Greater Lansing

School district facility repairs

Most school jobs are not lost on price. They are asked for in June, by which time the year's money is already spent.

What is actually wrong

A district’s buildings list and its calendar are in permanent disagreement. Nearly everything that disturbs a building has to happen in the ten or eleven weeks when the students are not in it, and every district in the region wants those same weeks from the same small pool of contractors. Work committed in March happens that summer. The same work raised in June joins next summer’s list, which is a twelve-month delay caused by nothing but the month it was asked in.

Behind the calendar sits the budget year, and that is what actually kills most school jobs. The money runs July to June and it is committed early. The common ending is not a rejected quote — it is a genuine yes that arrives after a larger line item has overrun. We quoted a courtyard pavilion for a middle school in June 2026 at around fifteen hundred dollars, an installation where the district was buying the kit itself. The answer came back a month later: the concrete and the fencing had run over, and the pavilion moved to the following spring. Nothing was wrong with the quote or the price. It was asked for in the wrong month.

The third thing is the bidding base, and it is higher than most people expect. Under the Revised School Code a district has to seek competitive bids for construction, renovation, repair or remodeling only above a figure reset each year against the Consumer Price Index — $31,321 for the fiscal year running October 2025 to September 2026. A very large share of what sits on a buildings and grounds list is underneath that, which means it can be bought on quotes without a formal solicitation.

And then the one that catches contractors out on timing rather than money: anybody who will work regularly and continuously in a school has to clear a fingerprint-based criminal history check through the Michigan State Police before they start, and that applies to a contracted person exactly as it applies to an employee. The district submits it and the district receives the report — a contractor is told the person is approved or is not, and nothing else. It is not difficult and it is not quick, so it wants starting when the quote is accepted rather than the week before the crew is due.

Where this stops

When it is not a handyman job

This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.

NO SURETY BOND, SO NOTHING OVER $50,000. The public works bond act covers school districts explicitly and requires performance and payment bonds above that figure. There is no surety line here yet, so that is a genuine ceiling and it is published rather than discovered.
THE BACKGROUND CHECK IS THE DISTRICT’S TO RUN, AND WE NEVER SEE THE RESULT. The report goes to the district by law and a private contractor may not receive or retain it. What we do is provide the names early, cooperate fully, and accept the district’s decision without being told a reason for it.
PERMITS AND STAMPED DRAWINGS ARE NOT OURS TO PRODUCE. Where a structure needs engineered drawings or a building permit, that sits with the district and its engineer. We will say when we believe something needs them — that was flagged on the pavilion quote before anybody asked — but producing them is not within this company’s scope.
THE TRADE LINES ARE UNCHANGED. Electrical is repair and like-for-like on existing circuits; mechanical work is not offered; shingles and steep-slope roofing are not ours. Anything on a list that crosses one of those goes to a licensed trade and is named on the quote rather than absorbed.
WE WILL NOT HELP SPLIT A PROJECT TO STAY UNDER THE BIDDING BASE. If it is one project and it belongs above the line, it belongs above the line. The exposure from structuring it otherwise lands on the district, not on us.

The work itself

What actually gets done

Scheduling to the window the work actually has to land in — summer for anything disruptive, evenings and weekends in term time for anything that cannot wait, and saying plainly which of the two a given item belongs in.

Working and reporting against the district’s own item numbering, so the completion report lines up with the list the buildings director issued rather than with a description of our own.

Labor-only installation where the district buys the kit on its own account, which is a sensible way for a school to buy and is how the pavilion above was structured.

Drywall, paint, doors, hardware, handrails, floors, gutters and roofline work, interior repairs and the long tail of items that accumulate on a buildings list between summers.

Pricing prevailing wage into the quote where the district tells us a project is covered, and keeping the certified payroll records that go with it.

Getting background check paperwork to the district early, with the names fixed, so approval is not the thing holding up a start date.

Photographing every item against its number, which is what a buildings file and a board packet both end up needing.

This work sits inside Government & public facilities, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.

What it costs

There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.

The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.

Which window the work has to happen in. The same task in July with the building empty and in November at seven in the evening are not the same job.

