Dexter Architect

So, usually, not too far into a project, I get this question. This comes from both categories of clients, each with very different perspectives: a private owner who’s never managed a construction project, or someone new to administering a public entity (a school district, college, or local government) who has never gone through a formal bid process or hasn’t for a long time.

The question is really: We have a design. Now what? And often, the client’s only frame of reference is building a house once or perhaps being involved with a church building committee years ago. That’s not the same as knowing how to find, vet, and hire a qualified contractor for the project in front of them. So yes, I can help. But how I help depends a lot on whose money is being spent.

Public Projects: The Rules Are Already Written

If it’s public money a school the process itself isn’t really up for debate. Mississippi law, what I deal with most, lays out how long you must advertise the project, what has to be in the construction documents and specifications, and the requirements around bonding and insurance. We’ve been taking public bids since the beginning of our practice, so this part is straightforward. My job is to guide the owner through a defined process, not to hand-pick who they work with.

One wrinkle worth knowing: Mississippi’s standard is technically “lowest and best” bid, but in practice, it is almost always the lowest responsive bid. You don’t get to choose your contractor the way you might on a private job. What I can do is make sure that whoever is low is actually licensed, bonded, insured, and capable of carrying the project through and then work with that contractor to move it through construction.

I won’t spend much more time on the public side here. The rules are set by law, they’re fairly consistent from project to project, and once you know them, they don’t leave a lot of room for interpretation. Private projects are a different story, there’s more flexibility in how you approach them, which means more decisions to make, and a few issues of their own worth understanding. That’s where the rest of this post will focus.

Private Projects: Borrowing the Discipline of Public Bidding

On private work, there’s no legal requirement to bid anything to multiple contractors. But unless an owner already has a contractor they trust and have a real track record with, I usually recommend we bid it out anyway; among a handful of contractors we know can handle the scale of the project.

Here’s what that looks like in practice with say, four experienced general contractors:

• The owner (with my input) select four contractors with a track record on similar work
• All four contractors receive a complete set of construction drawings and specifications
• We hold a pre-construction conference so contractors can ask questions about the project
• We issue addenda to highlight clarifications and changes in the project just like we would on a public job
• We hold a bid opening open to the contractors, so every contractor sees where they land

Why go through all that trouble when it’s not required? Two reasons. First, the contractors we invite are usually already familiar with this process from public work, so it runs smoothly. Second, structure protects everyone. The owner knows the process was fair, and the contractors know the rules going in.

If the low bid comes in above budget, there’s room to negotiate directly with that contractor. If negotiations don’t work, the owner can move to the next lowest bidder. It’s a much better position to be in than having only one number and no leverage.

On private jobs, this control can go a layer deeper, too. If an owner has had a good working relationship with a particular subcontractor let’s say, an HVAC company they’ve used before and trust; they can instruct the bidding general contractors to get their pricing from that company specifically, rather than shopping the scope out to whoever the GC normally uses. It’s a way for a private owner to carry a trusted relationship forward into a new project without giving up the benefits of competitive bidding on the job as a whole.

A Case Study: When “Too Close” Becomes a Problem

One situation I’ve seen play out more than once, particularly with groups of people such as churches: a project like a new fellowship hall or family life center is designed and someone in the congregation happens to be a general contractor. They’re often fully qualified to build it. But because they’re part of the church, they feel an obligation that an outside contractor wouldn’t carry.  So, they price the job too low, out of genuine goodwill to help people they genuinely have a tie to.

The trouble surfaces later, when that price can’t actually cover what’s specified in the construction documents. Now the contractor is stuck between running their business responsibly and maintaining relationships with people they’ll see every Sunday, before, during, and after the project. It rarely ends well for anyone, even though it started with the best of intentions.

The lesson isn’t “never hire someone connected to the project.” It’s that closeness to a project can create pressure that works against a fair price and a clean process.  Sometimes a contractor can be too close to the project.

A Word on Donated Work

Donated labor comes up more than you’d think, especially on church and school projects. A group offers to donate the dirt work or dozer work. A booster club wants to frame out part of a building. It’s generous, and it’s usually offered with good intentions but it deserves some caution because the work/personal line gets blurred.

The core issue is that donated work sits outside a contract. When you pay a contractor, you have a defined scope, a defined standard, and legal recourse if the work doesn’t meet it. When work is donated, none of that exists. There’s often no clear way to verify whether the person or group doing the work is actually qualified for that particular scope. If something goes wrong later for example a foundation issue traced back to the fill work or a framing problem down the road the building owner is left without a contract to point to, because nothing was paid for or formally agreed to in the first place.

That doesn’t mean you should never accept donated work. It means the same scrutiny you’d apply to a paid contractor (qualifications, insurance, a clear understanding of the scope) still needs to apply, even when no money is changing hands. If anything, it’s worth being more careful, not less, since there’s no contract acting as a backstop if something goes wrong.

My Take

After working with dozens and dozens of contractors across hundreds of projects, here’s what I’ve learned: every contractor is good at some things and weaker at others. Some are excellent at concrete and framing but slow on billing and warranty follow-up. Some are great communicators but struggle to hit deadlines. A good contractor balances these out, and often a good architect knows which contractor is well-suited to which type of project.

My advice: unless you already have a strong, proven relationship with a specific contractor, lean on our experience. We may have seen the patterns you haven’t. On private jobs, that means helping you assemble the right group of bidders. On public jobs, it means making sure the process is followed correctly and stepping in to support the contractor wherever their weaknesses show up. Either way, the goal is the same: getting your project built well and as close to your budget and timeframe as possible.