How to Find a Good Builder in Darien, CT

I’ve been building houses in Darien and the towns around it since 1996. In that time I’ve watched a lot of people pick a builder the wrong way: they go with the lowest number, or the nicest truck, or the guy their brother-in-law met at a party. Some of those jobs turned out fine. Plenty didn’t, and a few of them ended up as phone calls to me to come fix what someone else left behind.

So here’s how I’d go about it if I were hiring a builder in Darien tomorrow. None of this is complicated. It takes a few phone calls and an afternoon.

Start with the state license lookup

Connecticut registers builders through the Department of Consumer Protection. A new home needs a New Home Construction Contractor registration. Additions, renovations, kitchens, baths and most other work on an existing house fall under the Home Improvement Contractor registration. Some of us carry both.

Look the contractor up at elicense.ct.gov before you do anything else. It takes two minutes and it tells you whether the registration is current and whether there are complaints on file. Registration also puts you under the state guaranty funds, which can pay a homeowner up to $30,000 on a new home job and up to $25,000 on home improvement work if a registered contractor fails to perform and a court agrees. An unregistered contractor leaves you with none of that.

My new home registration is NHC.0010679 if you want to practice on me.

Ask for the insurance certificate, from the agent

Every builder will tell you he’s insured. Ask for a certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers’ compensation, and ask that the insurance agent send it to you directly. A certificate the contractor emails himself can be a year old. One from the agent is current as of that day.

Workers’ comp is the one that matters most. If a guy gets hurt on your property and the contractor doesn’t carry comp, you are the one standing there with a problem. Ask the same question about the subs who will be on the job.

Find out who will actually be on your job

This is the question most people skip. The person who sold you the job and the person running it day to day are often two different people. Ask straight out: who is on site every day, and how many other jobs is he running at the same time?

I’m on my jobs. I started as a carpenter and never stopped being one, and I don’t hand a house off to a project manager. That’s not the only way to run a company, but you should know which way your builder runs his before you sign.

Ask how long the subs have been with him

A custom house around here is really twenty-some companies working in sequence: excavator, foundation, framer, plumber, electrician, HVAC, roofer, insulator, drywall, trim, tile, floors, painters. The builder’s job is to line them up and hold every one of them to a standard.

Ask who the electrician is. Ask who does the trim. Then ask how long each of them has worked with the builder. Most of my subs have been with me ten, fifteen, twenty years. When the same crews show up house after house, the work is consistent and the schedule holds. When a builder is shopping subs job by job, you get whoever was cheapest that month.

Go see a job in progress, not just the finished photos

Anybody can show you pictures of a finished kitchen. Ask to walk a job that’s mid-construction. You’ll learn more in twenty minutes than any website will tell you. Are the finished floors covered? Is the site cleaned up at the end of the day? Are the window openings flashed right? Is the dumpster overflowing into the neighbor’s yard?

While you’re there, talk to the neighbor. In Darien the lots are close and the neighbors have opinions. If the neighbor tells you the crew is polite and gone by five, that tells you something.

Call past clients, and ask the right question

Ask for the last five or six clients, not the two happiest ones. Then call them and don’t ask whether they liked the builder. Ask what went wrong and how it was handled. Every job has something go wrong. A delivery shows up damaged, the inspector wants a change, the weather sits on the foundation pour for two weeks. What you want to know is whether the builder picked up the phone, told the truth and fixed it.

Read the proposal like it’s the contract, because it is

A proposal should spell out what’s included, what isn’t, and what the allowances are. An allowance is the dollar amount set aside for the things you haven’t picked yet: cabinets, tile, lighting, plumbing fixtures, appliances. This is where lowball bids live. A builder can make his number look $50,000 better than mine by carrying $30,000 for cabinets when a kitchen like yours runs $65,000, then doing the same with the tile and the lighting, and you don’t find out until you’re standing in the showroom.

Compare the allowances line by line before you compare the totals. And the payment schedule should follow the work: a deposit, then payments as the foundation goes in, the house is framed, the roof is on, and so on. Nobody should be asking you for half the job up front.

In Connecticut a home improvement contract is required by law to be in writing, to show the contractor’s registration number, to list the start and completion dates, and to include your three-day right to cancel. If the contract you’re handed is missing those, that’s your answer about the contractor.

Understand fixed price versus cost plus

Most of my jobs are a fixed price with allowances. Some clients prefer cost plus, where you pay the actual cost of labor and materials plus a set percentage and you see every invoice. Both are legitimate. Fixed price gives you certainty. Cost plus gives you transparency and room to change your mind, which suits people who know they’ll be making a lot of decisions along the way. Be wary of a builder who can’t explain the difference, or who does either one on a handshake.

Know what’s different about building in Darien

A few things are specific to here. Most of the new houses in town are teardown rebuilds on existing lots, and the zoning rules on coverage, floor area and height decide what you can build before anyone draws a line. If the property is anywhere near the water, expect a coastal site plan review with Planning and Zoning and FEMA flood rules on top of the regular building permit. That affects the foundation, the height of the first floor and the cost. Your builder should know all of this cold and should have been through it in town before. Ask when he last pulled a permit in Darien and how it went.

Count on a teardown rebuild taking a year to a year and a half of construction after the permit is issued. A builder who promises you a new house in eight months is either going to miss or going to cut something.

The red flags

Wants a big cash payment up front. Suggests skipping the permit to save you money. Can’t produce the insurance certificate. Won’t give you client names. Pressures you to sign this week because prices are going up. Any one of those and I’d keep looking.

That’s the list. Registration, insurance, who’s on site, the subs, a job walk, a few phone calls, and a careful read of the proposal. It’s an afternoon of work, and it’s the difference between a house you’re proud of and a story you tell at parties.

If you’re thinking about a project in Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Stamford or anywhere in Fairfield County, call me at (203) 655-1118 or use the contact form. I’m glad to look at plans, walk your property and give you a straight answer on what it will take.