Choosing a reliable, quality-conscious, home improvement contractor is the most important part of any project. Proper planning, doing the necessary research, and having lots of patience will help to ensure your dream project will not become a living nightmare. Once you have narrowed down the list of contractors (3 or 4) you want to consider for your project, it’s time to start getting to know them better…much better! Plan a pre-construction meeting at the project site with each contractor individually and ask lots of questions.
Here is a sampling of some questions to ask the contractors you are considering. These will help get you started:
How will you approach a project like mine? This will give you an idea of how the contractor works and what to expect during the project. Listen carefully to the answer. The contractor’s work ethic and other traits can be uncovered listening to the answer.
Have you completed many projects like mine? This will help you determine the contractor’s familiarity with projects like yours.
Will I need a permit to do my project? Your contractor should know the answer to this question and be the one getting the permit.
How long have you been in this business? Seek out a local company or craftsman with experience in your community. A minimum of 5 years experience as a business owner is acceptable if everything else checks out.
Do you have employees or do you hire subcontractors? Or both? Who will be overseeing the project? It is good to know what parts of your project will be handled by whom.
Who do I speak with if I have a question or concern? Get exact names and contact phone numbers for all persons who will be involved with your project. It is best to speak with the owner if at all possible.
Are you properly equipped and qualified to do a project like mine? You may be able to hire a handyman to do your project if it is small enough and does not require special training or licensing. If your project requires multiple trades it may be wise to consider a full service company.
What kind of insurances does your company carry? Ask for copies of the insurance certificates to verify coverage. If they employ workers they will need workers’ comp coverage along with general liability. Get the name of their insurer and contact them yourself to verify the coverage is intact.
Are you licensed to do my project? If your state does have contractor licensing laws ask for a copy of the contractor’s license, then confirm the license number and expiration date with your local jurisdiction. Plumbers, electricians and those who work with hazardous materials are the only trades in Maine that need a license to operate.
Do you do a substantial amount of repeat and referral business? This will give you a good idea about the company’s customer satisfaction.
May I have a list of your recent references? The contractor should be able to supply you with a minimum of three references, including names, phone numbers and addresses. CALL THEM! Ask lots of questions. DIG DEEP…and try to see if they might even let you come see their finished project. People who are satisfied with their contractor and proud of their project results like to show them off.
Yes…there are a lot of questions-and others will arise the more you speak with the contractors. Of the many questions you can ask during an interview, the most important question is one you must ask yourself: “Do I feel comfortable with and trust the person I am about to hire?”
Your answer to that question should help make the hiring decision a little easier. Also, remember that reliable, quality-driven contractors are busy for a reason…they are good at what they do and they are worth waiting for…so PLAN and be PATIENT!
By: Paul G Lawrence
Posts Tagged ‘Patience’
Your Home Improvement Project – Questions You MUST Ask a Contractor
May 24th, 2010Home Improving while Budgeting
January 1st, 2010
As we all know, budgeting and home improvement does not always go together but this article will give you information that could help improve your home and still save a little money.
Home improvement projects regularly scare people off, because many judge that they will pay thousands of dollars to alter one room, because they do not have the skills to do the job them self. They may also feel that the job is costly because supplies and tools are needed.
To the contrary, home improvement does not have to be costly at all. Of course, if you hire a subcontractor or contractor to do the job, you will pay a fortune, but if you have patience and the ability to read and stick to the directions, then you can renovate an whole room in your home for fewer than a hundred dollars. Of course, you will need to change and correlate materials.
Before starting the procedure of improving your home, you will need to system of funds and a schedule to get started. You will need to ponder various notions when considering and preparing home improvement. For example, do you plan to paint your home? Do you plan to tile your home? Do you want carpet in your home?
Going through the final part of this article, you will see just how important budgeting and home improvement can be done which will help save you money and improve your home.
Asking questions is part of analyzing and preparing for home improvement. One of the best tools to have when considering home improvement is calculating what you like and calculating what you want. When I improve my home the first thing I do is explore my mind searching for favorites and what excites and appeals to me. Thus, when I go to the home improvement warehouses, I already have in my brain what I am ready to purchase, therefore this relaxes my quest to improving my home.
If you are short of funds to improve your home, then setting up a financial plan will help you get what you want as well as put away some cash for a rainy day. You may even think about purchasing equipment and tools for home improvement at the companies that propose lower prices and/or purchases with no payments until a particular date. This notion will give you time to get your home better while putting away the currency to purchase the improvement equipment and tools.
