Change Orders
Home Building Glossary · Last updated 2026-07-01
What Is a Change Order?
A change order is a written amendment to your construction contract that documents a change in scope, its cost (or credit), and its schedule impact, signed by both you and the builder before the work happens. Move a wall after framing, upgrade the countertops beyond the allowance, add a fourth garage stall mid-build: each is a change order.
How Change Orders Work
A clean change-order process is boring, and boring is what you want:
- Request — either party proposes the change (you want something different; or the builder hits a field condition like bad soils that forces one).
- Price — the builder quotes the cost, including trades, materials, markup (typically 10–20%, set in the contract), and any schedule impact.
- Sign — both parties sign before the work proceeds. Verbal approvals are how disputes are manufactured.
- Track — each change order gets a number and joins a running log against your contingency, so the current contract total is always known.
Timing drives price: the same change costs radically different amounts at different stages. Moving a wall on paper is free; after framing it’s hundreds; after drywall and electrical it’s thousands. This is why thorough design and complete selections before construction (the discipline covered in custom home budgeting) is the cheapest money you’ll ever spend.
Why It Matters for Your Minnesota Build
Change orders are the #1 source of builder-client conflict, and the pattern is predictable: undocumented mid-walkthrough conversations (“could we just…?”) that surface at the final invoice. Protect the relationship with three rules — everything in writing, priced before approved, no work without signatures — and expect the same discipline from the builder for their own field changes.
Also watch the interaction with your allowances: an allowance overage isn’t technically a change order, but it behaves like one at the bank. If your construction loan is fully drawn, change orders and overages are typically due in cash at the time of the change. Ask your lender how they handle them before the build starts.
A modest, well-documented change-order log is normal on any custom build. What isn’t normal: a builder who starts changed work without pricing, or a contract with no stated change-order markup at all. Both mean the negotiation happens later, with the leverage all on one side.