Behind the plywood: the two words I fear the most

The "Change Order."

A Change Order is contractor speak for an invoice that covers the cost of construction work done outside the scope of the original contract. It requires my signature of approval. A Change Order can be initiated by a change that I request. Or it may cover something that was accidentally deleted from the bid when we were trying to cut costs. But usually it refers to unanticipated construction required by unforeseen conditions.

Whatever the cause, a Change Order means I owe more money.

Thus far we're up to Change Order number 12, with still two months more to go, bringing us nearly 10% over budget.

Below are pictures of Change Order Number 8 taken during the middle of April. Due to the vast amount of equipment needed to run a restaurant, we had to increase the electrical power supply going into the building. That meant that we had to upgrade the building's vintage 1960 electrical boxes and bring everything up to the current standards. That much we knew and expected.

What we didn't anticipate was that the local electric company would require us to move the front door of the stairwell that leads to the upstairs apartment. Without getting bogged down in boring details about specific building codes, we needed to move the door back 3 feet to make room for the new power boxes, circuit breakers, and meters.

The cost? $4,876.

Change Orders give me nightmares.

Comments

[EB]

I can't even pretend to understand the size of your headaches. I know it's little consolation, but lots of us are excited to be able to walk into the final product.

[Diane]

Ohhhhhh...I can sympathize. I'm a construction PM (owners rep) and I spend a lot of time managing and battling Change Orders. It's usually the Building Department and Hidden Conditions that ding us. Thus far this year I've already had to deal with one major power upgrade requiring underground trenching. Yes, it's a lot of $$$. I can only imagine what restaurant construction is like, with all the code and health requirements - hang in there and know it will be beautiful when it is all done!