The drywall comes off and the job changes. The stack is cast iron, not ABS. The panel has a double tap on a breaker not rated for it. The subfloor under the toilet flange is soft all the way to the joist.
You knew the moment you saw it that this is more work than the quote. What you do in the next five minutes decides where the money goes. Write it up and you get paid for it. Keep working and talk about it later, and you are negotiating after the fact against a customer who has already decided what this job costs.
Why “just take care of it” is not approval
Verbal approval is not worthless. It is just the weakest thing you can build a bill on.
Two honest people remember the same conversation differently. You heard yes to the work and the price. The customer heard that you would sort out a problem, and never attached a number to it.
Then there is who said yes. The person watching you work is often not the person paying. A tenant, an adult child, one spouse, a site super, an office manager with no spend authority. None of them binds the person who opens the invoice.
Without a written price, the customer sets one in their own head, and it is always lower than yours. You find out what it was on the day you ask for money. Written approval is not about trust. It is about both of you seeing the same number before the work instead of after.
Stop and price it
One habit, three steps, every time.
- Stop work on that part. Carry on with whatever is already approved, and leave the surprise as you found it.
- Photograph it before you touch anything. One wide shot showing where it is, one close shot showing the problem, something in frame for scale.
- Price it and get it approved before you start. Written, with a number, from the person who pays.
It takes five minutes on the tailgate. That is cheaper than the hour you spend arguing at the end of the job, and far cheaper than eating the work.
What a change order has to say
A change order is a small agreement stapled onto the original one. Five things belong on it, and three are exactly what California law requires a change order to identify in writing: the scope, the amount added or subtracted, and the effect on the progress payments or the completion date, per Business and Professions Code section 7159.
- What changed and why, in plain words. “The drain line behind the vanity wall is cast iron and cracked at the hub.”
- The work being added or removed, and what the customer will see when it is done.
- The price, added or subtracted, and where it comes from. Parts and hours, not one round number out of nowhere.
- What it does to the schedule and the payments. Half a day more, a visit next Tuesday, a completion date that moves.
- Approval, dated, before the work starts. From the person who can approve money.
Same layout every time, so nobody on your crew has to invent one on a driveway.
CHANGE ORDER 2 Job 1188, 14 Oak Ridge Road
Original quote 4210, approved Sep 8 September 25, 2026
WHAT CHANGED
Opened the vanity wall to run the new trap arm. The existing
drain line is cast iron and cracked at the hub. Photos attached.
WORK ADDED
Cut out the cracked section, replace with 12 ft of ABS, new
fittings, reconnect to the stack, test and patch the wall opening.
PRICE
Materials $164.00
Labor, 3.0 hours at $145 $435.00
Change order total $599.00
Original quote $2,480.00
New contract total $3,079.00
SCHEDULE
Adds about half a day. Completion moves from Sep 26 to Sep 29.
Final payment moves with it.
APPROVAL
Approved by ______________________ Date ____________The numbers on the sheet are made up. What matters is that the scope, the money and the schedule sit on one page, and that a person signed it before any of the work happened.
What the rules look like where you work
Home improvement work is heavily regulated, and the rules on extra work differ everywhere. Three examples show the range.
California. Section 7159 says a change order for changes or extra work becomes part of the contract “only if it is in writing and signed by the parties prior to the commencement of any work covered by a change order.” Extra work is not enforceable against the buyer unless the order identifies the scope, the amount and the effect on payments or the completion date, in writing, before work starts. The contractors board says it plainly on its home improvement contract page: if the price or the scope changes, it takes a written change order signed by both sides first. Collecting has its own rule. Section 7159.5 says that apart from the down payment, a contractor shall not request or accept payment that exceeds the value of the work performed or material delivered. An approved change order is not a reason to ask for money before you do the work.
Ontario. The province’s guide for home renovation and roofing businesses says that when an estimate is part of the contract, you cannot charge more than 10 per cent above the estimated cost unless the customer asks for different work and has signed a change to the contract. Changes mid project must be put in writing, and both of you sign the changed contract.
Quebec. The consumer protection office tells homeowners a contractor cannot invoice more than was agreed, using the example of a roofer who finds rotten material under the shingles. Do that work without authorization and the charge can be disputed.
Your own state or province sets the rest, and commercial contracts run on whatever the contract itself says. Look up your rules before you print a form, and have a lawyer check your standard terms once.
Pricing extra work without it feeling like a punishment
The customer did not plan for this bill. How you price it decides whether they feel unlucky or cheated.
Use the rates you already quoted. If the quote was built on a labor rate, use that rate. If it was flat priced from your price book, price the extra work from the same book. Charging more per hour for the same work, on the same day, in the same house, is the fastest way to lose a customer who would have paid.
Show what it is made of. Parts and hours on separate lines. A single number invites an argument about the number. A list invites questions you can answer.
