An HVAC change order template doesn’t need to be fancy. It needs to answer what I check, in the order I check it. When it does, your change moves. When it doesn’t, it sits on my desk until I push back. I worked the tinner trade for about four years, and I’ve been in construction…
A subcontractor change order log is the one list that tells you, and me, where every extra stands. I don’t keep a change log for my subs. I use theirs. So when yours is clear, I can tell you the status of a change fast. When it isn’t, we both lose time. I worked the…
A time and material ticket is the piece of paper that turns “just do it and we’ll figure it out” into money. I’ve rejected so many of them that I lost count. Most of those subs did the work. They just couldn’t show it. I worked the tinner trade for about four years, and I’ve…
Extra work in construction often starts before the change order is signed. Usually it starts because somebody is comfortable that the owner will pay. Sometimes that comfort is earned. Sometimes it isn’t, and most subs have been burned enough times to know the difference. I worked the tinner trade for about four years, and I’ve…
Every month a stack of pay apps lands on my desk, and every HVAC schedule of values in that stack gets checked. I hold the billing up against the schedule, the field progress reports, the daily logs and the project photos. Then I walk the job and make my own call on where things are.…
When a unit price change order comes in priced with rates we already agreed to, I check the quantities and it moves. When it comes in priced some new way, I have to check everything. Same work, same dollars, very different amount of time on my desk. That difference is what this post is about.…
How much does a change order cost? More than most subs think, and it costs on both sides of the desk. I was in a preconstruction meeting on a job I’ll leave unnamed, and the team kept circling back to a question the owner had already answered. Finally the owner stopped the room. He said,…
I worked the tinner trade for about four years and I have not taken a side job in fifteen. I manage projects for a general contractor in Salt Lake now, which means change orders cross my desk every week. I am the guy who reads them. The numbers here are Salt Lake in 2026 and…
I worked the trade for about four years and I have not taken a side job in fifteen. I manage projects for a general contractor in Salt Lake now, so I review invoices and change orders most weeks of the year. This is what a good one looks like and why. What has to be…
I wrote about what to charge for a side job and gave you numbers. This is the post where I show the work behind them. Where these numbers come from Straight up front, so you know what you are reading. I worked the tinner trade for about four years. I have not taken a side…