We are also adding about 700 square feet, and gutting and reconfiguring everything except 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We are adding 1-1/2 bathrooms and 1 more garage (to make 3)so it is a very big (and horribly expensive) job. We sent our plans to 3 contractors at the beginning of November. We got 2 bids in January (yes, 2-1/2 months later--my architect says it was because of the holidays). One of the bids was $150,000 more than the other. The less expensive guy was about $150,000 over what our architect had been telling us to expect. I called the third G.C. and he said he was waiting for the furnace guy's bid and it would be in the following week. I called him two weeks later and he said he had it at home and would call me that night or the next day. I never heard from him. I went in and picked up my plans from him and he said, "Oh, did you already choose someone?" Sheesh. Good luck.

To the extent that they have to get bids from their subcontractors they have to wait at least two weeks and then they also have to be willing to nag the subcontractors. I think that 2-4 weeks is probably reasonable from their perspective to complete the whole thing. But I can imagine that they simply put off the nagging and then they put off cranking the numbers. I also think that if they are the only ones giving you a bid, they probably move faster. If it's competative, they may feel less motivated. (that seems counter-intuitive but I think it's true.) From what I've heard, the subcontractors do seem to take off during the holidays.

Having used an architect to prepare your plans it seems your best bet is to ask the architect to help develop the relationship with the contractors. While creating a bad history with one potential client (you) might not bother them, I would think they don't want to look bad to other professionals.

We interviewed seven GCs. Never heard back at all from three of them, even though they spent considerable time at the house initially. We concluded they weren't really interested in the job... :) Three others came in at about the same price (all had asked our budget and they came in at the high end, but within it). Fourth one, when we called, said he was "already at nearly double our budget and not finished yet ... did we want him to keep going or not?" (We said "never mind" and moved on.) I think we waited, in general, 1.5-3 weeks, but this was two years ago, when economic conditions were different. I expect with housing doing what it's doing nationwide right now, a lot more folks may be remodeling (rather then moving) and perhaps the contractors are a lot busier? Still, they should be able to give you an estimate of when they can get a bid ready.

What stunned us was how far off our architect was on the cost estimate. He thought our whole kitchen-- counters, flooring, appliances, cabinets -- could be done for roughly what we ended up paying for the cabinets alone (and we got a really good deal on the cabinets!) And he was using some sort of book (sort of a "Blue Book" for remodeling) that architects use, quite up to date and specific to our region, but totally off the mark in terms of real prices. He was floored when we told him the prices we were being quoted (in his defense, he usually does MUCH bigger jobs than ours and I imagine he doesn't do much of the pricing himself, but still...)

Sally and CTlady...I have a feeling that my architect will be way off as well. Maybe they think we will not decide to go ahead with getting the plans if we knew just how much the pricing would really come in at!

Fern, I do have a few more names that my architect supplied, I just did not contact them, yet. I think I will be calling them tomorrow. I feel like I may need to contact 10 to hopefully get 5 estimates....

Thanks!

It took my contractor about 5 minutes after he looked around, to give me a figure. He was under on the electrical work and over on the labor for the tile (as in - we're doing wood) - so his estimate was pretty much on target after he added one thing and subtracted the other. Amazing.

The price was verbal till about a week after he had started, when he handed me a contract.

He was the only estimate we got and we hired him in a heartbeat. He is a dream.

1st contractor gave me a verbal. We planned on using him, but asked and asked and asked for something in writing. 2 months later, we got it in writing. THREE TIMES what he quoted me verbally.
2nd contractor came in on Friday morning. By Tuesday afternoon I had it in writing. We start demo a week from Monday.

I had a similar experience. I interviewed several companies or GCs, then waited for bids several weeks and nothing happened. Out of 4 or 5, I got only 1 bid mailed to me even after nagging the others several times. The same conclusions as ctlady - I figured they were not that into me (ehm, my project) ;)

Lot of people I talked to in my neighborhood, work, etc., said the same thing. I guess they pick their customers the same way we pick companies to work with. If they have plenty of work, a little project like mine can be too much to bother ...

I just kept asking around until I found someone who was interested and whom I felt comfortable with. Needless to say, it cost me several weeks delays.

We interviewed 5 GCs.

First was sort of interested, but our job on an older home was different from the usual work he did building new and/or remodeling newer homes, and it didn't "feel" like a good fit, so we didn't pursue it, even though he seemed like a decent guy and his portfolio of work looked like quality.

Second came to look, but when he saw significant structural work he wasn't interested - he was more a cabinet installer/internal design kind of GC than somebody to handle this project.

Next one came HIGHLY recommended from a friend who had just done some similar work a few months prior. He came round and gave us some quite attractive rough figures compared to the previous and we wanted some time to think about his suggestions; called him a couple of weeks later to come back, we talked further and asked him for a written bid. Never heard back from him, although we continued to call him to try and get a formal bid.

#4 was referred to us via a very bizarre chain of events: even though we got the feeling the project was stalled since we couldn't find a builder, we decided to close on the equity loan anyway since it was all ready to go. At the closing, the title agent started chatting to us, noted that we lived in the same neighbourhood as her family including her brother who oh-by-the-way was a contractor and did we have one yet? I took the number partly to be polite and partly because he was (literally) around the corner, but didn't hold out much hope.

In the meantime, I already had an appointment scheduled with a fairly glossy design-build firm so I kept it - they said that we would need at a MINIMUM double our budget, so that was a short meeting!

So... feeling somewhat trepidatious I called the guy around the corner that had been recc'd at the bank. He was out of town but we scheduled a meeting for a few days later. He spent 2 hrs at the house, and drove me to see some work he was doing on another property (beautiful work - sealed the deal from my point of view). He came back a few days later with his associate to have another look to see how they could manage the structural stuff, and emailed me a basic proposal a few days after that. We hashed out the remaining details by email and he started 3 weeks later. He CLEARLY wanted the job - he was interested in the house, he (as I later learned) was fascinated by the books on our shelves many of which reflected his own interests and he definitely wanted the gig and he just liked us as much as we did him - it was clearly a "good fit".

I had seen his work, his licence and checked his insurance was ok (they all were, of course!), but other than the title agent had no personal references. The day we started work I was PANIC STRICKEN with "what if's?" - I was letting a perfect stranger cut my house in half, I had no human references and aaaaaakkkkkkkk... what was I doing! A neighbour reassured me that she'd seen his work in the neighbourhood and, that in fact, he'd turned DOWN a job she'd asked him to do, but even so - I didn't necessarily do this "by the book"!

As those who have been following my renovation know, this guy has been AMAZING, transforming our ideas into reality at a more than fair price (in fact, I truly believe he undercharged us somewhat given the numbers I see other people throwing around for their work). And he, his wife and kids have become friends in the course of it all, so it has truly been "win win" even if we DIDN'T find him via a "conventional" route.

Anyway, long answer. I guess the short version is if they follow through, they want the job... !

divamum, that's a good story and one for us to keep in mind. There seems to be an epidemic of contractors who give out estimates that have no apparent basis in reality even though many times multiple architects also think that the estimate is in the ballpark. It's not clear to me what purpose these estimates have other than to mislead the owner into instructing the architect to proceed. Or to cause homeowners to make plans they cannot execute.