Unfortunately, many people go for another home loan to enhance their home. Receiving loans from lenders regularly lead to debt, and home loans for improvement only leads to paying off your home twice. Thus, elude high interest rates and loan payments and learn to plan your finances to improve your home.
Let me give you a general view of what one area could cost you for repairs. Say you want to paint a specific room in your home. You will need plaster, sealers, primer, paints, paint thinners, scrapers, screwdriver, paint opening (often come with paint purchases), patches, paintbrushes, tray, and so forth. Now you may think this will cost you a lot of money to improve your home, but to the contrary, you are wrong.
The paint and tools will cost you the most, while the other items will be priced less; thus, primer, sealers and plaster be priced around fifteen dollars if you go to the correct store.
Paint thinners, trays, brushes and screwdriver will cost around fifteen dollars if you go to the right store. Thus, the patches should be purchased with a plaster kit, which will salvage you a few pennies. The paint will cost around twenty dollars per can, depending on the kind of paint purchased. Therefore, for around a hundred bucks you could alter a room in your home lacking hiring anybody to do the job providing you stick to the instructions.
What about the bathroom, can you alter the room on a financial plan? It depends on the range of the area, but if you are yearning to tile your bathroom and paint the walls you could get the job done for around a hundred bucks give or take. If you go to the correct home improvement store and know what you are doing, you could remodel a small bathroom or average bathroom for around fifty bucks.
Learning to create a financial plan and prepare for home improvements can help you to remodel your whole home (if the home is in good standings) for a few hundred dollars. Furthermore, completing the work yourself, you will recoup you thousands of dollars.
Having this budget and home improvement information handy will help you a great deal the next time you find yourself in need of it.
By: Keith Hoyng
Preparing Yourself For Home Improv
December 28th, 2009
In a perfect world, the word “improv” wouldn’t be inside Home Improvement. After all, improving a house takes time, money, and, above most, patience. However, in the hustle and bustle of every day lives, with guests dropping over on 24 hour notice, family stopping in for a week’s stay unexpectedly, and spouses volunteering your house for the annual, and large, Christmas party two days before it’s scheduled, home improvement must sometimes be done with quick thinking.
So, how do you do it? How do you take something that involves so much time, planning, and management and condense it into a few hours worth of work? You might think that the answer is, “ya don’t,” but sometimes it is possible. All you need is a little help and a lot of preparation:
Invest in Home Improvement Books: Hardware stores, book stores, and even libraries are filled with do-it-yourself manuals. Some of these manuals are specific, such as how to install an electrical outlet, but some are all inclusive, such as a general Home Improvement manual. Because you aren’t sure what problems will arise unexpectedly, it’s good to have a collection of both. The books with specifics can help you with the details of your projects, while the all encompassing ones will help improve your chances of finding at least some information on your house’s ailment.
When all else fails, research your problem on the Internet. However, keep in mind that anyone can post anything on the Internet: the facts might not always be straight. If a webpage states that you need to hire their company’s plumber to fix a shingle on your roof, you might want to try another site.
Know which of your Friends Know what they’re doing and which just think they do: Friends are great for calling in a pinch; the problem is that certain ones can make your pinch a little tighter. Instead of relying on just any old friend, learn what friends are good at which tasks. Just because one of your friends is an electrician doesn’t mean he knows anything about fixing your sprinkler system. Because he probably won’t admit this, you may find yourself, as he tries to fix your sprinklers with duct tape, worse off than you were to begin with.
Have the right tools: Fixing things can be hard, fixing things when you don’t have the right tools can be impossible. Instead of waiting for that impending disaster, the one that finally makes you decide to upgrade your tool box to one that holds more than just a wrench, a screw driver, and a hammer, be prepared ahead of time. Even if your house is in perfect condition right now, it won’t always be. Investing in an extensive tool kit helps you invest in your ability to perform home improvement. If you don’t have the money to purchase a tool kit with all the bells and whistles, then become friends with someone who already has one.
Call for Help when you Need it: Sure, you may take great pride in knowing that you fixed something all by yourself, but this pride can come at a cost: time, money, and the something you fixed being worse off than before you touched it. If you can’t fix something without help, or can’t fix it quick enough, then call a contractor (one that you trust). You will find asking for help doesn’t hurt: swallowing your pride isn’t so bad, it tastes just like chicken.
By: Jennifer Jordan