Two Papers Between You and a Sub Crew

The problem in one breath

You've run twenty jobs with a sub crew on "the usual." Then one goes sideways. The scope wasn't what he thought, the dumpster wasn't his, he wanted paying on a day nobody agreed to, and the homeowner is holding you to a warranty he never signed up for. Neither of you is lying. Nothing was ever written down.

Why it happens

The first job with him was a phone call and a favor, and it went clean. So did the next nineteen. Asking a man who always shows up to sign something felt like calling him a liar. Then the bad job lands and there's nothing to point at. You both remember the deal, differently.

The play

Two papers, doing two different jobs. The master sub agreement is signed once and covers the relationship. The job ticket is one page and covers this roof. Shops that fight with their sub crews usually have one of the two, not both.

1. Sign the master agreement once, owner to owner. Legal company name, address, and whatever license your state makes him carry. What he's responsible for. What his workmanship warranty covers and for how long. The pay day, and the cut-off that puts him on it (Module 12, Play 5). What a subcontract must contain, whether a warranty or lien clause holds, and what license your state wants all vary — those answers come from your own state and your own attorney or accountant, not this page.

2. Put the fix-it terms in before you need them. When his work has to be redone he gets first call back, inside a set number of days, and you write down what it costs him if your crew fixes it instead. Do that on a calm afternoon, not in a driveway (Module 12, Play 4).

3. Write a job ticket for every roof. Address. Squares. Layers off. Deck condition and what a deck repair pays. The spec by name — underlayment, ice-and-water, ridge, nails. The number, and what each layer past the first one costs. Dates. Who inspects it and when (Module 12, Play 3).

4. Split the supply list line by line. Dump, staging, tarps, port-a-john, the magnet sweep, who eats a weather day. Every line is a bill somebody pays.

5. Nothing extra gets done unpriced. Your change order (Module 6, Play 17) has a mirror on the sub side. He finds rot, he stops and calls, you price it, and it lands on the ticket before he touches it. Verbal extras are where good crews and good shops start hating each other.

6. Hand him the standard, not the method. Your how-we-do-it page (Module 3, Play 8) is a method sheet for your own men, so it never goes to his crew. Rewrite it as the roof you're buying: "step flashing woven in course by course, counterflashing cut into the mortar joint, no exposed fasteners." Describe the roof, not how his men hold a nail gun.

His certificates come before all of it, as their own gate — the paperwork gate (Module 11, Play 5). Point at it; don't rewrite it.

Do this this week

Pick the sub crew you use most. Sit with his owner for twenty minutes and put "the usual" on one page: scope, the number, pay day, warranty, who fixes what. Both of you sign it. You'll turn up two things each of you assumed the other one was covering.

The tool

The card below is the list the two of you go through together, out loud, one line at a time. The top half is the paper you sign once; the bottom half rides with every job. Print two copies, sit across a desk from his owner, and don't skip a line because you both think you know the answer — skipped lines are the ones that blow up later. Anything neither of you can answer, settle before anybody signs. Keep the signed master in his file with his certificates, and staple each job ticket to your copy of the work order. Redo the master when your terms change, not every job.

THE SUB AGREEMENT CHECKLIST — what goes on paper before a crew rolls

Sub company: _____________________________  Date: _______________
Sat down with: ___________________________  (his owner, not a lead)

PAPER 1 — SIGNED ONCE (the relationship)
  [ ] Legal company name and address, and his W-9 on file
      (EIN, or SSN if he's a one-man shop)
  [ ] License number where your state requires one: ______________
  [ ] What he is responsible for, written in plain words
  [ ] Workmanship warranty: ______ years, and who takes the
      homeowner's call when it leaks
  [ ] Redo work: he gets the first call back, within ______ days
  [ ] What it costs him if our crew fixes it instead
  [ ] Pay day: every ______   Invoice cut-off: ______
      (miss the cut-off, you're on the next pay day)
  [ ] Nothing extra gets done without a price in writing first
  [ ] Lien waiver traded for payment? [ ] yes [ ] no  (your state
      decides the form — ask yours)
  [ ] Insurance certificates on file and current (the gate)
  [ ] Signed, both owners      Copy handed to him: [ ]

PAPER 2 — EVERY JOB (this roof)
  [ ] Address: _________________________________________________
  [ ] Scope: ______ squares, ______ layers off
  [ ] Deck: __________________  Repair pays: $______ per sheet
  [ ] Spec by name: underlayment, ice-and-water, ridge, nails
  [ ] The number: $__________   [ ] per square   [ ] lump sum
  [ ] Per layer: $______ first layer, $______ each one after
  [ ] Start: ________  Finish: ________  Weather days: ________
  [ ] Who inspects and when: ___________________________________
  [ ] Last payment waits on the last checkpoint passing
  [ ] Photos he owes us at each checkpoint — invoice not payable
      without them
  [ ] He supplies: _____________________________________________
  [ ] We supply: _______________________________________________
  [ ] Dump, staging, port-a-john, magnet sweep — whose? ________
  [ ] Priced and signed by his company before the first bundle
      goes up (a lead may sign only that he received it)

If your crew is 1099

This whole play is the 1099 case, so get the line right. Paper that fixes the result, the price, the dates and the standard is the same paper you'd sign with a gutter company — one business buying from another. Paper that reaches past his company and starts running his individual men is the other thing entirely; Module 12 Play 1 spells out what that looks like (Module 12, Play 1). Which side of the line a given setup lands on is decided by federal and state rules and by how the work actually gets run, so put your paper to your own accountant or attorney before the season. Buy the roof, name the standard, set the site rules everybody follows — then let him run his crew.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.