How Builders Handle Client Change Requests

Builders who handle client change requests well do the same four things every time. They price the change in writing, say what it does to the schedule, get a signature, and only then order or build. A verbal yes is not a change. Everything below is detail on that.

The short version

• Never answer a change request on the job site. "Let me price that and get it to you in writing" is the whole script.
• Price the change in money and in days. Both are costs.
• Get the signature before you order or build anything.
• Keep the signed change order and the current selections in one place. That way the next person who looks at the job sees what is actually being built.

Four kinds of change request

A change order is a change order whatever caused it, but the cause tells you what to say to the client. Here is one way to sort them.

1. The client swaps a selection. They picked a vanity in March and want a different one in June. Ask whether the first one is already ordered. If it is, the swap costs the order plus the new item.
2. The client goes over an allowance. The allowance said one number and the pick came in higher. Depending on your contract, this is an allowance adjustment or a change order. Either way, write down the difference at the moment they choose, not at the final invoice.
3. The client adds scope. A new window, a moved wall, a second sink. It was never in the contract, so it gets its own price and its own days.
4. The change comes from somewhere else. A supplier discontinues the tile. An inspector wants something different. The framing turns up a surprise. The client did not ask for it, but the price or the schedule moves anyway, and it gets the same paperwork.

The steps

1. Stop and do not say yes. A yes on site becomes a promise the client remembers as free.
2. Write down what was asked. Room, item, and what changes. Use the client's words plus a plain description a trade could act on.
3. Check what it touches. Is it ordered, framed, inspected, or permitted? Which other trades does it move?
4. Price it. Your cost, your markup, and the added days.
5. Send one document. It carries the price and the schedule effect together.
6. Get the signature. Do not order, build, or tell a trade until you have it.
7. Update the record. The contract sum, the schedule, and the selections all change. If the sheet the tile setter works from still shows the old pick, the change was not finished.

Who approves

On the client side, whoever the contract says can sign changes. If two people sign the contract, decide at the start whether one signature is enough. Otherwise one spouse approves on Tuesday and the other disputes it on Friday.

On your side, decide who is allowed to promise a price. If your project manager and you both talk to the client, one of you owns the number.

What to do when the client keeps asking

Constant changes are usually a selections problem. One builder on r/Contractor described it this way: clients "can't seem to make decisions on finishes, and when they do, they're way over the original allowances. Now they're shocked at how much more it's going to cost."

Put dates on the decisions. An r/Contractor comment says "contracts always have a date for selections" and that change orders "have a financial cost and a time cost." A different r/Contractor comment says a contract with a timeline should not start its clock until the customer has signed off on finishes. Whether you write it that way is your call. What matters is that the client can see the date by which a choice is still free.

Order the dates by when you need the material. Plumbing fixtures come before paint.

Volume matters too. An r/Contractor comment says kitchens have, on average, 95 decisions to be made. Each of those is a place a change can start, and it is easier to catch one when the choices are on one sheet than when they are scattered through a text history.

What about the texts

Another r/Contractor comment says if you don't want 500 texts over the course of a big job, you are in the wrong line of work. Text with the client all you like. The trouble is when the text is the only record of a change. A text says "sure, that works." It does not say what it costs or how many days it adds.

An example, with made-up numbers

Say the contract has a $1,200 allowance for plumbing fixtures. The client picks a set that comes to $2,100. If you write that down when they choose it, you have a $900 difference plus your markup, and the client signs before you order.

Now say the tub is already on order and the client wants a different one. The written change carries the tub they no longer want, the tub they do, and the weeks the new one takes to arrive. The client sees all of it before saying yes. If you had waited for the final invoice, they would meet it as a surprise.

When you say yes for free

Sometimes a small change costs you nothing and you want to give it. Write it up as a change order at zero dollars anyway. It records that the change happened, and it shows the client what the next one would have cost.

Keep your own copy

In an r/Contractor thread about leaving CoConstruct, one comment advised: "PDF your selections and signed change order approvals separately." Whatever tool you use, keep the approved selections and the signed changes somewhere you can get to without the tool. That is the record if there is a dispute.

The later it lands, the more it costs

A change before the order is a conversation. A change after the order is a restocking fee. A change after the rough-in is a tear-out. Tell the client that up front, and put the selection dates where they can see them. Most of the pushback on price goes away once the client can see the cost of waiting.