A home remodeling project can be a huge investment in what may be your most valuable asset. When you hire a contractor to work on your home, you should take appropriate steps to ensure that you receive the service that you expect, in the time agreed, and a beautiful finished project. We’ve compiled a few tips here to help you through the process of hiring a contractor.
- Get a recommendation – Personal contacts, family and friends can be some of the best sources to learn about reliable remodeling contractors. Ask around your network for those who have had work done recently. Ask about the scope of the project, so that you can get as close to an apples-to-apples comparison as possible. Ask about what your friend liked about the contractor and what could have been improved in the process. This will give you a good idea of what to expect and potentially afford you the opportunity to prevent some of the rough patches that come with the work.
- Call Around – Professional contractors that have meaningful experience and perform high quality work will most likely have a staff on hand to answer your questions. Call them and perform an over the phone interview. Ask questions that will help clarify their experience. There’s a lot of questions that should be asked, and it’s best to record the answers, so that when you go back to compare, you have a clear way to make a reasonable evaluation.
- Meet Face to Face – Once you’ve narrowed your phone call list down to 3-4 contractors, invite them over for a face-to-face interview. Home remodeling project can take a long time and you’ll have to be able to communicate personally with your contractor well. It’s worth it to meet so that you know that you’re going to feel comfortable with the person who’s working on your home.
We hope these tips help. Let us know if you have any questions. You can reach us at (212) 599-5060 and we welcome comments for our post.