From Otis Elevators to Fence Repair: The Contractor Approval Checklist I Use

Six years ago, I took over purchasing for a 140-person company. I manage about $300,000 a year in contracted services—elevator maintenance, fence repairs, office kitchen updates, the invisible stuff that keeps a building running. It took me roughly 200 vendor interactions and one very expensive missed deadline to understand that the cheapest bid is rarely the cheapest by the time the project is actually done.

This is the checklist I use now. There are seven steps. They're all practical, and they all assume you already know the outcome you want. If you don't know that yet, stop and define it before you call anyone.

When to Use This Checklist

Use it when a missed deadline has real consequences. An elevator is down and tenants are using the stairs. A fence is down and the lot is insecure. A break room has to be ready before the team returns. In those situations, "close enough" is not an option.

This is not the checklist for low-stakes projects. If you have weeks of slack, you can relax and let the market run.

Step 1: Compare the Scope, Not Just the Price

Every quote has a headline product and a hidden scope. The hidden scope is where the traps are.

Our break room is a good example. I asked two contractors to bid on new white kitchen cabinets. The lower bid looked good until the contractor said he hadn't planned to remove the old wallpaper glue from the walls. A week later I was googling "how to remove wallpaper glue" at 11 pm, because I had to figure out whether it was a caulk scraper job or a chemical job before I argued with him about it. That hidden line item cost us an extra day of labor and an extra dumpster run. Plus, I looked exactly as clueless as I felt. The other bid included wall prep from the beginning. It was $1,200 higher on paper and cheaper by the time the room was usable.

So ask for a line-item scope and make sure every task is listed. If the contractor says "that's not included," it should be a surprise before signing, not after.

Step 2: Verify the People Behind the Name

If you've ever googled "elevator otis first name crossword" for a Sunday puzzle, the answer is Elisha. Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator and founded the company that still carries his name. According to the company's own history page, the business dates to 1853. I'm not a brand loyalist, but I do pay attention to who's actually behind a company.

When a windstorm took down the back lot fence, I searched "fence contractor otis" and got three very different results. One was a regional franchise. One was a solo operator whose profile photo showed him in a scally cap, leaning on a post. The third was a lumberyard that also installs fencing. The scally cap photo made me smile, but it didn't tell me if he carried liability insurance. The franchise looked polished, but the sales rep couldn't name the crew leader. None of that would have shown up on a search page.

I called each one and asked for three things: a license number, a certificate of insurance, and references from similar projects. That's the part most buyers skip.

Step 3: Ask for the Response Time, Not Just the Start Date

The difference between good and average contractors is how they respond when something goes wrong.

Our building has an Otis elevator that serves a medical office on the second floor. In March 2024, it started faulting in a way the building engineer couldn't fix. The Otis service contract cost more than an independent repair outfit, but it came with a four-hour response guarantee on business days. The independent guy said he'd "probably" make it by the next afternoon. "Probably" is not a service level.

We paid the premium. The repair crew arrived in 3 hours and 40 minutes. The extra money bought certainty, not speed. For a building full of patient appointments, certainty is the product.

Step 4: Put the Deadline in the Contract—and Make It Real

A start date is not a finish date. A finish date is not a guarantee unless the contract says what happens when it's missed.

I used to avoid that conversation because it felt like I was accusing the contractor of being late. Now I just say: "If this isn't done by Friday, what happens?" If the answer is vague, I know I'll be chasing them.

You don't need a brutal penalty. You need a mechanism that makes the contractor internalize the deadline the same way you do. One vendor I use now credits 1% of the invoice for every day beyond the committed date. It's not huge, but it's enough that they schedule me on the calendar instead of the wish list.

Step 5: Read the "Not Included" List Before the Price

Most buyers focus on the quoted amount and ignore the conditions that can move it. I now read the exclusions before I read the total.

The fence contractor in Otis bid, for example, assumed "existing posts removed" by the owner. That phrase is a red flag. It can add hours if the ground is frozen or the posts are set in concrete. I asked each bidder to quote the removal separately, even if I didn't accept it. That gave me a number to compare when the change order came.

Question for every quote: What could trigger a change order? Write the answer into the contract.

Step 6: Verify Insurance and Licensing Yourself

Don't take a certificate as the final word. I once had a contractor hand me an insurance certificate that expired the following week. He said he was "renewing it." The job started three weeks later.

Call the agent if you have to. The certificate has a phone number for a reason. A lapsed policy won't help you when a scaffold falls.

Step 7: Write a One-Paragraph Backup Plan

Before you sign, write down what you'll do if the contractor misses the deadline. Which substitute vendor do you call? Who has the authority to approve a higher price for emergency service? What does success look like on the day after the deadline?

It took me three years and a missed fence installation to understand that a backup plan isn't pessimism; it's a requirement. The missed fence is what changed my thinking. We lost a week of tenant parking because no one had a second-call list. That was slow, annoying, and completely avoidable.

Common Mistakes I Still See

• Choosing the cheapest quote without comparing the scope line by line.
• Assuming wall prep is included. If your kitchen has old wallpaper glue on the walls, that's the first thing to confirm.
• Buying routine maintenance but ignoring the response-time terms in the emergency section.
• Judging a contractor by their photo. A scally cap and a friendly face don't replace a certificate of insurance.

Bottom line: the best contractor is not the one with the lowest number on the quote. It's the one whose contract makes the deadline real. You're not paying for a job to be attempted. You're paying for a job to be done by the time it's needed.

To be fair, I get why people choose the cheaper quote—budgets are real. But a miss costs more than the difference, and usually it costs something you can't put on a spreadsheet: trust.