Besides asking the usual are you licenced and bonded... to make sure you’re getting the best contractor for the job, here are five questions to ask the candidates.
Remodeled bathroom by Kimberlee Jaynes Interior Designs Inc.
Hiring A Contractor
1. Would you please itemize your
bid?
Many contractors prefer to give
you a single, bottom-line price for your project, but this puts you in the dark
about what they’re charging for each aspect of the job. For example, let’s say
the original plan calls for bead board wainscot in your bathroom, but you
decide not to install it after all. How much should you be credited for
eliminating that work? With a single bottom-line price, you have no way to
know.
On the other hand, if you get an
itemized bid, it’ll show the costs for all of the various elements of the
job—demolition, framing, plumbing, electrical, tile, fixtures, and so forth.
That makes it easier to compare different contractors’ prices and see where the
discrepancies are. If you need to cut the project costs, you can easily assess
your options. Plus, an itemized bid becomes valuable documentation about the
exact scope of the project, which may eliminate disputes later.
The contractor shouldn’t give you
a hard time about itemizing his bid. He has to figure out his total price line
by line anyway, so you’re not asking him to do more work, only to share the
details. If he resists, it means he wants to withhold important information
about his bid—a red flag for sure.
2. Is your bid an estimate or a
fixed price?
Homeowners generally assume that
the bid they’re seeing is a fixed price, but some contractors treat their
proposals as estimates, meaning bills could wind up being higher in the end. If
he calls it an estimate, request a fixed price bid instead. If he says he can’t
offer a fixed price because there are too many unknowns about the job, then
eliminate the unknowns.
“Have him open up a wall to check
the structure he’s unsure about or go back to your architect and solidify the
design plans,” says Tampa, Fla., attorney George Meyer, who is chair-elect of
the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry. If you
simply cannot resolve the unknowns he’s concerned about, have the project specs
describe what he expects to do—and if he needs to do additional work later, you
can do a change order (a written mini-bid for new work).
3. How long have you been doing business
in this town?
A contractor who’s been plying his
trade locally for 5 or 10 years has an established network of subcontractors
and suppliers in the area and a local reputation to uphold. That makes him a
safer bet than a contractor who’s either new to the business or new to the
area—or who’s planning to commute to your job from 50 miles away.
You want to see a nearby address
(not a PO box) on his business card—and should ask him to include one or two of
his earliest clients on your list of references. This will help you verify that
he hasn’t just recently hung his shingle—and will give you perspective from a
homeowner who has lived with the contractor’s work for years. After all, the
test of a quality job, whether it’s a blue stone patio or a family room
addition, is how well it stands the test of time.
4. Who are your main suppliers?
You’ve found a few potential
contractors, you’ve talked to the happy former clients on each of their
reference lists, now it’s time for one additional bit of homework: talking to
their primary suppliers. There’s no better reference for a tile setter, for
example, than his preferred tile shop; for a general contractor than his
favorite lumberyard or home center pro desk; for a plumber than the kitchen and
bath showroom where he’s on a first name basis.
The proprietors of these shops
know a contractor’s professional reputation, whether he has left a trail of
unhappy customers in his wake, if he’s reliable about paying his bills—and
whether he’s someone you’ll want to hire. The contractor should have absolutely
no qualms about telling you where he gets his materials, as long as he’s an
upstanding customer.
5. I’d like to meet the job
foreman—can you take me to a project he’s running?
Many contractors don’t actually
swing hammers. They spend their days bidding new work and managing their
various jobs and workers. In some cases, the contractor you hire may not visit
the job site every day—or may not even show himself again after you’ve signed
the contract. So the job foreman—the one who’s working on your project every
day—is actually the most important member of your team.
Meeting him in person and seeing a
job that he’s running should give you a feel for whether he’s someone you want
managing your project. Plus, it gives the general contractor an incentive to
assign you one of his better crews since you’re more likely to hire him if you
see his A Team. If the contractor says he’ll be running the job himself, ask
whether he’ll be there every day. Again, he’ll want to give you a positive
response—something you can hold him to later on.
6. How much insurance do you carry?
If the contractor carries 3 million or more then you know he works on big jobs and can take care of any liabilities that may come up. This is especially important when working in a condo where multiple units could be affected if something goes wrong.
The subtleties of how to hire a
contractor
It’s not only the answers to these
questions that will help you judge potential contractors—it’s the way they
answer them. Were they easy to talk to and forthcoming with details or did they
hem and haw and make you ask more than once? Difficulty communicating now means
difficulty communicating on the job later. But clear, timely and thoughtful
responses—combined with terrific references, great completed work that you’ve
seen, and a smart take on your project—may mean you’ve found the right pro for
your job.
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