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Health & Fitness

Finding a Contractor

Here are some tips to make selecting a contractor for your home renovation project easier and more efficient so you end up with a renovation that will give you pleasure and value for years to come.

 

So you have found your "inspiration piece".  You have set your goals and your budget.  You are starting to get excited.  But wait, now you have to hire a contractor. How do you find a good one?  There are so many important things to consider when choosing a contractor for your home improvement project that Bob and I aren't sure that we can fit them all into one blog post.

Let's start with the biggie. Is the contractor licensed and insured in Nassau County and your locality?  Why should you even care about this?  That seems like a dopey question, right?  Why would anyone in their right mind trust the most valuable asset they own -- their home -- to an unlicensed and uninsured or improperly insured contractor?  Yet people do it every single day.  They do it for a lot of reasons.  And we'll be honest with you, none of those reasons is a good reason to put your family and your home at risk.  You wouldn't ride in a car with a driver that had no license and no insurance.  A licensed and properly insured contractor who turns out to be an idiot or does a shoddy job is far better than an unlicensed one.  At least you'll have some recourse if things don't turn out as planned.

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And when we say properly insured, we mean make sure the contractor is insured for the actual type of work they will be doing on your home.  There are many inexpensive "artisan" policies out there which are readily available.  And these policies are enough to obtain a Nassau County Home Improvement License. Just because someone holds themselves out as a general contractor doesn't mean that they are insured as one.  Real, quality insurance coverage costs serious money. Someone can have a policy that insures them to hang drywall and be out there building a second story on your home.  That is a tale that has the potential for an unhappy ending.  It is up to you as the homeowner to really ask questions of the contractor you are thinking about hiring.  Don't be shy! Anyone who doesn't want to answer these important questions should get a boot right out your door.

Next, you should ask whether the contractor is EPA Lead Certified.  A federal law enacted in 2010 requires contractors that disturb painted surfaces in home, child care facilities and schools built before 1978 be certified and follow specific work practices to avoid lead contamination. http://www.epa.gov/lead/. Always ask to see the contractor's certification.  And if they tell you that your can "opt out" of the requirements, that was true at one time, but no more.

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Is the contractor a member in good standing of NARI, the National Assoc. of the Remodeling Industry?  You want your contractor to be a NARI member because NARI members voluntarily comply with a strict code of ethics.  http://www.nari.org/.  These professionals are a cut above.

How about the contractor's reputation in your locality?  Call your local building department and ask questions.  Is the guy you are considering someone who is known to be a "stand-up guy"? Or is he known as someone who always cuts corners and tries to slip things by the building inspectors?  Better yet, is the contractor known at all?  We advocate for the local guy.  We always cringe a little when we hear that a homeowner has hired someone from eastern Suffolk County to work in their home in East Rockaway.  Will that contractor be able to come out right away if an unexpected situation arises?  What if you need to have a call-back after the work is done?  Or if the tarp on your roof blows off during the night?  You also need to ask yourself why this company needs to travel so far from home base to get work.  Has his reputation exhausted his ability to get work closer to home?

Ask any contractor to provide references and then go ahead and actually call these people up.  See if the references have done more than one project with the contractor because that says a lot.  If the contractor does great work, but has the personality of an antisocial misfit, you want to know that too.  You can probably tolerate anyone for a day or two, but a large job can last for many months and you will be spending some quality time with this crew while wearing your bathrobe and slippers.  You don't want to cringe every time you see these people.

Make sure you find out what percentage of the contractor's work is residential remodeling as opposed to commercial.  This matters because of the quality of the finish work.  Next time you go out to dinner, take a look at around the bathroom of the restaurant.  If you want your finish work in your home to look like that, go ahead and hire the guy that does mostly commercial work and tells you that it doesn't make a difference.

Finally, when comparing pricing, be sure that all the items supplied by each contractor who gives you an estimate are the same grade and quality and that the scope of the work is the same.  In other words, make sure you are comparing apples to apples.  Many times what seems like a low price turns out to be not so low when you read more carefully and realize that you are supplying the cabinets, tile and fixtures for your project.  Which is perfectly fine if that is what you are expecting to do.  That may not be the contractor's cost, but it is part of your cost.

We hope we provided you with some thought provoking info today.  If you would like to know more about Bob and I, and how we are qualified to talk about this stuff, take a look at our profile.

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