Whether prevailing wage applies. It attaches to projects sponsored or financed by the State — for schools, broadly those competitively bid under the School Code and paid for with State School Aid or qualified bond money — and it moves the labor line. The district determines coverage, and knowing before the quote is written saves rewriting it.

Whether the district supplies the materials. A labor-and-incidentals quote is a different and usually much smaller number than a supply-and-install one.

How many buildings the list spans, and whether the same item repeats across them. Twelve identical door closers across four buildings prices very differently from twelve different faults in one.

Whether the item needs a permit or stamped engineered drawings. That is an outside cost and an outside timeline, and it belongs in the plan from the start rather than appearing as a surprise.

How to get a real number

Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.

If this is happening right now

What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.

Before anybody arrives

Send the item list in the district’s own numbering, and say which items are summer-only and which can be done in term time.
Say which budget year the work is being asked against, and whether the money is already committed or still being argued for. An honest “we are hoping for next year” gets a quote written to hold, which is more useful than one that expires before the decision.
Ask your finance office whether State School Aid or qualified bond money is funding it. That is the prevailing wage question and it changes the number.
Say how many people will need background checks and what the district’s normal turnaround is, so the start date is planned around it rather than tripped up by it.
Confirm whether the district is supplying materials.
Flag anything you already believe needs a permit or an engineer’s drawing, even if you are not sure.

Call the business line

(517) 505-7135

Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.

On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.

No trip charge
No call-out fee or minimum
No diagnostic fee
No charge for a return visit

True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.

Or send the details

When the right answer is not this company

You can smell gas: Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
Water you cannot stop: Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once: A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel: Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed: A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.

Questions people actually ask

When should we ask for a quote for summer work?

February or March, and the reason is budgetary rather than logistical. By late spring the year’s money is largely committed and a project competing against an overrun tends to lose — that is exactly how a pavilion we quoted in June 2026 moved to 2027, with nobody doing anything wrong. Asking early also means a quote exists when the board is looking at next year’s list, which is when the decision is genuinely still open.

Do we have to bid it?

Only above the Revised School Code base, which is reset every October against the CPI and stands at $31,321 for the year running October 2025 to September 2026. Below it a district can buy on quotes. Your business office will hold the current figure and its own internal policy, which is sometimes stricter than the statute — a district is free to require more process than the law does, and several do.

Does prevailing wage apply to our project?

Your finance office decides it, and the test is about how the project is funded rather than what the work is. Broadly, prevailing wage reaches school projects that are competitively bid under the School Code and paid for in whole or in part with State School Aid or qualified bond money. There is an exemption for projects financed with qualified bonds that voters approved before the law took effect in February 2024. Tell us the answer before the quote is written and it is priced in.

Who runs the background checks, and how long do they take?

The district does. Anybody working regularly and continuously in the building is fingerprinted through the Michigan State Police and the report goes to the district, which then tells the contractor whether that person is approved. We never receive the report and are not entitled to. Turnaround varies, which is why the names want submitting when the quote is accepted and not when the crew is being scheduled.

Can we buy the materials ourselves and just pay you to install?

Yes, and for a school it is often the better way round. A district buying a kit on its own account avoids a markup, keeps the purchase inside its own records and frequently gets a price a small contractor cannot. The quote then covers labor, fixings and incidentals, and it says plainly what has to be on site before the crew arrives and who is responsible if it is not.

Have you worked in schools before?

Not yet on a district contract. The closest is the pavilion quote described above, which was accepted in principle and deferred on budget rather than lost on price. It would be straightforward to write this page as though a decade of district work sat behind it, and anybody checking would find out otherwise. What is behind it is years of the same repair work in occupied commercial buildings, for property managers and two national facilities networks, where working around other people’s operations is the whole job.

Send us the buildings list

Send the list in your own numbering and mark which items are summer-only. Tell us which budget year you are asking against — including if the honest answer is next year, because a quote written to hold is more use to you than one that expires before the board decides. If State School Aid or qualified bond money is funding it, say so, and say how long your background checks normally take so the start date is planned around them.

Get a Free Quote Call (517) 505-7135