Change orders are a normal part of remodeling. They are also one of the easiest ways for a bad estimate to turn into a much more expensive project.
A change order should happen when something legitimately changes after the contract is signed.
Maybe we open a wall and discover a condition nobody could reasonably have known was there. Maybe you decide you want a different layout. Maybe you upgrade the tile, add recessed lighting, move a wall or decide that while we’re already there, you’d like us to do something else.
Those are change orders.
A contractor forgetting something in his estimate isn’t.
And there’s a pretty important difference between the two.
A change order is a written amendment to the original construction contract. The original contract says we’re doing a certain amount of work for an agreed price. If that work changes, the contract needs to change with it.
A proper change order should clearly state:
Most importantly: the change order should be agreed to before the additional work is performed.
Not three weeks later.
Not when the final invoice arrives.
You should know what we’re doing and what it’s going to cost before we do it.
In most residential remodeling projects, change orders fall into two categories. The homeowner changed something — or the house told us something we couldn’t have reasonably known beforehand.
Both are legitimate. Let’s start with the easy one.
It happens all the time. We priced a fiberglass tub and you decide you want a tiled shower. You choose a $600 vanity and later fall in love with one that costs $1,800. You decide to move a wall. You want six recessed lights instead of four. You originally weren’t replacing the flooring in the hallway, but once you see the new flooring in the kitchen you want to continue it through.
There’s nothing wrong with any of that. It’s your house. But the scope of work changed, so the price may change too.
That’s exactly what a change order is for. We document what you’re changing, determine what it does to the price and schedule, and both sides approve it before moving forward.
That protects us.
It also protects you.
Remodeling existing houses is different from building something on an empty piece of ground. We can’t see through walls. Sometimes we open something up and find a legitimate problem that wasn’t visible during estimating.
Maybe we remove drywall and discover an old structural modification hidden inside the wall. Maybe excavation exposes a buried condition nobody had any reasonable way of knowing was there. Maybe we open part of an older house and discover something completely different from what the visible construction suggested.
Those things happen. That’s a legitimate unforeseen condition.
At that point, work should stop in the affected area long enough to figure out what we’re dealing with. Then we determine the proper fix, put the additional work and cost in writing, and discuss it with the homeowner before proceeding. That’s what a change order is supposed to do.
This is where I think homeowners need to pay attention. Not everything we discover during demolition was actually unforeseeable.
If we’re tearing apart an old leaking shower, for example, there is a reasonable chance we’re going to find some damaged framing. That’s part of remodeling.
If I price the job assuming everything behind a failed shower is going to be absolutely perfect, give you a low number, and then act shocked when we find a rotten 2x4, I didn’t necessarily uncover some extraordinary unforeseen condition. I may have just written a bad estimate.
There is obviously a limit to this. If we open that same shower and discover that half the exterior wall has been destroyed by years of hidden water damage, that’s a different conversation. Nobody can price what nobody could reasonably know existed.
But a good contractor should understand the type of project he’s estimating and account for the reasonably predictable problems that come with it. That’s part of pre-project planning.
This is one reason I tell homeowners not to compare contractor estimates using only the number at the bottom. I’ve written separately about why the lowest bid almost always costs you more and why one contractor’s quote can look so much higher than another’s .
Imagine three contractors price the same bathroom.
| Contractor | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Contractor A | $31,000 |
| Contractor B | $34,000 |
| Contractor C | $24,000 |
Obviously, the $24,000 estimate gets your attention. But what exactly is included? That’s the question.
Maybe the contractor simply operates more efficiently and can legitimately do the same work for less. Great. Or maybe important parts of the job aren’t in the estimate.
Then demolition starts.
“We didn’t know we’d have to fix that.” Change order.
“The electrical wasn’t included.” Change order.
“We need additional framing.” Change order.
“That price didn’t include this part.” Another change order.
Pretty soon your $24,000 bathroom costs $35,000. Except you made your contractor decision based on believing it cost $24,000.
That’s the problem.
I don’t like making blanket accusations about contractors. There are plenty of good ones.
There are also contractors who know exactly how homeowners shop. They know the lowest number has a good chance of getting the job. So they make the initial number as attractive as possible and deal with everything else after the contract is signed. The omissions become change orders.
By then, your bathroom is demolished. Your kitchen is gone. Your house is under construction. Switching contractors isn’t exactly practical anymore.
A low initial price followed by a pile of predictable change orders isn’t a bargain.
It’s just a more expensive project presented in installments.
This is one reason we put so much emphasis on what goes into a good contractor estimate . The goal isn’t to predict the future perfectly — nobody can. The goal is to understand the project well enough before construction starts that the original price is based on reality.
This is where estimating and planning matter. Before we start, we should know what you’re building. We should know your major selections. We should understand the existing house as well as reasonably possible. We should know which systems are being affected. We should identify obvious risks. And the scope should be detailed enough that both sides understand what is and isn’t included.
The more decisions we make before demolition, the fewer expensive decisions we have to make during construction. That’s particularly important on kitchens, bathrooms, additions and larger remodeling projects.
Changing something on paper is easy.
Changing it after the plumber, electrician and framer have already done their work isn’t.
This part gets overlooked. Change orders don’t inherently mean the price goes up.
Suppose the contract includes something that ultimately isn’t necessary. Or you decide to remove part of the project from our scope. The contract price should be adjusted accordingly. That’s still a change order.
A change order documents a change to the agreement. It isn’t automatically an additional charge.
It doesn’t need to be a 12-page legal document. But it should be specific.
Suppose we’re remodeling your bathroom and you decide to add heated flooring. A useful change order might say that we’re supplying and installing the floor-heating system in the bathroom, identify the related electrical and flooring work, state the adjustment to the contract price and note any effect on the schedule.
Then you approve it. We approve it. Now everybody knows what changed.
What I don’t like is:
“Bathroom extras — $4,700.”
What extras? Who approved them? When? What was actually installed? Was $4,700 discussed before the work happened?
Six months later, neither side should have to rely on memory to figure out what somebody meant.
This may be the most important part. If something changes during your project and it’s going to cost you more money, you should know that before we do it.
The normal sequence should be:
There can be unusual situations where immediate action is necessary to protect the house or address a safety issue. But that shouldn’t become an excuse for routinely doing thousands of dollars in extra work and telling the homeowner afterward.
A change order isn’t supposed to be a surprise invoice.
It’s supposed to prevent one.
A project having a change order doesn’t mean anything went wrong. On a large remodel, I’d be more suspicious of somebody promising there could never be one.
Existing houses can surprise you. And homeowners change their minds. Both are normal.
What matters is why the change order happened. Was it a genuinely hidden condition? Did you change the project? Or was it something the contractor reasonably should have anticipated and simply left out of the original estimate?
Then look at how it was handled:
That’s the difference between a legitimate change order and a project slowly getting away from you.
The goal is no unnecessary surprises.
A good estimate should account for the work we can reasonably anticipate. Good planning should settle as many decisions as possible before construction. And when something truly changes, a written change order keeps everybody on the same page.
That’s how we handle them. If the scope changes, the agreement changes with it. You should understand exactly why, exactly what we’re doing, and exactly what it does to your budget before the work gets done.
On the Danville kitchen, the homeowners switched from luxury vinyl plank to hardwood mid-project and extended it through the living room and hallway. That change was priced, written up and approved before a board went down.
Fifteen minutes on the phone. You’ll have a realistic range before we hang up — and if we’re not the right people for it, I’ll tell you.