What is a change order?

A change order is a written change to a construction contract, agreed by the contractor and the client before the changed work is done. It says what changes, what it costs, and how it moves the dates.

A general contractor asked other contractors whether losing money on verbal changes was just part of the business. He put his own loss at three to five thousand dollars a year, from small extras agreed on the spot and never written down. A change order is the fix for exactly that, and it protects the client as much as the contractor: nobody pays for work they didn’t agree to, and nobody does work they won’t be paid for.

What a change order covers

• What changes. The work added, removed or done differently, specific enough that someone else could price it.
• The price. What it adds to the contract, or takes off it. If it costs nothing, it says so.
• The time. The working days it adds and the new finish date.
• Who agreed, and when. Both sides, before the work starts.

It also ties back to the contract: which contract, which change this is (change 3, say), and the new contract total once it’s added. You can fill all of that in on our free change order form.

Why every job needs them

Remodeling changes as it goes. You open the floor and the subfloor is rotten. The client sees the tile in place and wants the niche moved. The inspector wants another outlet. Nobody did anything wrong, but each one changes the deal: what gets built, the price, the finish date.

When a change is agreed only out loud, each side remembers a different job. You remember “yes, go ahead.” Your client remembers asking how much it would be. The gap shows up on the final bill, the worst time to find it, when the money left to pay is the only thing either of you can argue with.

When to write one

Before the work. Signed after the work is done, a change order is a bill the client never agreed to, and it’s the one they push back on. The usual reasons for one:

• the client asks for something that isn’t in the plans or the contract
• you find something nobody could see before: rot, old wiring, a joist cut by the last remodel
• a material isn’t available and the substitute costs more or less
• an allowance runs over: the client picks a $9 tile against a $5 a square foot allowance
• the inspector or the code requires more than the plans showed

Small changes count. Plenty of contractors lose more to ten $300 changes nobody wrote down than to one big one.

Change orders and allowances

An allowance is an amount the contract sets aside for something the client chooses later, like tile, fixtures or lighting. If the client’s pick costs more than the allowance, the difference is a change to the price, and it should be agreed like any other change, before you order. That way the overage is a number they said yes to, not a surprise on the final invoice.

How to ask without it being awkward

The awkward part is the conversation, not the paper. It gets easier when:

• Every change gets one. When it’s routine, nobody reads it as distrust.
• The client sees the new total. “$640 more, the job is now $38,240” is honest in a way “just a small extra” isn’t.
• The work waits for the yes, and the client knows that from the first meeting.
• Saying yes is easy. A form to print, sign and scan at 7 a.m. in a driveway is how changes get skipped.

The best place to set this up is the contract itself: say how changes get agreed before the first one comes up. Our remodeling contract checklist lists what to cover.

If the client won’t agree

Then the change isn’t agreed, and the safest thing is not to do that work until it is. Talk through what’s behind the no: often it’s the price, sometimes it’s doubt the change is needed. Photos of what you found help. If the change is something the job can’t go on without, like a code requirement, what happens next depends on your contract and your state; that’s a question for an attorney.

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.