Hiring a general contractor is one of the most consequential decisions an owner makes on a project. The contract comes later. The relationship starts the moment you sit down across the table and start asking questions. What you learn in that conversation, and just as importantly how the contractor responds, tells you more than any proposal document will.

Here are the questions worth asking before you sign anything:

1. Who will actually be running my project?

The person presenting to you in the interview is often not the person who will be on your job every day. Ask specifically who the project manager and superintendent will be, and ask to meet them. A GC’s reputation is built on the people at the top, but your experience will be determined by the people in the field. If they can’t tell you who those people are, that’s worth noting.

2. How do you handle subcontractor selection?

A general contractor is only as good as the subs they put on your job. Ask whether they competitively bid subcontractor scopes or work primarily with a preferred list. Ask how long they’ve worked with their key trades and whether those relationships hold when schedules get tight. A GC who has been working with the same framing and mechanical contractors for years has something a low bidder with unfamiliar subs doesn’t: accountability built on history.

3. How do you communicate with owners during construction?

There is no universally right answer here, but there is a wrong one: vague. If a GC can’t describe specifically how they share schedule updates, RFI status, budget tracking, and site progress, that’s a preview of what the job will feel like. Ask what PM platform they use, how often they send updates, and who your primary point of contact will be when something comes up.  A good GC schedules, and leads, weekly progress calls during construction.

4. How do you manage change orders?

Change orders are part of projects. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either inexperienced or not being straight with you. The question isn’t whether they’ll happen, it’s how the GC handles them when they do. Ask to see their change order process. Ask how quickly they price and issue them. Ask whether they’ll flag a potential cost impact before the work happens or after. A GC who surfaces issues early, prices them transparently, and gives you time to make decisions is a very different partner than one who hands you a change order after the fact.  You should NEVER be surprised by a change order!

5. What does your safety program look like?

Safety performance is a direct indicator of how a contractor manages their job site overall. A GC who takes safety seriously tends to run a tighter operation across the board. Ask about their experience modification rate, their OSHA recordable incident rate, and how they enforce safety standards with subcontractors. If they can’t answer those questions specifically, that tells you something.

6. Can you show me projects similar to mine, and can I talk to those owners?

Relevant experience matters, but references matter more. Ask for owners, not just project names. A contractor who has done good work will have clients who are willing to say so. When you talk to those references, ask them what surprised them about working with the GC, not just whether they were happy with the outcome. The honest answers usually come out in that question.

7. What are the biggest risks on a project like mine, and how do you plan to manage them?

This is the question that separates contractors who have thought carefully about your project from those who are giving you a standard pitch. A good GC should be able to tell you specifically where the schedule, budget, or coordination risks live on your type of project and what they do to get ahead of them. If the answer is generic, the thinking probably is too.