5 questions to ask before hiring a GC in New York

Choosing a general contractor is one of the most consequential decisions in any project, and it is usually made on a very small amount of information: a price, a conversation, and a recommendation from someone whose project was nothing like yours.

These five questions cut straight to what matters. Every one of them has a good answer and a revealing one.

This is non-negotiable in New York, and the right response is a document rather than a reassurance. Ask for the licence, the general liability certificate and proof of workers' compensation, and check that the certificates are current and name the right parties.

The reason is blunt: if an uninsured worker is injured on your property, that exposure can land on you. In a co-op or condo the building will demand the same evidence anyway, usually to a stricter standard than you would think to ask for.

You want a named supervisor who is physically on site while the crew is working — not a project manager who visits twice a week between four other jobs. Consistent supervision is what keeps quality and safety on track, and it is what makes the difference between problems being caught and problems being discovered.

Follow it with the practical version: how many other projects is that person running right now, and who do I call when they are not there?

A contractor who files and manages DOB approvals in-house saves you from coordinating separate expediters and architects, and from being the person in the middle when an objection needs answering.

If permitting is being handed to a third party, that is not automatically wrong — but ask who answers the objections and how quickly, because that is where the schedule is won or lost.

Vague estimates invite surprise change orders, because there is nothing to compare a change against. Insist on a transparent, line-by-line budget you can hold them to — and read the exclusions as carefully as the inclusions.

Watch particularly for allowances. An allowance is a placeholder for something not yet chosen, and an unrealistically low one makes a bid look competitive while guaranteeing an increase later.

A contractor confident in their work will stand behind it in writing: how long, what is covered, and how a claim is made. Manufactured goods carry their own manufacturer warranties, and those should be handed over with the manuals at completion.

If there is hesitation on this question, you already have your answer. It is the cheapest promise in the whole conversation and the one that costs the most to honour.

Good answers are easy to give. The useful step is verifying a couple of them, and it takes less time than most people assume.

Licences and insurance can be confirmed directly rather than taken on trust. References are worth calling rather than reading, and the question that gets a real answer is not 'were you happy' — it is 'what went wrong, and how did they handle it'. Every project has something.

If you can, visit an active site. Fifteen minutes tells you more about how a firm actually operates than an hour in a meeting: whether it is tidy, whether the crew knows who is in charge, whether protection is genuinely in place, and whether anyone working at height is tied off.

Ask to speak to a client whose project went wrong. Every contractor has one, and a firm that will hand you that number — and let you ask how they handled it — is telling you something no reference from a perfect job ever will.