Contract Pitfalls

          When buying a sunroom, trust your instincts. Be sure you know who you are dealing with. Stability is important, especially when warranty issues begin to surface. Obviously how long has the company been in business, how long the current owners have owned the company, do they have offices and a showroom, do they own or rent, and how long have they operated from that location-all are legitimate and critical questions. Obviously a company that owns its own showroom and warehouse facilities and has had the same local ownership for a number of years would seem to offer more stability rather than one that is renting its facilities and frequently changing ownership.

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           Contracts seldom receive the attention they deserve. Too often both the client and the contractor opt for a shorter, simpler contract, trusting that all will be well and that any new business-client friendship that may have developed during the design and selling phase will endure throughout the construction process.

           When dealing with sunroom builders, ask for written proposals. Even better, develop a written list of what items you want covered in those proposals. This will also help to ensure that quotes from various suppliers are comparable. Although not an exhaustive list, some examples of items you may wish to see included in such a proposal and in a final contract are as follows:

Payments

           A seller asking for a large down payment should be cause for concern. There should be no need for you to finance your contractor’s business by paying large deposits for work not yet completed. However, by the same token, do not hesitate to pay for work and materials that have already been delivered. If the contractor is seeking a large down payment, as well as advance payment for work not yet completed, you may want to dig a little deeper into the company’s background and financial stability. Be clear as to when the final payment is due. Four Seasons Sunrooms (Ottawa) requests down payments of only 10%, staged payments throughout the project (usually three), and a small final payment once the project is either ready for use or is being used for the purpose intended.

Warranty

           Sunrooms contain a lot of glass. A moderate size glass roof sunroom will often contain up to three times as much glass as exists in the rest of an average two story home. And unlike the glass used throughout your house, premium sunrooms are built with expensive high performance glass. The last thing you want to have to do is to have to start replacing sunroom glass a few years after installation due to seal failure.

           Four Seasons sunrooms carry two warranties-one for product and one for labour. Four Seasons Sunrooms (Corporate), provides a transferable limited lifetime glass warranty, including 20 years of full coverage against seal failure or breakage on ConservaGlass Select. Four Seasons Sunrooms (Ottawa) provides a two year warranty on installation labour, including leakage, but excluding the installation of replacement glass due to breakage at anytime, or to glass replacement due to seal failure beyond the first year.

           A word of caution. Many companies offer long term glass warranties-40 years is not uncommon. It is also not uncommon that some of those companies offering long warranties will stay in business for only a short period, and may no longer be in operation, even after a few years, when you need a replacement window. A second problem is that many of these long-term warranties are limited and prorated and of very little monetary value by the time trouble hits.

Cancellation of the Contract

          Be sure your contract can be cancelled within a reasonable period of time after signing. While it seems innocuous, this can be a double-edged sword. Long cancellation periods seem reasonable but it is unlikely the contracting company will start work on your project while the cancellation clause is still in effect. In other words, having a twenty day cancellation period may seem like a good idea, but only if you are prepared to wait twenty business days before initial activity such as work on plans and engineering can begin. The contract should also be very clear on what initial start-up costs must be born by the client if a building permit is not approved. Four Seasons Sunrooms (Ottawa) contracts, for example, specify that should this occur, the cost for preliminary work such as plans must be born by the client.

Change Orders

          Once work starts it is not uncommon for the homeowner to request minor changes to the original contract. Examples would be upgrading the siding, adding a deck, selecting different moulding, or deciding to add or subtract flooring. One way to avoid later disputes is to ensure that every change is covered by a “Change Order” which sets out exactly what is being added or subtracted, what is the additional cost, and when payment is due for the additional work.

Start and Stop Dates

          Start and stop dates are a particularly tricky issue. Clients are generally apprehensive when it comes to dealing with general contractors and will often request that project “start” and “completion” dates be included within the contract with financial penalties if these dates are not met. On the surface, this would seem to be a reasonable request. In fact, Mike Holmes, the Ottawa-Carleton Renovation Council, and many construction consultants and organizations all advises that homeowners signing a contract with a building contractor ensure that their contract includes start and completion dates.

          Four Seasons Sunrooms (Ottawa) does not agree with or follow this approach. Our policy in this area is to place each project on our “Project Scheduling Board” once we have signed a contract and the building permit has been secured. Each project is then started in sequence and in the order in which it was placed on the Scheduling Board. The difficulty with providing fixed start and completion dates is simply that there are too many variables that affect that start date. Permits that would normally take only two or three weeks to secure in most jurisdictions, in Ottawa, can take four months, or even longer. If issues surface, this process can take even longer. Once the project starts, damaged or missing parts can also be a problem. If a contractor is building a conventional shingled roof addition, and is missing some 2 x 6′s or a sheet of plywood, it is usually only a short trip to the lumber yard. Missing glass roof sunroom parts, since they come from the main factory in New York, can take up to a week or longer.

          In eastern Ontario and western Quebec, our weather is very much an unknown quantity. Very cold or hot weather, or an unusually wet summer, can play havoc with our work schedule. Installers simply cannot make any significant progress when the winter temperature is in the low minus 20′s or below, or in summer heat waves when the temperature climbs over 30 or 32 degrees. Periods of extended heavy rain can also cause delay. Late springs following a very cold winter where the frost is still deep may interfere with a our ability to put foundations in the ground and can hold up construction by one or more weeks.

          Because of the above and other factors beyond our control, and faced with a contract start and completion date we cannot meet, we would have but two options: 1) pull our installers from another project, or 2) hire more installers. Neither is workable. One of our core commitments to our clients is that once we start a project and barring issues such as weather, or other factors noted above, we do not leave a job until it is complete. We especially will not stop work on an existing project to have our installers start work on a second project.

          The second option-to hire additional builders when falling behind-would seem to be the obvious solution, at least on the surface. However, glass roof sunroom construction is complex work and requires meticulous, well-trained, skilled employees. In busy periods, unlike most general contractors specializing in conventional construction, we simply do not have the luxury of being able to hire additional glass roof sunroom installers/glaziers from an existing labour pool-they simply do not exist. To the best of our knowledge, the only installers that are available in eastern Ontario and western are those already working in the industry.

          At Four Seasons Sunrooms (Ottawa) we simply will not put ourselves in a position where we have to use other than experienced trained installers to meet a contract commitment. To do otherwise would produce a result where neither we nor the client being happy with the outcome-even though we would have met our contractual timeline commitments. Instead, our approach is to inform new clients as to their position on the Scheduling Board, and to provide our best indication as to when we expect to arrive on site and to finish the project. We strongly suggest prospective clients check our record in this area with the Better Business Bureau. We also recommend that clients wanting to have a sunroom that is occupancy-ready by a certain date contact us as early as possible in order to ensure that their project will be completed by their target date. Of course, we at Four Seasons Sunrooms (Ottawa) will do everything in our power to meet that target.