Hiring a Home Improvement Contractor – and Keeping your Wits about you in the Process
Spring is eventually here; to home owners all over the country, traditionally, this has been the time to begin getting on with that home-improvement plan they have been dreaming about for quite a while. Hiring a home improvement contractor though, is a move that can actually make or break your project. The Better Business Bureau receives more complaints to do with one or another home-improvement contracting business than almost any other kind. And it occurs each year. At various state consumer protection divisions, home improvement and construction businesses regularly rank among the top sources of consumer complaints. What should you do to make sure that your project goes well and doesn’t fall victim to one of the fraudulent practices that seemed to inhabit the home-improvement world?
The first thing you need to do hiring a home improvement contractor is to make sure that you go with somebody who has a local presence and a good list of references.
Essentially, you don’t want to hire an out-of-state contractor who just goes around in his pickup truck loaded with tools and equipment. It is very easy for anybody to appear local with a bunch of cheap business cards printed, a few flyers and an advertisement in the local paper. You need to just make sure that you are going with a person who is actually local to your area and has a suitable office.
When you are serious about a home improvement contractor, before you even call that person (and risk having him latch onto and constantly call you) you need to see if BBB has a rating or complaints’ history about him. When everything checks out on BBB, you can actually be assured that you’re dealing with somebody who is a serious player. Once you call your contractor, make sure is that you ask to see proof that he is licensed, has liability insurance to protect you in case anything should go wrong with the job, and that it is his policy to provide an appropriate warranty on all work done and all products installed.
With all the background checks in place, you could focus on the actual the job at hand. You cannot hire a home improvement contractor just because he seems competent though. He needs to be a person who specializes in the sort of home design that you have in mind. With that in mind, it would make a lot of sense to ask for references. Three recent jobs of the particular kind that you think of would be great. Of course, for the best deal overall, you need to let the contractor you speak to know that you’ll be speaking to other contractors for their bids also. Make sure that you get a written bid from at least three contractors before you decide on one.
