No amount is appropriate. He's a businessman who bid on your project and you agreed to pay him that amount. His employees and the subs are paid wages. Your referrals for good work will be most appreciated, but beyond that, IMHO, tipping is not only not necessary, it's unprofessional.

I would only tip someone like that if one of the men helped me lift something or did something else that was not required of the job. Then I would give him enough to buy lunch.

Give him a written recommendation that he can put on his website, along with pictures of the project. That's all of the bonus he needs, or that is appropriate. It's the lower paid subs where it might be appropriate to tip, but only if they went above and beyond. Complimenting their skill and professionalism to the GC is aways appreciated. Everyone likes to be praised publicly!

Thanks guys. I value your opinions. My extra bit will be enthusiastic referrals and a willingness to write a recommendation for his website.

I don't see anything wrong with giving your GC a tip if you feel so inclined. I also don't see it as being unprofessional. Chances are that your contractor did lots of little (or not so little things) that weren't in the contract, added to his costs, but weren't upcharged with a change order. Contractors, believe it or not, often do this all day long with little thanks or acknowledgement from the customer. If the job goes great and you are happy, there's nothing wrong with a monetary gift to show your appreciation. If you want the money to be spread around, then spread it around yourself ... give whatever you want to whomever you want to have it. You aren't just "throwing money out there" ... you are showing your appreciation for a job well done.

As a person who has been tipped repeatedly for construction work, it is appreciated and accepting tips is in no way "unprofessional".

He will particularly appreciate passing tips on to his subs, even more than getting one personally. They will be very impressed with his quality of clients, trust me, and that will go a long way the next time he needs a favor from them.

I think it's a personal decision. I gave cash with a thank you note to the three guys who spent weeks in my home from demo through install. One of them, who was a long time employee, told me the personal note was appreciated as much, if not more, than the cash. Besides doing a great job on the reno, they contained the dust in the immediate area & vacuumed that area every day.
I also gave my KD a gift certificate to a store I know she likes to shop at. I felt she went above & beyond.
Also gave cash to a few of subs that I felt did a great job.

I tipped my GC 5% above the bid because I thought he deserved it. I'm pretty sure he didn't think the gesture was unprofessional.

I've been in this (tile) business for about 40 years....and nothing about tipping is unprofessional. I've had a tip of quality wine...I've been invited to share a meal or two with the HO...and I've been tipped money.

If you went "above & beyond," a tip is NOT out of order. A hundred dollar bill pressed into the palm is always appreciated....and a couple of fifties given to the actual subs that were there, every day certainly goes a long way. No one says this has to be "declared."

Just my .02 worth.......

Honestly, I think a tip is strange, and I'm a big tipper. Now maybe a bottle of whiskey is different, but I think referrals are the best tip.

A GC is a business owner, and I don't see tipping business owners as normal.

It's definitely not unprofessional but it's usually unnecessary. Would you tip your accountant, your doctor or you dentist? Actually I did once give my dentist some good wine but he went over and above to correct a bad decision that I made and he didn't charge for it.

I learned that you don't tip the owner of a business.
Having said that, I usually tip the people who do the actual work or go and pick up sandwiches/drinks.
For the owner, I might give him/her a bottle of wine and excellent references.

I asked my KD about tipping the GC and she said it was not the norm.
I did give his son some really nice beer. Dad would not have appreciated the craft beers.

@calumet @stonetech: thanks for attaching some figures. I've always wondered 'how much is enough' for uncommon services where there are no written guidelines.

I've learned to not totally trust business website 'reviews'. They are not all true and no way to verify. I'd value an Angie's list type service more.

This post was edited by Mags438 on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 20:28

I've thought about this some more since I posted, and about my own situation (I work in what would be considered a "professional" job). If a client sends me flowers, or a gift for a job well done, I'm certainly happy to get it, mostly because I figure if they bothered to send a gift, it meant they were really happy with the service I provided (and letters of recommendation/website reviews would be out of the ordinary to the extreme in my profession). But, if that same client tried to give me a cash "tip", I'd give it right back - it would just not be appropriate. I realize there are "in-betweens", like gift cards - but it's really just green cash that I and my colleagues would reject.

