or even biweekly upgrades can be a waste of time as little information is changing.
Usually, the relationship between a contractor and the homeowner is good, as it is an exciting time and there is much to look forward to. However, if you don’t have enough communication at the beginning you might run into a problem of different expectations.
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