Permitting and splitting contracting work btn interior+exterior

11 years ago

I'd be interested in feedback from people, especially in New York City or NYS, who have permitted an interior/exterior job (like in the case of our old brownstone, adding a deck and kitchen) and then decided to split the work between interior and exterior (or considered then decided against it because of permitting issues). We want to hire someone to do our interior work but he doesn't do exteriors, and doesn't want to be responsible for the entire permit so that the deck people we eventually hire technically work under him. Our architect doesn't think a separately contracted deck firm would pull the entire permit due to the risk of liability for plumbing and electrical from the interior job, so he thinks the interior firm has to own the exterior permit too. So... All this might mean we can't hire this guy for the interior, and have to go with a more comprehensive contractor who can do the full job and full permit. We prefer not to withdraw the permit application because we have approval already, just need to pull the permit. (it seems silly to do an unpermitted job when we already paid to get a permit). And we strongly prefer not to pay double to effectively split in half the permit application just to hire this guy. I think he would be good and perhaps we would save a few bucks on him to boot, but filing a new permit costs a few thousand and doesn't seem worth the risk. The guy we want to hire is time+materials with a separate electrician and plumber in the mix (paid directly), so harder to quantify his costs vs the general contractors who are more firm.

Comments (4)

homebound
11 years ago
Three separate threads on this? Seriously?

There are red flags for clients, too.
dreamojean
Original Author
11 years ago
Homebound, original poster here - I thought about where to post and how many threads and decided to split the somewhat overlapping threads, figuring different responders could be helpful in the different areas, as I am a newbie trying to learn and make decisions quickly - one thread was specifically about permitting (which I've since mostly resolved - we can't split it, but might be able to delay or finesse it), one was about deciding among contractors (still an issue) and one was specifically about the pro's and con's of hiring someone on a time and materials basis (we have since hired the T&M guy for a preliminary smaller job and will feel out the larger job with him). I've gotten great feedback on other threads/forums on these questions and it's been invaluable - thanks to all that have given input, it's really helpful.
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hosenemesis
11 years ago
Ignore the mean-spirited people.
I'm glad you have resolved the issue to your satisfaction, and your decision to hire the T and M guy for a smaller job seems wise. I am nervous about T and M because I worked for a company that always tried to pressure clients into T and M, then dragged out the time to make money. But not everyone is like that, of course, and thank goodness for that.
dreamojean
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, hosenemesis! I should mention that the T&M guy is really time in that he doesn't buy the materials mostly, he coordinates where we would pay Home Depot or whatever supplier directly for the materials going to our job, there's no markup. Two neighbors used him and I saw his work and am impressed, he's got a great eye for detail and usually guesstimates the length of time it will take (x weeks) and is usually pretty accurate, I've heard. At least three other people in my area use him and have been very complimentary. He is a solo guy with a business partner so I'm sure that 2-person team's work would take longer than a big contractor with a bigger team, and we have permitting issues using him alone because he doesn't do the exterior work we have a permit approval for, so we're going to slow down and see where this choice takes us while checking references on the larger contractors in the meantime. (it's worth mentioning that of our 3 bids thus far, 2 are around the same higher price and the much more itemized one is the lower one by a lot (about 20-25% lower), which makes me wonder whether the lower one is off somehow or the 2 higher ones are both too high.)