Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Hiring a Commercial Contractor in Texas

By Judy Stevens

A couple of steps to insure hiring a quality commercial contractor must be taken to build your next office building. To start, what materials are needed, what generally is involved, and what pitfalls to look out for. Many times, asking questions from experienced businesses that have used commercial contractors are some of your best resources. Local hardware stores, business inspectors and lumber yards can also offer some sound advice. Include asking local real estate agents and friends. Many times, a referral is the best resource of finding a reputable contractor.

What you probably have not considered is the multiple types of buildings that need to be considered. If a contractor builds for a medical field, then the different types within that field vary in radical ways. For example, a private practicing doctor will have an office building built around the central part of his practice, the waiting room and the desk. Here the flow goes from the waiting room, to the front desk, to a private room without much equipment, and then back to the front desk for payment. It's all about ease of traffic flow. On the other hand a dentist, also in the medical field, needs a front desk, but an open office area, with room for a lot of equipment, x-ray and such, room for many assistance to move around and the cost involves plumbing and a lot of specialized construction.

In a financial service, a design service or a real estate office, the office must be visual oriented where a government office building would be built frugally and tend to the function of an office and less to the design aspect of aesthetics. Again, a reputable commercial contractor needs to be cognizant of these differences.

If a commercial contractor has built in the industrial industry, his focus is more on the business itself and how it functions and less on traffic and work patterns like the private practices of the medical offices.

There are four main areas to consider when hiring a commercial or industrial contractor.

1. Communication. Communication is key in a good working relationship. The contractor has to understand the client's needs and be able to produce the construction necessary for the company at hand. If the Commercial contractor cannot communicate to the company, he most likely cannot communicate effectively to the sub-contractors. This can lead to a serious problem if the project is over budget or does not meet the legal standards required. A commercial or industrial contractor is often a liaison between the office superintendent, the designer (if one is used) and the architect or engineer. It takes a skilled contractor to know how to listen, talk, teach, learn and still make the project stay on budget and on schedule. All these add to the bottom line of the project.

2. Experience- This will envelop contract details, responsibilities, building permits, city standards and neighborhood restrictions are all needed to be known by the contractor. Staying on budget, clean-up, scope and materials and equipment used and if he has the capability to get the proper equipment and the crew all orchestrated in a timely manner.

3. Reputation- A contractor will either have a strong positive reputation or a negative one and it won't take long to learn which one they possess. The business world will all know or have heard of some of the good ones and especially some of the not so good ones. Knowing the importance of talking to many people with experience in building offices is priceless.

4. Management- find out if the contractor has had issues with employees, payment schedules, work ethics, and time schedules. If you can focus on this, there will be less troubleshooting in the end.

A commercial contractor, much like that of the industrial contractor, needs to have many skills. Finding out in advance who is doable will help promise a successful commercial office building.

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