Hi Annsch,

The bid process has been frustrating at best. I've has several contractors come by and some of them NEVER got back with me. It seems that I almost begged one contractor to give me a price.

I've taken it that either the contractor didn't want the job, wasn't professional, or wasn't qualified.

Use the bid process as an example of how the contractor will treat you during the job. If they keep their word now they probably will during the actual work.

I know, the waiting seems like an eternity.

I agree with April_love. I think its reasonable to give a contractor 2 weeks or maybe longer depending on the scope of the work. The more important issue is that you get alot of details in the price quotes so you can see exactly what's included and excluded.

I also used the bidding process as my own way of evaluating each GC. Did they take the time to answer my questions? Did they return my phone calls / email? Did they price what I asked them to price? You would not believe how many GC's just disregard what you want and price it using different materials, etc. I even had kitchen shops price cabinets that I did not choose and not provide the price for my selections! It is good when someone wants to show you a better value, but they should first price what you want.

Good luck.

If you want 3 bids, you need to contact more contractors than that. It is typical that many will not provide a bid even after saying they will.

they all took longer than a week to respond. if i recall it went like this:

contractor 1: replied in approx 1.5 weeks. bid lacked a lot of detail and he missed some key details. couple of his portfolio pictures had things that i would never find acceptable. he was referred to me by my plumber. NEXT.

contractor 2: referred to me by a local tile guy. gc showed up late and was taking cell phone calls half the time he was meeting with me. he half heartedly scribbled down some notes and i never did receive a quote. ~6 weeks after the meeting he sent me an email telling me he had not forgotten about me and did i still want that quote. i told him i had found another GC by then. he seemed bummed and made another feeble attempt but by that time the ship had sailed. NEXT.

contractor 3: he came to meeting, ask a lot of questions, inspected the proposed area, wrote a lot down, took measurements, raised some good questions, asked more questions, sent me emails and eventually got me a quote. it took about 4 weeks to get the quote. quote was almost double what i expected paying. i practially fell out of the chair during the meeting. stay tuned on contractor 3.

contractor 4: showed up, asked me some questions, took some notes and about 8 weeks later sent me a bid. lacked detail and he missed the deadline by 1 month. NEXT.

so guess who i went with? i negotiated the scope of work with GC contracting firm # 3 and went with them. it took 4 weeks to get the quote and it was worth the wait -detailed down to the line item. he was the only one that caught some issues that would have been surprises to the other GC's. i did some of the work myself to save money and broke the project into 2 phases to take advantage of energy credits that were around at the time and to allow me time to save more out of pocket funds to help pay for project. i did have to increase my budget as well.

GC firm #3 was not flawless - there were issues on the project but by far he was the best choice of the ones i met with.

keep in mind they are working on several projects at once. while i want to believe it, they are not sitting by the phone waiting for my call. :)

Thanks. Will start asking around for more referrals from friends and family.

I contacted 6 contractors, starting the first week of January. Four actually came to the house, 3 provided proposals and estimates (count on waiting a couple of weeks between first visit and proposal). We finally signed a contract on the last day of February after more visits and revised proposals. It was a nerve wracking experience for us and we still aren't sure we made the right choice. Work is supposed to start first week of April. We shall see.

you can use the waiting time to call up their references if they give you some. it helps with the anticipation.
also, if you are having the contractor supply a lot of the finishes, that usually takes longer too since they might have to look up prices on those items.

I'm worried you might be in for a lot of heartache for your entire project if you stay this anxious about getting everything done so fast. Not all but probably most, contractors are spending their weekday hours on actual projects and have to do the paperwork on their evenings and weekends. Plus, paperwork tends not to be their favorite thing. Unless this is the simplest of kitchen renovations, please consider giving them 2-4 weeks to get back to you with proper itemized bids.

Hopefully this is far less common now than during the housing bubble, but several years ago for my bathroom renovation, I got a couple of quotes that were crazy high and way, way more expensive than the 3 others. Seemed to me they were "if you're crazy enough to pay me this kind of money, then I'll take this job that I'd really rather not do" bids.

It took a lot longer to get quotes than I was happy with. I wanted to know NOW what we were looking at. But, if your GC takes his time to really access the costs, the less likely you'll have unplanned expenses.

There will be contractors that won't ever call back. We had a couple. Scared of me, perhaps? Maybe!

Keep in mind they don't just plug in some numbers into a form and a bid pops out.

If they've listened, they're pricing and shopping your wishes and desires. Not just, "Oh, this is cheaper," or "Oh, I always use this; it'll be ok". Give them a little time to actually do their research.

I agree about using the time to research them.
A few questions:
What do you love about your kitchen?
What would you have done differently?
Did the GC make suggestions you felt were on target?
Did the GC help you get the kitchen out of your dreams and into your house?
If you had something in your kitchen you'd change, what is it?
If you would have had your GC do something differently, what would it be?
Did you feel their payment schedule was fair?
What were you unexpected expenses? (Good ideas for you, too.)
In what time frame was your kitchen completed? Was that as proposed?
Would you feel comfortable using your GC again?

See, asking questions about their kitchen will actually provide you more info than you think. Where they might not want to speak badly or in a negative light about someone, they'll tell you about their kitchen, giving you ideas of more targeted questions.

Beware of someone who brags about how good they are.
Beware of someone who starts with, "Well, the problem with that is..."
Beware of the people babushka_cat described. :)

Everything is negotiable. Remember they must make a living, too, and you're paying for expertise and communication.

I echo the sentiments expressed here. Ended up getting 5 bids total. In that process, I learned more than I expected. Yes, about the probable work ethic of the GC. Lots about how to tweak my own design...that was the amazing part. Each contractor 'saw' something different, feeding my own final plans.

But most of all I learned about mark-up and hidden fees. That taught me that for my job I wanted a GC who was the craftsman...no subcontracting out. In exchange, I tolerate a more leisurely remodel since he isn't hiring a new crew day in/day out. He networks with other contractors (I.e. electricians, plumbers ) who come in as direct providers as well. Almost a cross over of us being the GC along with our GC...I have enjoyed and appreciated the work of each additional professional we've had to bring in. I've enjoyed how they work together too - inspecting each other's work, learning ffrom each other, I'm telling ya, I NEVER expected this to be the fun part!

Our GC has done much smaller jobs for us over the years, so we know his work, he knows us, etc. it is probably the BEST part of this whole experience at 1/2 the cost of the other bids.

It has sold me on staying away from larger companies unless I have something huge - like building a house.

The bidding process took us a good 3 months, mainly because we needed to learn what was happening before we could intelligently hire someone. Good luck - and hope you can enjoy the process.

CEFreeman- are you saying the questions about "their" kitchen should be directed to the GC? just clarifying

It all depends on the Contractor who they use for pricing, like for Juarez Investment Construciton, we use our local suppliers to send them the plans and send us the pricing for all the materials including, lumber, roofing, masonry, roofing, drywall, tape & float, paitning, carpentry for cabinets, countertops, landscaping, sprinkler systems, door manufactoring, etc… So usually it may take up to 3-4 weeks to come out with a price quote. Sometimes we will go by per square foot whcih is not very accurate cause there may be a price difference. But typically it may take up to 2 to 3 months to get that quote depending on the suppliers they use or subcontractors they use.