Hiring A Contractor?

Custom Built Ins with Hidden Door

Are you wondering what to expect when hiring a contractor? or even how to hire a quality contractor, well let us help.

We recently hired a sub-contractor to help us with the painting of a large job. We interviewed him, looked at his photos, and even used him on a smaller job to establish a relationship. We decided to hire this same contractor to paint a much larger and lucrative project. It quickly went south. With cancellations and rebooking he ended up throwing our schedule off by 3 weeks; but that was just the beginning.

after he finished the paint our clients called asking us to come review his work and requested he not return. We were appalled by the quailty of work he had left behind and quickly realized our custom built ins were ruined. Over saturation of paint had raised the grain of the wood effecting the functionality & design of our work. Long story short this sub-contractor ended up costing us 2 months worth of work we had to postpone, 80+ hours to fix the mistakes and another $2,000 to hire a painter and supply new paint.

Example of Paint Job

So, How can you avoid this Mistake in your future?

1) ASK FOR REFERRALS: asking friends, co-workers, Family, or even approach the strangers who live in the house you’ve been admiring, is a great first step. Refferals allow you to find someone who has already established a good reputation. Be leery if your referer uses terms like,"they were a good deal” or “they were able to fit us in right away”. This doesn’t guarantee they don’t have quailty work but it may be a sign. Usually quality contractors are booked months in advance and for good reason. If you’re hiring a contractor off of Yelp or other sites ask the contractor if they have referrals you can contact. Contractors will be more than willing to set this up to give you peace of mind.

2) PICTURES: Yes! look at pictures on their Yelp, their website, and any other pictures they may be able to provide. Ask for upclose pictures and pictures with details. If you do seek out a referral ask the referral for pictures. as many examples of different kinds of work are best. This helps you to determine if their up for the job at hand.

3) EXPECT TO WAIT: Quailty, highly sought after contractors will be booked up. You can expect to wait anywhere from 1 month to 12+ Months for work to be done, of course this is dependent on the type of work you are requiring. Currently custom order doors are taking a minimum of 16 to 22 weeks to be delivered. A custom woodworking build (even if it seems easy) can take a minimum of 6-8 weeks. This all depends of the volume of clientele they are currently serving and the time frame or difficulty of the job.

4) CONTRACTS: Get it in writing. Contractors do not have to itemize each service or do a break down of the cost, but they should give you a description of the work being preformed. Make sure your estimate and/or contract includes things like:

- location service will be done

- description of job

- Special Order Items needed

- What the service may include; such as, does the service include demo, who is supplying materials, is labor included in cost, is there a haul away fee, is clean up included, are there delivery charges.

- Deposit fees

- Transaction fees

5) OPEN COMMUNICATION: Make sure your contractor has an open communication with you. Know the days and times they are available and adhere to those boundaries (contractors have families too). Your contractor should contact you with any changes in dates and communicate when items or circumstances may change. If they are hard to get a hold of or seem to be ignoring you this may be a red flag. Don’t expect an immediate response but if they haven’t responded in a week it’s a good idea to be a little more pushy.

Hopefully these five tips will help your next home project run more smoothly knowing you can trust your contracted help.

Niki & andy