NV General Contractor common mistakes
NV General Contractor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Substituting a 20% markup on cost for a target gross margin and carrying that number into the bid's overhead-and-profit line.
Percentages are learned as a single 'add-on,' and both numbers read as 20%, so the gap between them stays invisible until the job's actual margin is reconciled.
What to do instead
Convert explicitly on every calculation: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). Drill conversions in both directions (20% markup equals roughly 16.7% margin) and write down which basis the estimate uses before pricing any line item.
Pricing labor in the estimate at the bare base wage and adding only one flat percentage for 'insurance.'
The trade wage is the visible number, while the statutory and insurance burdens are scattered across payroll taxes, workers' compensation classification rates, and liability premiums, so they get collapsed or forgotten.
What to do instead
Build a labor-rate worksheet that loads the base wage with FICA/FUTA/SUTA, the workers' compensation premium at that trade's classification rate, general liability, and benefits, and carry the loaded rate into every unit price instead of a hand-picked percentage.
Answering lien questions from the recording deadline alone, while ignoring that a subcontractor or supplier must first serve a notice of right to lien on the owner within 31 days after first furnishing labor or materials.
The recording deadline is the memorable headline, while the preliminary notice is treated as routine clerical work that 'someone else handles.'
What to do instead
Draw a lien timeline card and answer from it rather than memory: day 0 first furnishing, 31-day notice of right to lien, recording after completion or cessation of work, then the enforcement action deadline. For each scenario, point to the day on the card before choosing an answer.
Answering that a sole proprietor's existing contractor license carries over when the business becomes an LLC, incorporates, or changes majority ownership.
Candidates read the license as belonging to the person who passed the exam rather than to the licensed business entity and its named qualifier.
What to do instead
Memorize that the license is issued to a specific named entity with a named qualifier: a new entity or a change of ownership requires a new application, while other changes such as address, officers, or qualifier are handled by notifying the Board within its required period. Sort each scenario into 'new application' versus 'notification only.'
Choosing the answer that an unlicensed contractor who performed acceptable work can still sue the owner for the contract price or for the value of the labor and materials.
Ordinary contract instinct says work performed equals payment owed, and the licensing statute's bar on recovery feels like a technicality rather than a substantive rule.
What to do instead
Memorize the rule that Nevada law bars an unlicensed contractor from bringing an action to collect compensation for work requiring a license, and that the Board may separately penalize unlicensed contracting. On any 'can they recover?' item, check license status at the time of contracting first and the merits second.
Treating the license number as something that must appear only on the formal signed contract.
Contractors think of the number as a filing detail rather than as a public-facing identifier the state requires wherever the business offers to contract.
What to do instead
Adopt the rule that the license number belongs on bids, contracts, and advertising and marketing materials alike, and answer every 'when must the number appear?' item with 'everywhere the public sees the offer,' not 'at signature.'
Trying to shorten a project by crashing the longest activity or the activity with the most total float when the item asks how to cut project duration.
Duration and criticality feel like the same thing, and the longest bars on a bar chart look like the biggest levers.
What to do instead
Before answering a schedule item, trace the critical path where total float is zero and identify any near-critical parallel path. Only zero-float activities move the finish date, and crashing one can shift criticality to a different path. Rehearse float calculations on multi-path networks until the trace is automatic.
Converting earthwork with a single factor, such as dividing the compacted fill requirement by a swell percentage, or ordering concrete and asphalt with no waste allowance.
The item supplies one percentage and the temptation is to apply it once, but bank, loose, and compacted states are three different volumes moving in opposite directions.
What to do instead
Memorize the direction of each conversion: excavation swells (loose volume exceeds bank), compaction shrinks (compacted volume is less than bank), so fill requirements are figured back to bank volume using shrinkage and hauling is figured from bank volume using swell. Carry an explicit waste factor of a few percent on concrete, asphalt, and masonry takeoffs.
Applying one fall-protection height to every situation instead of the trigger that matches the activity being performed.
The general 'six feet' rule is overlearned early and then reapplied to scaffolds, ladders, steel erection, and excavations where a different threshold governs.
What to do instead
Build a trigger table with a row for each activity: general construction fall protection, scaffold platform heights, ladder and stairway openings, steel erection, and excavation/trench protective-system and egress depths. Rehearse it until each activity pulls its own threshold rather than the default.
Assuming a stormwater pollution prevention plan is required on every project, or omitting one on a site that disturbs exactly one acre.
The acreage test is the actual permit trigger, but candidates remember 'construction sites need a SWPPP' as a slogan and skip the trigger analysis entirely.
What to do instead
Test the disturbance figure first: one acre or more of soil disturbance, or a smaller parcel that is part of a larger common plan of development, triggers a construction stormwater permit and a site-specific SWPPP, along with applicable dust-control obligations. Answer by stating the trigger, then the control measures.