Frequently Asked Questions

Vetting a contractor in South Carolina comes down to verification, references, and paper trails. At minimum, confirm they hold a current SC contractor's license (verify at llr.sc.gov), carry general liability insurance and workers' compensation, and can produce a Certificate of Insurance that names you as an additional insured for the duration of your project.

Beyond licensing, ask for three to five references from projects completed in the last 12-18 months — and actually call them. Ask about communication, schedule slip, change orders, and whether the final number matched the estimate. Drive by an active jobsite if you can; cleanliness, organized materials, and respectful crews tell you more than any review.

Other green flags: a written contract with a defined scope, payment milestones (never large lump sums up front), a documented warranty, and a willingness to walk you through their pricing model in plain English. If a contractor pushes back on transparency, that's your answer.

Both pricing models are legitimate — they just shift risk and visibility differently.

Fixed Cost (Lump Sum): You agree to a single price for a defined scope. Pros: predictable budget, contractor absorbs cost overruns, easy to compare bids. Cons: contractors price in a contingency to protect themselves (you usually pay for risk that doesn't materialize), change orders can be expensive, and there's less incentive for the contractor to find savings since they keep the difference. Best for tightly-defined projects with few unknowns — bathroom remodels with finalized selections, additions with completed plans.

Cost Plus (Open Book): You pay actual material and labor costs plus a defined fee or percentage. Pros: full transparency on every dollar spent, no padded contingency, savings get passed back to you, change orders are simple. Cons: less budget certainty up front, requires more trust in the contractor's accounting, and you need a contractor who actually opens the books (many don't). Best for projects with unknowns — older homes, structural work, custom builds where scope evolves.

Our take: for most renovations, Cost Plus is the more honest model when paired with a target budget and real-time cost reporting. For tightly-scoped work, Fixed Cost is fine. We're happy to walk you through both for your specific project.

Honest answer: yes, the licensed trades pool in the Upstate is finite. The plumber installing your tub today probably installed one for another GC last week. What changes is how that labor gets priced to you.

Most general contractors carry significant overhead: large offices, multiple project managers, sales staff, fleet vehicles, and marketing spend — all baked into your project as a markup, often 20-35% on top of subcontractor costs. Bigger GCs also tend to mark up materials by similar margins.

Odio is owner-led. Will Odio is on every jobsite, which means we don't carry layers of management overhead. We pay our subs at fair market rates (we want them to come back), but our markup reflects what it actually costs to run our business — not what fits a corporate P&L. The savings show up in your bid.

We're not the cheapest option in town and we don't try to be. We're transparent about where your money goes, and on equivalent scope we typically come in 10-20% below the larger firms while delivering the same — or better — craftsmanship.

This is a real risk in our industry, and you have more protection than most homeowners realize.

Legal protections in South Carolina:
- Contractors must be licensed by the SC Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation. Unlicensed work voids your protections — always verify at llr.sc.gov.
- SC has a mechanic's lien statute that cuts both ways: contractors can lien your home for unpaid work, but you can also pursue legal recourse for non-performance.
- Written contracts are enforceable. Verbal agreements are nearly impossible to litigate.

Practical protections you should always insist on:
1. Never pay 100% up front. A reasonable deposit is 10-30% to secure your spot and order long-lead materials, with progress payments tied to completion milestones.
2. Tie payments to milestones, not dates. "Pay 25% when framing is complete and inspected" is enforceable. "Pay 25% on the 15th" is not.
3. Get lien waivers. As you pay milestones, request signed lien waivers from your contractor confirming subs and suppliers have been paid.
4. Use a written contract that specifies scope, materials, schedule, warranty, change-order process, and what happens if work is abandoned.
5. Verify insurance is active the week before work starts, not just at signing.

How Odio handles this: Our deposits are sized to actual cost — typically the materials and vendor commitments needed to start your project, not a profit grab. We provide milestone-based progress billing, lien waivers on request, and a contract that spells out exactly what triggers each payment. If you ever feel uncertain, ask us to walk you through the math. Educated clients are good clients.

Your deposit isn't us holding your money — it's working capital that your project genuinely needs before day one.

Where the deposit actually goes:
- Material orders: Cabinets, tile, fixtures, custom millwork, and specialty items often have 4-12 week lead times and require deposits to vendors. We place those orders the week we mobilize, not the week we install.
- Vendor commitments: Subcontractors block off your dates on their calendar. A confirmed deposit is what tells them the project is real and to hold the schedule.
- Permits and engineering: Where required, permits and structural drawings have hard costs that get paid before any framing starts.
- Project setup: Site protection (floor coverings, dust barriers), dumpster delivery, and initial demo all have day-one costs.

Why a deposit is required at all: Construction is the rare service where the provider takes on significant cost before the client sees any work. Without a deposit, the contractor is essentially financing your project — and the ones who do that tend to either price it into the job (you pay anyway) or run a thin operation that's one bad week away from going under. A reasonable deposit aligns incentives: we're committed to starting on schedule, and you have skin in the game on a defined start date.

What's reasonable: For most projects, 10-30% at signing is standard. For projects with heavy custom material orders, deposits trend higher to cover vendor costs. For small repairs, deposits may be skipped entirely. We size each deposit to what your specific project actually needs to start — and we show you the math.