What should I ask a contractor before an industrial build-out?
Ask for comparable industrial projects at your clear height, sprinkler classification and power load; for COR certification and a current WorkSafeBC clearance letter or WSIB clearance certificate; for insurance limits and COI turnaround; for bonding capacity; and for how the contractor prices change orders, handles holdbacks and phases work around live operations.
Key takeaways
- Ask for references at your clear height, sprinkler classification and power load. Commercial fit-up experience does not transfer.
- Request a WorkSafeBC clearance letter for BC work and a WSIB clearance certificate for Ontario work before you sign.
- Switchgear, transformers, rooftop units and dock equipment set the schedule. Get quoted lead times in writing at award.
- Ontario’s Construction Act sets prompt payment and adjudication deadlines. BC holdback runs under the Builders Lien Act.
Procurement decisions on an industrial build-out are made early and are expensive to reverse. By the time a contractor mobilizes, the questions that actually determine the outcome have already been answered, well or badly: whether the firm has built at your clear height, whether its safety record survives outside scrutiny, whether the switchgear was ordered in time, and what happens to the price when the drawings change. The checklist below is written to be lifted directly into a request for proposal or a shortlist interview. It applies to warehouse and distribution build-outs, manufacturing fit-ups, cold storage conversions and industrial office and mezzanine work in British Columbia and Ontario.
Relevant industrial experience, not just square footage
The first filter is whether a contractor has built your specific conditions, not whether the firm has built a lot of buildings. An industrial build-out is defined by a short list of technical conditions that behave nothing like commercial interiors: clear height and the racking that depends on it, tilt-up or pre-engineered steel structure, sprinkler design matched to a commodity classification, slab flatness and levelness under lift-truck traffic, three-phase service at 347/600 volts sized for real equipment load, and dock equipment that has to align with a truck court poured months earlier. Twenty office fit-ups teach a contractor almost nothing that transfers to any of it. So ask for projects rather than logos. Request the building type, the clear height, the structural system, the sprinkler classification, the electrical service size, the dock count and the delivery model used on each one. Then ask which of the people who ran those jobs would be assigned to yours, because industrial capability lives in superintendents and project managers rather than in a corporate profile. Ask about the work that went badly as well. A contractor who cannot describe a schedule slip, a failed inspection or a disputed change, and explain what changed in their process afterwards, is either inexperienced or not being straight with you.
- Which projects have you completed at our clear height, with our structural system, in the past three years?
- What sprinkler classification did those buildings carry, and did you coordinate rack layout against head spacing, clearances and obstruction rules?
- What slab flatness and levelness numbers have you delivered, how were they measured, and who measured them?
- What size of electrical service have you installed, and did you run the utility application yourself or leave it to the owner?
- Have you installed dock levellers, restraints, seals and high-speed doors, and did you set the pit dimensions during the slab pour?
- Which superintendent and project manager will be assigned to our project, and what did each of them build last?
- How many other projects will that superintendent be carrying at the same time as ours?
- Which scopes do you self-perform, and which do you buy out to trades?
Safety record, COR certification and provincial standing
Safety performance is the cleanest early signal of whether a contractor is well run, because it is measured externally and cannot be rewritten for a proposal. In British Columbia, employers register with WorkSafeBC and are rated within an industry classification. In Ontario, construction employers carry mandatory WSIB coverage. Both authorities issue a document confirming that an account is in good standing: a clearance letter in British Columbia and a clearance certificate in Ontario. Owners and property managers request them because an account in arrears can expose the party paying for the work. Ask for the current document at award and again at renewal, since both are time-limited and a certificate that was valid at tender may not be valid at mobilization. Apply the same test to every subcontractor, in the province where that subcontractor is actually performing the work.
COR, the Certificate of Recognition, is an audited certification of a contractor’s occupational health and safety management system rather than a claim about incident counts. It is issued after an external audit and maintained through a defined cycle of internal maintenance audits and periodic external re-audits, so a current COR tells you that documented safety practice was tested by someone outside the firm within a known window. Ask to see the certificate and its expiry date, not a line in a proposal saying the firm is COR certified. Then push past the paperwork. Ask for the experience rating history with the relevant provincial authority, the lost-time incidents recorded in the past three years and what caused them, any regulatory orders or stop-work notices and how they were closed out, and how subcontractor safety performance is reviewed before a trade is invited to bid. On industrial sites, ask specifically how the contractor handles the hazards your building creates: work at height in racking aisles, lift-truck and pedestrian separation, hot work near stored commodity, confined space in pits and tanks, and lockout of live equipment.
