Leçons (15 sur 16)
Handling Changes with a Written Change Order
You already told the owner in your contract that hidden rot was possible and you already carried a contingency line for it. Now the day comes when your crew pulls up the hall bathroom subfloor and finds exactly that, and what you do in the next hour determines whether you get paid for the extra work or eat it.
The Moment Demo Uncovers the Problem
Your crew tears out the old tile and underlayment in the hall bathroom and finds the plywood subfloor around the toilet flange is black, soft, and crumbling, probably from a wax ring that failed years ago. This is precisely the hidden condition your contract's contingency clause and allowance language anticipated. That earlier work now pays off, because you are not starting from zero on a legal or financial footing. You already have contract language saying additional discovered damage will be handled through a written change order at a stated rate, so the owner isn't hearing this concept for the first time under stress. Stop work on that area immediately. Do not have the crew start cutting out rot and running to the lumber yard on a nod from the owner standing in the doorway. Take photos of the damaged subfloor from multiple angles, ideally with a tape measure in frame showing the affected area, roughly 3 feet by 4 feet in this case. Note the probable cause (failed wax ring, long-term slow leak) because that detail matters if the owner's insurance or a dispute ever comes up later. Then walk the owner over, show them the photos and the actual floor, and explain in plain terms: this is beyond the original scope, here is what it will cost to fix, here is what it does to the schedule. This is the conversation your contract already set them up to expect. You're not negotiating whether extra charges are legitimate in concept, you're pricing a specific, visible problem.
Writing the Change Order Itself
A change order is not a verbal number and a handshake. It is a short written document, often one page, that includes: a description of the condition found, the specific work required to fix it, the added cost broken into labor and material, the schedule impact in calendar days, and signature lines for both you and the owner with a date. For this rot repair, a typical write-up might read: 'Discovered: deteriorated plywood subfloor, approximately 12 sq ft, surrounding toilet flange in hall bathroom, due to prior leak. Scope: remove and replace affected subfloor with 3/4 inch exterior-grade plywood, treat adjacent joists with borate sealant, replace flange. Added cost: $485 labor, $140 material, total $625. Schedule impact: 1 additional day, revised completion date now [X].' Keep the pricing consistent with the labor rate and markup structure already in your base contract, commonly in the 15 to 20 percent markup range many residential remodelers use, so the owner sees you're applying the same math, not inventing a premium because you have leverage mid-project. Get the signature before a single additional cut is made. If the owner balks at signing but wants work to continue, that tells you something important, and it's better to find out before you've spent the labor than after.
Why Verbal Approval Fails Contractors Constantly
The pattern is familiar to anyone who has been in this trade a few years: the owner says 'yeah, just fix it, do what you need to do' while standing in the hallway, the crew handles it that afternoon, and three weeks later when the final invoice shows an extra $625 line item, the owner says 'I never agreed to that' or 'I thought that was already covered' or 'nobody told me it would cost that much.' This isn't usually about dishonest owners. Memory of casual conversations is unreliable, especially when money wasn't explicitly discussed in the moment. A verbal 'go ahead' in a hallway is not the same thing as agreeing to a specific dollar figure and a specific schedule change, and owners genuinely experience these as different commitments. Without a signed document, you have no record of what was actually agreed to, and in any dispute, including small claims court, a contractor's word against a homeowner's word tends to go nowhere good for the contractor. The financial damage compounds: you've already paid your crew for the labor, already bought the material, and now you're trying to collect after the fact with nothing but your own invoice as proof. Owners who are inclined to push back have every incentive to argue the price retroactively once the work is done and they have no further leverage concern. The written change order, signed before work starts, removes this entire category of risk.
Scénario : Mid-remodel on a hall bathroom, your crew removes the old tile floor and discovers rotted plywood subfloor around the toilet flange, roughly 3 feet by 4 feet, caused by a long-failed wax ring seal. Original contract price was $14,500 with a stated contingency allowance of $500 for hidden conditions, already disclosed in writing before work began.
Step one: the lead carpenter stops work on that section and calls you or flags you on-site immediately rather than guessing at next steps. Step two: you photograph the damaged area from at least three angles with a tape measure visible, and note the apparent cause. Step three: you calculate the real cost, labor at your shop rate ($65/hour loaded, estimated 5 hours for removal, treatment, and replacement, so $325) plus material ($140 for plywood, borate treatment, and a new flange), for a direct cost of $465, marked up at 18 percent to a billed price of roughly $550. Since $500 of contingency was already baked into the original contract, you present this as a net additional $50 beyond what was already allotted, which is a much easier conversation than presenting $550 as if the owner owes it all fresh. Step four: you write the one-page change order listing the description, scope of repair, cost breakdown, and a 1-day schedule extension, moving final completion from the 14th to the 15th. Step five: you review it with the owner in person, answer any questions about why the rot happened and whether it affects anything beyond this area, and get a signature and date before the crew buys a single additional stud or sheet of plywood. Step six: only after the signed copy is in hand does work resume, and the signed change order gets attached to the original contract and included in the final invoice packet, so there's a complete paper trail from discovery to payment.
Points clés
- •A change order needs four specific elements: the condition found, the exact scope of added work, the added cost broken into labor and material, and the schedule impact in days, all signed before work resumes.
- •This moment is the direct payoff of contingency and hidden-condition language from your original contract, the owner isn't surprised by the concept, only by the specific number.
- •Price the change order using the same labor rate and markup structure as your base estimate so it reads as consistent math, not an opportunistic premium.
- •Verbal approval fails because a casual hallway 'go ahead' is not the same commitment as agreeing to a dollar figure, and that gap becomes a dispute once the invoice arrives.
- •Stopping work the moment a hidden condition is found, before pricing or signatures, protects you from sinking labor and material into work you may not get paid for.