Charge for real cost differences, and name them. A rush part, a second trip, or overtime to close up a job you cannot leave open are all fair. Put the reason on the sheet so the customer sees a cost instead of a markup.
Give a choice when there is one. “Today it is $599 because the wall is open. If we close it up and come back, it is $780, because we open it again and the trip is not shared with this job.”
Have a threshold for small stuff. Pick a number for your shop, say twenty five dollars of parts and fifteen minutes. Under it, handle it and tell the customer you did not charge. Goodwill you never mention is goodwill you do not get.
Do not discount the original work to soften the change order. That teaches the customer the first price was padded, and next time they push on it.
What to say on site
Short and calm beats apologetic. You did not cause the problem, and you are the one who found it.
When you find it:
“Come look at this before I go further. The drain behind the wall is cast iron and it is cracked right here. That is not in the quote, because we could not see it until today. Replacing that section is $599 and about half a day. I will send it to your phone, and once you approve it I will keep going.”
When they say just do it and we will sort it out later:
“Happy to. I need the price on paper before I start, so nothing on the final bill is a surprise. It takes two minutes to send, and you can approve it from your phone while I get the parts out of the truck.”
When they say you should have seen it when you quoted:
“I quoted what I could see, and nobody can see behind a closed wall. Here is a photo of what is back there. If you would rather not do it now, I can close it up and we book it when you are ready. I just do not want to put a new fixture on a cracked line and have you call me in March.”
When the person standing there cannot approve it:
“No problem. Who handles the bills? I will send it to them now and keep working on the part you already approved while we wait.”
On commercial jobs, ask who approves extra work the day the job is booked, and take their name, phone and email then. Finding out at two in the afternoon that the super cannot authorize anything is how a crew loses a day.
Allowances: quote the unknowns instead of hoping
Some unknowns you can see coming. You know you will patch drywall, you just do not know how much. That is what an allowance is for: a stated amount in the original quote for work you can describe but not measure yet. Write it as its own line, say what it covers, and say what happens if the real number lands above or below.
“Allowance: drywall repair at the wall opening, up to 3 sheets, $600. If the repair comes in under, the difference is credited on the final invoice. Work beyond the allowance is priced as a change order and approved before it starts.”
If the patch costs $420, credit $180 on the invoice. If it runs to $900, write a change order for $300. The customer is not surprised either way, because the possibility was on the quote they approved. In Ontario, where the 10 per cent rule bites, an allowance in the contract is the difference between a change the customer agreed to and a bill they can push back on.
An allowance is not permission to skip the conversation. It sets the ceiling where the conversation starts.
Photos are the part people skip
The photo is what turns your word into a record.
- Before you open anything. It proves what the job looked like when you got there.
- When you find the problem. Wide, then close, with a tape or a hand in frame for scale.
- After the fix, before you close it up. Nobody can see the new line inside the wall in a month.
Send the photo with the change order, not later. A price on its own reads like a demand. The same price next to a photo of a cracked hub reads like an explanation. Keep the photos with the job, not buried in a phone gallery, because the argument that needs them arrives weeks later.
When the extra work is already done
It happens to everyone. Water was running, so your tech fixed it and kept going. Or the customer said go ahead and nobody wrote it down. Either way the work is in the wall and the money is not agreed.
Do not bury it in the invoice and hope. A line the customer never approved is the quickest route to a disputed bill, a chargeback, or a review that costs more than the line was worth. Quebec’s consumer office tells homeowners how to fight one: pay under protest, then send a formal notice to claim the money back.
Call before you send the invoice. Explain what you found, what you did, why stopping would have been worse, and what it costs. Bring the photos, and decide beforehand what you will accept, because a decision made on the phone under pressure is usually the wrong one.
Missing paperwork does not always mean missing money. California’s section 7159, in the same notice that requires written change orders, says a contractor’s failure to comply does not by itself prevent recovering compensation for work performed, through legal or equitable remedies meant to prevent unjust enrichment. That is a narrow door, and walking through it means a lawyer and a court. Your state or province may draw the line elsewhere. Treat it as a reason to get the paperwork right, not as a plan.
If the bill ends up unpaid, the follow up ladder, late fees and liens are covered in deposits, payment terms and overdue invoices.
Make it standard, not heroic
The shops that get paid for extra work are not tougher negotiators. They do the same thing every time.
- One change order form, filled in the same way by everybody.
- A written threshold for what is too small to paper.
- The name of whoever approves money, taken when the job is booked.
- Every approved change order kept with the job, and its lines on the final invoice in the words the customer approved.
You can write one today with the free quote generator. Put the added work in as its own short quote, list the parts and hours, send or print the PDF, and keep the approved copy with the job. At the end, the invoice generator puts the original work and the approved extras on one invoice, in the words the customer already said yes to.