There is something here that may be being overlooked, as I mentioned previously: Contractors often do things above and beyond that weren't listed in the contract, weren't written up as a change order, and therefore are "gifts" to the client. Lots of times these things are done at the contractor's expense either in time or materials or both. Maybe it's one little change here, or a bunch of little changes there, but they are all "gifts" to the homeowner. Since a change order isn't written for these things, the contractor is not expecting to be compensated. Maybe he just wants the job to move forward, or he wants to keep the customer happy, but believe me, it happens all the time. If an observant and thoughtful homeowner notices those things and decides to throw a few extra bucks the contractor's way, why is that "unprofessional"? If that is the case, is it then unprofessional for a contractor to go above and beyond for the homeowner?

IMHO, the appropriate gift is the one that the recipient wants or needs. Most contractors I know wouldn't really have any need for a bouquet of flowers or a gift card, and unless your contractor is drinking on the job or you socialize with him, how would you know if he wants or even drinks alcoholic beverages?

I say if your contractor is that good, give him a cash gift AND a glowing recommendation! My guess he won't be offended or find it "inappropriate," any more than you would be if he does something extra for you. And if you are still unsure, just ask him ... "Would you mind if I tipped you?"

"I've learned to not totally trust business website 'reviews'. They are not all true and no way to verify."

Mags438:

I have been a member of www.homeadvisor for over 5 years and have nearly 200 customer reviews, with a 4.68 rating out of a possible 5. They require reviewers to be customers of the contractor being reviewed. I would never participate in a site that didn't have this requirement, such as Yelp.

Homeadvisor did my website and when they put up my reviews, they left off a couple of my 2s. I called and insisted they put them back. Those are pure gold for credibility, in fact I've written several columns about this very subject.

In 5 years I've had 2 reviews removed; they are quite strict about this. One lady said I did a poor job of removing the stain from her countertop. The only problem was, she never hired me to do it and I had emails to prove it. In the other case I had written proof the customer was completely satisfied, but he tried to write a poor review anyway.

I could verify any review to any potential customer. I've worked very hard to earn them and it would be a pleasure.

For a second I thought I stumbled into the wrong thread ... how'd the topic switch to review sites?

Say I decide to tip my GC. Do I add the tip into my final payment and hope he spreads it around? Or do I hand him several $50s and say, please give one to A, B and C? I think A and B pretty much just work for the GC, but I suspect C (plumber) does work for other GCs. One tile guy did all the work, but I won't see him again. However, his supervisor has had to come back numerous times because I have a squeaky floor under the tile. Should I give him something, plus something for his guy who did all the work?

I like all the guys and this feels token-ish, but I want to say, you did good, and I'd have you back anytime.

If you want him to spread it around and you have amounts in mind, you could give him separate envelopes with cash for each person. Or you could tell him that you would like to tip each person and ask him how you should it handle it. My guess is that he would not want you to include it in his final payment, but rather make it a separate transaction as it is not a payment for him alone.

Linelle, i think your plan is nice. I gave bottles of Old Raj Blue to my GC's site supervisor and his assistant only because they'd remarked on being gin aficionados. A gift cert to a really good restaurant to his KD. Cash to the day-to-day guys who had young families. The GC himself? A really good review on Angie's List and my # for his ref list. But now I'm feeling kinda like I should have done something more tangible.

How about an envelope for each of the GC's guys (A, B & C), and two for the tile guys (D & E) that I would give directly to D (supervisor).

What about the GC? Do we go with "no tips to business owner"? Will my offer to write up something for Angie's List and Yelp (and his website if he wishes), plus including me in his referral list be good enough? He's already got a new job from my referral. She didn't even interview anyone else.

ETA: I'm giving my KD/BD a gift certificate to Sur la Table.

This post was edited by linelle on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 22:27

After 32 years as a G.C. in the custom home business, and 8 before that as a finish carpenter, I can say the best tip is a referral!
My business has relied and succeeded on referrals alone, I've never advertised.
Now having said that, a tip or bonus was always appreciated. For example, I received a nice gesture recently after a client asked for some advice about an issue they were having at their house. I consulted with them for less than an hour, and they asked "how much do we owe you?" I said "nothing ".... next day I find a $100 gift certificate to a very nice local restaurant in our mailbox, ...and my wife and I enjoyed our 31st anniversary dinner on them! ...What goes around, comes around :)

Linelle, the "no tips to business owners" is not a general RULE to be followed. Besides, rules are made to be broken, so if you feel like rewarding your contractor for a job well done, then just do it. The contractors here have all stated that they love to get tips! Pretty much all of the subs who work on your job are business owners, so if you want to apply that no-tips "rule," that rules them out, too. I sure wouldn't want to hand my GC a bunch of envelopes of cash to give to everybody else without including an envelope for him as well, but that's just me. There is no "rule" that says you can't do both .. a tip AND a referral. After all, the referral doesn't cost you a thing.

