Welcome aboard our latest Blog series: “Navigating Your Renovation Journey: 15 Vital Inquiries Before Committing to a Remodeling Contractor.” Drawing from my extensive 52-year tenure within the remodeling sphere, I’ve encountered a spectrum of remodeling firms, some of which, frankly, would have been better off steering clear of the industry altogether.
In this comprehensive series, we’ll delve into a selection of crucial questions designed to empower you in selecting the ideal remodeling contractor for your project. While not exhaustive, these inquiries serve as a roadmap to guide your decision-making process. Whether you opt to pose all queries or select a few, I recommend consistency in questioning all prospective contractors. This ensures a level playing field, facilitating an informed comparison and aiding you in pinpointing the contractor best aligned with your unique requirements.
What Is Your Background and How Experienced Are You in Remodeling?
The first question in our list is “What is your background and how experienced are you in remodeling”. As with just about everything that you but, I’m sure that you wouldn’t purchase a new car from a firm that has made bicycles for the last 20 years but has never made a car until now. You would probable wait a couple of years at least or until that company has sold a few million cars so that you can be pretty sure that they have worked most, if not all, of the bugs out. The same is true for remodeling companies.
I have known a few remodeling company owners who have completed a number of bathroom remodels who, out of the blue, get a chance to bid on a large whole house remodel. Because of their inexperience on this type of project they under bid the actual costs involved and come in with a much lower proposal than every other remodeling contractor involved. They get the contract to do the work and then things really start to go South. Half way through the project they realize they have run out of money and then they bail on the project and homeowner, leaving the homeowner on the hook for the cost of finishing the project.
Avoiding Inexperienced Contractors
To help you in not becoming a statistic and one of the homeowners mentioned above you will want to get from all of the prospective remodeling contractors a long list of projects that their company has completed. I suggest that you get a few projects that were completed a couple of years ago as well as a few projects that were completed recently.
Check Completed Projects
Obtain a long list of projects that the company has completed, including projects from a couple of years ago and recently. Contact the clients and inquire about their satisfaction, communication, project progress, and adherence to warranties.
Call all of the clients on their lists and to the projects completed a couple of years ago ask how their projects went, did the contractor honor all needed warranty issues in a timely manner and were they completely satisfied with the contractor. To the clients who’s projects were just completed ask how well the contractor communicated with them during the project, did the project progress in a timely manner and did the contractor clean up and keep the project site safe during the project.
Evaluate Project Scope
Another aspect of this is not only to make sure that the prospective remodeling contractor has completed projects of the type you are looking at having completed, but also of the same size/scope as you are wanting done. You can remodel your kitchen by replacing your kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts and a new countertop, or you can have a completely new kitchen and demolish everything down to the wall studs. These projects required completely different project skills as well as experience. This is the one area where I suggest that you do your utmost due diligence as the information that you discover could make the difference between a horrible, stress filled experience and a smooth, easy project done in half the time.
Ensure that the contractor has experience in projects of the same size and scope as the one you are planning. Different remodeling projects require different skill sets and experience levels.
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