- Are you COR certified, and can we see the certificate and its expiry date?
- Please provide a current WorkSafeBC clearance letter for British Columbia work, or a current WSIB clearance certificate for Ontario work.
- What is your experience rating history with the relevant provincial authority?
- How many lost-time incidents have you recorded in the past three years, and what were the causes?
- Have you received regulatory orders or stop-work notices, and how were they resolved?
- Who is the site safety supervisor on our project, and are they full time on it?
- How do you verify that each subcontractor carries its own coverage in the province where it performs the work?
- How are site-specific hazard assessments, toolbox meetings and incident reports documented and shared with us?
Insurance, bonding and how quickly you get a certificate
Insurance and bonding answer one question: if something goes wrong, who pays. Commercial general liability is the base cover, commonly required at five million dollars per occurrence on commercial and industrial work and written higher on larger or higher-risk projects. Automobile liability covers vehicles operating on and around the site. Course of construction insurance, also called builders’ risk, covers the work itself while it is being built, and the policy has to name the right parties and stay in force until occupancy rather than lapsing at substantial performance. Contractors’ pollution liability matters on sites with prior industrial use, and professional liability matters wherever the contractor carries design responsibility for a delegated element such as racking, a mezzanine or a fire protection layout. Property managers and developers also need the contractor to be COI-ready, meaning a correctly worded certificate naming the required additional insureds can be produced in days rather than weeks. Ask what that turnaround actually is. A slow certificate delays a tenant access agreement as surely as a slow permit.
Bonding is a separate question from insurance and is often skipped on private industrial work. A bid bond confirms the bidder will enter into the contract at the price submitted. A performance bond, commonly written at fifty per cent of the contract value in Canada, gives the owner a surety to call on if the contractor fails to complete. A labour and material payment bond protects subcontractors and suppliers, which indirectly protects the owner from liens. Bonds cost money, and on a modest build-out the premium may not be worth it. The more useful question is whether the contractor could be bonded, because a surety has already reviewed the firm’s financial statements, backlog and management depth before issuing capacity. A letter from a surety confirming single-project and aggregate capacity is a third-party read on financial strength that no contractor can self-certify.
| Document | What to request | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| COR certificate | The certificate itself, with expiry date and audit cycle | The safety management system was audited by an external party within a defined window |
| WorkSafeBC clearance letter | A current letter covering the period of your BC work | The BC account is registered and in good standing, limiting your exposure for unpaid premiums |
| WSIB clearance certificate | A current certificate covering the period of your Ontario work | Ontario coverage is active and the account is in good standing |
| Certificate of insurance | Limits, policy periods, named and additional insureds, and the turnaround time to reissue | Whether cover matches the contract and whether the contractor can serve a property manager quickly |
| Course of construction policy | Confirmation of coverage value, deductibles and the end date of the policy | Whether the work in progress is insured to completion rather than to substantial performance |
| Surety letter | Single-project and aggregate bonding capacity | An independent assessment of financial strength, backlog and management depth |
| Safety statistics | Experience rating history, lost-time incidents and any orders issued | Whether the safety record matches the certification on paper |
Trade prequalification and how the work gets bought
Most of the labour on an industrial build-out is performed by subcontractors, so the contractor’s prequalification process is effectively your quality control. Ask how trades are screened before they are invited to bid: coverage and insurance verified in the correct province, safety statistics reviewed, financial capacity checked against the size of the package, and relevant experience confirmed for the specific scope. Sprinkler, electrical, dock equipment and slab work each carry failure modes that a general commercial trade will not anticipate. Then ask how the work is bought. On a stipulated price contract you generally see one number and the contractor carries the buyout risk. On a construction management engagement the trade bids are usually open to you, which changes what you can verify and what you are exposed to. Either way, ask how many bids are taken per package, whether the low bid is scope-levelled against the others before award, and what happens if a trade fails partway through the job. Ask to see the proposed trade list before award and to be told when a listed trade is replaced.
- What is your prequalification process for trades, and what disqualifies a bidder?