A gift certificate for free advice is not a tip, and a tip for going "above and beyond" is not the same the same as tipping someone for doing the job they were hired (and paid) to do.

Obviously tipping is not for everyone, either giving them or receiving them. If everyone did it all the time, it probably wouldn't feel so "special" when you do get one.

Just had to follow this up. My DH happened to be talked to our tiler today, to ask a question re leveling a bathroom floor. The tiler told him that he's gotten four jobs as a result of our glowing review on Yelp (with pictures), and I only posted it 3 weeks ago. I'm guessing that was "tip enough" :-)

"The tiler told him that he's gotten four jobs as a result of our glowing review on Yelp (with pictures), and I only posted it 3 weeks ago. I'm guessing that was "tip enough" :-)"

If you felt the job he did was so fantastic that you took the 20-30 minutes to write up a glowing review and upload pictures, I would think a small gift would have been appropriate as well as the glowing review

I am a small developer/cpntractor, very common for everyone in the company to receive small gifts from happy clients....can be something as small as a $10 Dunkin Donuts GC to a $100 Amazon card, last week we had a large basket of fruit delivered to our office from a project we finished a couple weeks ago along with a lovely well written note that was very appreciated by everyone in the company

Have never considered it to be "unprofessional" when we (or any of the guys) received a tip.....and have certainly never considered it to be unprofessional to give any of my subcontractors a tip/gift at the end of a job well done, even though I was paying them for the work they had done

I think a gift card or fruit basket is quite different from a 50.00 (or whatever) tip.
Also, would you be tipping everybody who does an outstanding job by going above and beyond, like someone in the county office, the school nurse, your kids' teachers, dentist, the pastor?

What is different about it?

Of course I would tip someone that does an outstanding job, mailman, FedEx,UPS, garbage man all get something at Christmas time.....if we have a huge trash pick up at our warehouse we always do something for the trash guy. The guy who pumps my gas always gets a small tip, bigger tip if the weather is bad

Kids teachers always get something at the end of the year, if my kids had a need for the school nurse on a routine basis (food allergy, diabetic etc) no question he or she would get a token of our appreciation

We routinely work for some of the wealthiest people in New England and I will tell you that the ones that show their appreciation by tipping the guys, buying the crew lunch on Fridays, bringing coffee and donuts at break time etc....get above and beyond the normal service, and every request no matter what it is gets taken care of...most of the time for no charge!

Little things go a long way with everyone, I certainly make sure to do what I can for anyone that treats me well.

the ones that show their appreciation by tipping the guys, buying the crew lunch on Fridays, bringing coffee and donuts at break time etc....get above and beyond the normal service

And therein lies the problem :-) Noone goes "above and beyond" just because, or even just because its their job and they get paid for it. They go above and beyond because they get something out of it. Sorry, while I am actually a big tipper (in restaurants, where wait staff makes very little), and do tip if someone does something that wasn't part of the job I hired them to do, I hate with a passion our tipping culture.

I hate with a passion our tipping culture.

SJ, do too. I'd rather everyone just be paid appropriately for the work they do, without me having to do the math and guess what would make them feel appreciated.

Last year I spent three weeks at a college in Jerusalem. They charged 45 of us $100 to tip the staff (office, cleaning, kitchen). That wasn't bad for 10 or so people to share. I was happy to pay and I didn't have to wonder if it was enough or if I was missing someone who worked behind the scenes.

Tile guys tipped. Some $$ in envelopes for each of them. The guy I gave them to said, "Really?!! Seriously?!! You don't have to do this." I told him how much I valued 1) the quality of the work, and 2) their clear desire to get things right and leave me a happy customer.

:)

I am sure it made their day, good for you!