Contractor's...Angie's List...BBB??? tips before we do work on our home?

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

I have seen many of you posting about doing/having work done on your homes. We are getting ready to do a substantial amount of work on our 11 year old home. We want to do it right and pay a fair price but dealing with contractors and home improvement companies always seems to be the most daunting step.

We already got ripped off once trusting our gardener of three years who did a fantastic job in the entire neighborhood until I gave him some good money and he took off with it after ripping our plants out...so much for the neighborhood referral.

Are any of you members of Angie's List and is it any good?

https://www.angieslist.com/AngiesList/about.asp

As far as the BBB goes...I read their information with a grain of salt since it is funded by the companies themselves. They really only show the worst case examples and who to definitely avoid.

Any good advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Linda VH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Linda VH]

I would recommend www.gardenweb.com and go to the the home sites. Great bbs for building, appliances, floors, etc. etc.

[hope54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hope54]

Making a good choice on a contractor is so critical that I would not rely on simply one source, such as Angie's List. If it was me, I would seek out finished remodel projects that are impressive and then interview the owners. Network to find someone in the business who has worked with a contractor or knows of someone's reputation as a contractor.

The state will have available online the history of a contractor if he is licensed: is he current in his bond and license, any disputes or judgements against the license. I'd even talk to his insurance and bond company to get further details if there are questions.

We have been in the building trades for 30 years and all the horror stories are not exaggerated!

Good luck!

Hope

[EAM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EAM]

We have had good experiences with companies we have found via Angie's list. For a major remodeling job, though, I would recommend having several companies come out for an "interview" and to give an estimate. You should ask for references and follow up by calling them. Check the BBB too.

Of course price is a major consideration, but it should not be the only consideration. You should also consider the opinions of the references, examples (e.g. photographs) of completed work, the attitude of the contractor (good: desire to please customer, pursuit of excellence, etc. bad: lackadaisical, patronizing, etc.), years of experience, whether or not the contractor specializes in your type of job, etc. Be sure the contractor is bonded and insured.

Ask the references about how well the contractor and his workmen clean up after themselves whether or not he permits workmen to drop cigarette butts on your property, etc. Ask about attention to detail. Ask if they feel they got what they paid for.

Once you find a good general contractor, he may be able and willing to refer you to the subcontractors he works with whenever you need an electrician, plumber, roofer, painter, etc.

Finally, if you are planning a truly major change in your home, you might want to consider hiring an architect to work with you to develop the plans.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Finally, if you are planning a truly major change in your home, you might want to consider hiring an architect to work with you to develop the plans.

This is what we did. Our architects loved construction supervision also. This is very important because you want to have them on site enough to catch problems before they are permanently built in.

Our architects had 3 or 4 contractors that they felt would be good for our project based on their experience, quality of work and trustworthiness. Our entire home was gutted and rebuilt in 5 1/2 months, a 1/2 month ahead of schedule. It was a result of us, the architect and the contractor working well together.

A major renovation is a major family disruption. Plan on trying to keep that to a minimum. In our case, moving out was a requirement. If your project is major enough, try not to live in the middle of it.

Best of luck!

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

I've been looking for a landscaper and I just didn't find Angie's List all that convincing in our area. The references kind of seemed like the landscapers themselves had typed them in. Sorry, I think it's all word of mouth.

One thing about contractors is that you want someone who is going to work within the law. If you ask about permits and the guy says, "Oh, we'll park around the block and they'll never catch us"--that's NOT the guy you want in your home. Permits are expensive and a pain in the neck, but they're a great way to catch work that's not up to code or contractors who are cheating you.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

My recommendation is to see who has work done in the neighborhood. We had several so I asked the neighbors if they were happy with the contractor they had hired. Both were and loved to show what they were doing. I asked them for their names. Often, these contractors are too busy already with referral work but they know others in the business that do good work too.

We once had a workman in our house, who did beautiful work, so we asked him if he would do small jobs on the side on his own. He did and he replaced both bathroom floors for us with tile. He charged a lot less than what we were quoted in the store and we are very happy with what he did.

Our neighbors use people who they know from their church and have had good luck too.

[PigsDad Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PigsDad]

I would chime in and offer a piece of advice that has worked well for me. When you do find a contractor, make sure you negotiate that a significant amount of the payment to be held until the work passes any code inspections that will be done. That way if something is not up to code (code is always changing) with the work, you have some leverage for getting it fixed.

Kurt

[EAM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EAM]

Request for upfront payments - yellow flag

From my experience, companies that are in good financial condition usually do not ask to be paid until the work is completed to your satisfaction. For a big job, they will often ask for payment for work completed along the way, though.

A request for 50% down may indicate that the company does not have enough cash in the bank to buy supplies for your job. Or it could indicate that the company has been burned by non-paying customers.

Also, realize that you can negotiate the price. Some companies give an estimate and that is what you pay. Others will pass on to you all their costs of labor and supplies and bill you for a percentage over their costs. That percentage can be negotiated. Getting more than one estimate is helpful in negotiations.

An unusally low estimate can also be a yellow flag. The contractor may be using illegal aliens for labor or be uninsured or using shoddy supplies or eliminating some other cost that you don't really want eliminated.