Home Improvement without Getting Hammered!

When choosing a Contractor to work with on your Home Improvement or Commercial Construction project, you need to keep a couple of things in mind.

Number one, the Best Ones are ALWAYS overbooked! Always. The reason for this is simple. Honest, dependable Contractors who run their business LIKE a business, and still do top quality, craftsman-like work are RARE.

The competition for Contractors like this is fierce. But that doesn't mean you have to settle for second best- it just means you need to Plan Ahead...

Selecting a Contractor to work with requires that you do a certain amount of research first. If you know a Contractor that has worked on your friends or relatives projects, with excellent results, well there you go. They are on your short list.

If you don't have that kind of a reference, then the job is a little more involved. I suggest that you start at your nearest full service lumber yard. By this I do NOT mean one of the "Big Boxes", but a "Real" lumber and millwork yard. Ask the manager for a confidential lead to a quality GC, and they will usually be happy to refer you to one of their best customers.

A reference like this usually means that the Contractor they refer is a stable business, that pays their bills on time, which is very important.

Once you have three or four names, call them and set up an initial meeting. At the meeting, get a couple of verifiable project references from them, and GO LOOK AT THE WORK. Don't just take their word for it. Call the references, and look at the jobs. It doesn't take very long. If you find any hint of unhappiness from the prior customer, note that. Also, if you smell any kind of "Shilling", where a Contractor sets up a friend or relative to give a bogus reference, kill them from your list immediately. One of the best ways to find out if this is the case is to just ask the reference if they have any friendship or familial relationship with the Contractor outside of the scope of the project point-blank. Most people will either tell you the truth, or will get so edgy that you will smell a rat!

Once you have a short list of three names, you are ready to get the bids!

I hope this was helpful. If you want to read more about this subject, please visit our site and blog at:
Construction Secrets