- How many bids do you take per trade package, and do you scope-level them before award?
- Will we see the trade list before award, and will we be notified if a listed trade is replaced?
- Are trade bids open to us, and who carries the buyout risk under the contract form you are proposing?
- How do you verify that each trade holds current provincial coverage and insurance for this scope?
- What happens, commercially and in schedule terms, if a trade defaults partway through?
- Which trades on this project are you carrying as an allowance rather than a firm price, and why?
Schedule realism and long-lead equipment
Industrial schedules are rarely lost on the building. They are lost on equipment that has to be ordered early and on a utility connection nobody applied for. Electrical switchgear, pad-mounted transformers, standby generators, rooftop and make-up air units, dock levellers and overhead doors all carry order-to-delivery times measured in months, and those times move with the market. A credible schedule names each long-lead item, shows the date the order must be placed to hold the completion date, and identifies who releases the order and who approves the shop drawings that precede it. Ask to see that procurement log as part of the bid, not after award. Ask when the utility service application goes in and what the utility has committed to in writing, because a transformer is one of the few items on an industrial project that no contractor can accelerate with more labour. Then test the sequence rather than the end date. Roof, power and sprinkler tie-in dates are the real milestones; a completion date without them is a hope. Also ask what the contractor assumes about permit review times in your municipality and what happens to the schedule if those assumptions are wrong.
| Long-lead item | Indicative order-to-delivery range | What to confirm at award |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical switchgear and distribution | Often thirty to sixty weeks, longer for custom line-ups | A written lead time from the named manufacturer and the release date in the procurement log |
| Utility service and transformer | Set by the utility, often six to eighteen months | Application submitted, load letter accepted, and the utility’s own written commitment date |
| Standby generator and transfer switch | Often thirty to sixty weeks | Fuel type, emissions rating and enclosure settled before the order is placed |
| Rooftop and make-up air units | Often twenty to forty weeks for high-efficiency or custom units | Unit schedule frozen, curbs ordered, and roof structure reviewed against final unit weights |
| Dock levellers, restraints and seals | Commonly eight to twenty weeks | Pit dimensions, capacity rating and controls coordinated before the slab is poured |
| Overhead and high-speed doors | Commonly eight to twenty weeks | Opening sizes, wind load, operator package and interlocks with the fire alarm |
| Fire pump and ESFR sprinkler upgrade | Heads are usually stocked; a fire pump can run twenty to forty weeks | Water supply test results, commodity classification and whether a pump is required at all |
| Racking, mezzanine and structural steel | Commonly ten to twenty-four weeks | Seismic design, permit requirement, and delivery sequenced ahead of sprinkler head layout |
- Which items on this project are long lead, and what is the last responsible order date for each?
- Can we see your procurement log, with named suppliers and quoted lead times, as part of the bid?
- When does the utility service application go in, and what has the utility committed to in writing?
- What permit review durations have you assumed, and what happens to the schedule if they run longer?
- Which milestones drive occupancy, and how will float be reported to us each month?
- How is delay caused by a supplier handled commercially under the contract you are proposing?
- What is your recovery plan if a long-lead item slips by four weeks?
Contract form, change orders and payment
Ask which standard contract form the contractor proposes and why. CCDC documents are the common baseline on Canadian commercial and industrial work: CCDC 2 for a stipulated price contract, CCDC 4 where unit prices suit the scope, CCDC 5B where the contractor acts as construction manager for both services and the construction, and CCDC 14 for design-build. Each form allocates risk differently, and supplementary conditions frequently change that allocation, so ask for the supplementary conditions at bid stage rather than after award. Change orders are where most industrial disputes begin, and the fix is arithmetic agreed in advance. Ask how a change is priced: lump sum agreed before the work proceeds, unit price, or cost plus a stated fee. Ask what markups apply for overhead and profit on self-performed work and on subcontracted work, and note that in Canadian practice these are typically written into the contract, with a lower percentage applied to subcontracted work than to work the contractor performs directly. Then ask about the process: who can authorize a change, how quickly a price must be submitted, whether schedule impact is priced with the cost rather than claimed later, and how the change log is reported. Confirm what is carried as a cash allowance, how allowances are reconciled, and whether the contingency in the number is the contractor’s or yours.
