I am in contract negotiations now and a few more things came up, and Renos comment touched on it too.
Dumpsters and trash hall off.
Furnishing a dumpster and paying to have it emptied is a general condition that the GC should pick up. If you put that in your bid you would not be low, so look out for GCs that want to slip this in your contract, becuase its his dumpster not yours.
Cleaning
You are responsible for your own clean up. Do it every day and NEVER under any circumstance agree to a “composite clean up crew”. Watching my licensed electricians clean up a giant pile of sheet rock the sheet rocker left for the composite crew made me want to cry. When the composite crews start, the messy trades tend to stop cleaning up as they go and leave giant piles of trash because they know the other trades will have to help them clean it up later.
Temporary Toilets
It’s a general condition too, and on a few occasions I have had this slipped back into my contract. Keep an eye out for it.
New Laws
Keep up on the new laws coming out that may concern you and your business. It helps to join a trade organization or network like we do in here.
There is a new law here in Texas that starts September, which has a huge impact on my business. As of September 2007 General Contractors can no longer write or execute the “pay when we get paid” clause. In the past most contracts stipulated that they GC was not obligated to pay our draw until they were funded by the owner; well now they have to pay net 30 regardless if they have been paid or not. Whooo Hoooo that’s one for the home team!!!!
