How to Hire a Remodeling Contractor

Looking for a kitchen remodeler, or bath remodeler, or someone to add an addition to your home? These are big projects, and require skilled, experienced contractors. Hiring a contractor for a remodeling project can be a scary proposition. After all, you're inviting a virtual stranger into your home, to tear things up and hopefully put it all back together the way you want it. Scarier still when you hear stories from friends and neighbors who've been left high and dry by a contractor who ran off with their money, or messed up their project but refused to come back and make it right, or any number of nightmare scenarios. The fact is, in most states you can be a fully licensed contractor, without having any education, experience or training. So if anyone can strap on a tool belt and call themselves a contractor, how do you, as a homeowner, sift through and find a skilled, honest and experienced remodeling contractor to take care of your project? Here are five tips to help you do just that:

1: Check to see if they are licensed and bonded. You can go on to the L&I website to check if your contractor is licensed, if their license is active, and if they have any liens or disputes. Having a license doesn't necessarily make you a better contractor, since many states don't require any training or education to qualify for a contractor's license (Here in the state of Washington, only plumbers and electricians are required to go through any training to receive a license.), but to carry a contractor's license you are required to have liability insurance and a bond. As a homeowner, this is your leverage against the contractor should you have any problems with them or their work.

2: Get References. Get names, contact information and job details of recent customers. Be sure to follow through and contact these customers, and ask lots of questions of them. Many people will just give out names of friends and family members as references, so you want to make sure they are real customers. The more detail your contractor can provide you, the more legitimate you know they are.

3: Check out their website and their on-line profile. You can learn a lot by researching a contractor online. You can find pictures of their work, read details about their company, and many even have blogs, which can be very informative. Also, be sure to check for reviews. If they've been around for any length of time, you will likely see a review of them somewhere on the web (Yelp and Angie's List are two good resources for contractor reviews).

4: Shop Around. Try to get at least 3 different bids for your project. The bids should be detailed and spell out exactly what they intend to do for the price they are quoting. It happens all too often that a contractor will come in with a really good price, but as the job goes on, you hear, "oh, sorry, that wasn't covered in the bid.", or "We're going to have to charge extra for that." The next thing you know, you're paying twice as much as you budgeted for! With that in mind, you should be very suspicious of really low bids. Remember you get what you pay for. So read through the bid carefully, and ask plenty of questions to make sure that you are getting everything you intended.

5: Get to know them. Ask them about themselves, how they got into the business, how long they've been doing it. Get a sense of who they are, and how well they communicate, because communication is paramount to having a remodeling project go well. Also, take note of how quickly they return your calls or respond to emails. If it takes days to get a response, that's a bad sign. It probably means they are spread too thin, and if that's the case, your project isn't likely to get the attention it needs to get done right and on time.

So there you go: five easy tips to find a good contractor. Honestly, remodeling is stressful enough, so do yourself a favor, and follow even a few of these tips when you're hiring a contractor for your next project.

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