Payment and lien handling differ between the two provinces, and a contractor working in both should be able to explain the difference without hesitating. In British Columbia the Builders Lien Act generally requires a ten per cent holdback, held in a separate holdback account above a statutory contract value threshold, with lien claims filed within a defined period after completion, certification or abandonment and holdback released after a further waiting period. Ontario’s Construction Act also uses a ten per cent statutory holdback but adds a prompt payment regime with fixed deadlines running from a proper invoice, a requirement to issue a notice of non-payment within a set period if an amount is disputed, and access to interim adjudication that produces a determination binding until a court or arbitrator decides otherwise. British Columbia has not adopted an equivalent prompt payment and adjudication regime, so payment timing there is governed largely by the contract and the lien legislation. These regimes carry short, unforgiving deadlines and specific procedural requirements. This article describes how they generally work; confirm how they apply to your contract, your province and your project with your own legal and financial advisors before you rely on them.
- Which CCDC form are you proposing, and will you provide the supplementary conditions with your bid?
- How are change orders priced, and what markups apply to self-performed work and to subcontracted work?
- Who may authorize a change, and how many days do you take to return a price?
- Will schedule impact be priced with each change, or claimed separately later?
- How often is the change log issued to us, and does it show pending as well as approved items?
- What is carried as a cash allowance, and how are allowances reconciled at closeout?
- Is there contingency in your price, who controls it, and what happens to the unspent balance?
- How do you administer holdback, lien deadlines and, in Ontario, prompt payment and adjudication timelines?
Phasing around live operations
Most industrial build-outs happen in buildings that are still working. Product still ships, trucks still arrive, and a tenant or an operator still has to run a shift while the work proceeds. That constraint should appear in the bid, not emerge in week three. Ask the contractor to describe the phasing plan in terms of what the operation loses and when: which dock doors go out of service, when the yard is restricted, how pedestrian and lift-truck routes are separated from the work area, and how egress, fire alarm coverage and sprinkler protection remain continuous while systems are modified. Ask which activities genuinely require an outage, such as electrical tie-ins, roof penetrations over live equipment or sprinkler main drain-downs, and how those windows will be scheduled, staged and rehearsed. Ask about after-hours and weekend work, whether it is priced in the base number or treated as a change, and how noise, dust, odour and vibration are controlled where product or process equipment is sensitive. On a multi-tenant industrial property, ask who communicates with neighbouring tenants and how far in advance.
- Show us the phasing plan by area and by week, including which dock doors and yard areas come out of service.
- How will egress, fire alarm coverage and sprinkler protection be maintained continuously during the work?
- Which activities require a shutdown, how long is each window, and how will it be staged and rehearsed?
- Is after-hours or weekend work included in your price, or will it come back as a change order?
- How are dust, noise, odour and vibration controlled next to live production or stored product?
- How are lift-truck and pedestrian routes separated from construction traffic?
- Who notifies neighbouring tenants and our operations staff, and how far in advance?
Closeout, commissioning and warranty
Closeout is where an industrial project either becomes operable or becomes a punch list that drags for a year. Ask what the contractor delivers at completion and when. The package should include as-built drawings, operation and maintenance manuals, equipment warranties, testing and balancing reports, fire alarm and sprinkler verification records, electrical commissioning results, permit sign-offs and occupancy approval, and training for the people who will run the equipment. On industrial projects, ask specifically for slab flatness and levelness test results, dock equipment commissioning and capacity documentation, sprinkler hydraulic calculations matched to the final rack layout, and confirmation that any racking permit conditions have been satisfied. Then ask about warranty: the standard period in most Canadian construction contracts is twelve months from substantial performance, with longer manufacturer warranties on roofing, equipment and certain systems. Ask who to call after hours during the warranty period, what response time is committed, and whether the contractor offers ongoing interior and exterior maintenance so warranty work and routine service run through one accountable party rather than two.
- What exactly is in your closeout package, and how many days after completion do we receive it?
- Who performs commissioning, and will we receive testing, balancing and verification reports?
- Will you provide slab flatness and levelness results and dock equipment commissioning documentation?
- What training do you provide to our operations staff, and is it recorded?
- What is the warranty period, what does it exclude, and which manufacturer warranties run longer?
- Who do we call after hours during the warranty period, and what response time is committed?
- How is the deficiency list agreed, tracked and closed, and what is tied to the release of holdback?