Scope creep on a remodel

Scope creep is the job growing a little at a time, through small extras nobody prices or writes down. On a remodel it rarely comes from one big request. It comes from twenty small ones, each too quick to bother with.

A general contractor asked other contractors whether losing money on verbal change orders was just part of the business. He put his own loss at three to five thousand dollars a year, from changes that took ten minutes to do and longer than that to write up. Plenty of people in the replies had the same number or worse.

Another one is the expensive version. A job quoted at $12,000 grew to $17,500 as the client added things. Then the client asked for a lower price. Each addition had been agreed in conversation, so the contractor had nothing that showed the client asking for them.

Why the small ones cost the most

A big change gets a proper conversation because both sides can see it's big. A small one gets "sure, I'll do it while I'm here." Do that ten times and you've given away a week, and the client doesn't remember asking ten times. They remember one or two. When the final invoice is higher than the contract, it looks to them like you padded it.

The free work hurts too, in a different way. One contractor on a fixed-price job did extra casing at no charge, finished early, and then had the client ask for a discount because the crew was fast. The goodwill left no trace, so it counted for nothing.

A habit that stops it

• Every change gets written down, even the free ones. A $0 change still records that the client asked and you said yes. That's the goodwill made visible.
• Price it before you do it. "Sure, that's $180 and half a day" takes the same ten seconds as "sure."
• Show the new total. The client should always know what the job costs today.
• Make writing it down faster than skipping it. If the paperwork takes longer than the work, the paperwork loses. A change order form on your phone helps; a one-tap yes from the client's phone helps more.

When the client says the price is too high

If every addition is written down with its price, "can you do it for less?" has a clean answer: which part should we take out? A lower price goes with a smaller job. Without the record, you're negotiating against the client's memory, and their memory is cheaper than yours. More on that in when a client asks for a discount after the job.

This is general information, not legal advice. States differ on what a home improvement contract and its changes must contain. Check with your state’s contractor licensing board or an attorney.