How to Ensure Quality When Selecting a Contractor

Whether you need to hire a contractor for a home remodel or a new home build, you’ll want to take steps to ensure you’re hiring a good quality contractor. While you should ask your relatives, friends, and co-workers about the contracting companies they have used in the past, this should just be the start of your search. Once you gather a list of potential contractors, the following guide can help you narrow down your choices.

Conduct Quick Phone Interviews

The best way to start narrowing down your options for hiring a good contractor is to call each contractor for quick phone interviews. This is an opportunity to ask just a few questions that will help you measure each contractor’s qualifications.

You’ll want to know if they have experience in handling projects similar to the one you have in mind. If so, you should ask if they can offer references from past customers. You’ll also want to know how many different projects they take on at one time as well as finding out how many projects they’re currently handling.

If they use subcontractors, ask how long they have been working with their current subcontractors.

Research Each Contractor

The previous step should have helped you eliminate some contractors from your list, leaving you with four or five potential contracting companies. You can further reduce this list by meeting with each contractor in a face-to-face encounter.

You’ll want to feel comfortable with the company’s project manager since they will be in your home and overseeing the work throughout the project. You should also research each company on sites like the Better Business Bureau the consumer protection agency in your own state.

A little internet research and sending out a few emails will help you find out if any of the contractors you’re considering hiring have been subjected to disciplinary action or lawsuits.

Evaluate Their Work

You should also visit a worksite for each contractor you’re considering hiring to determine the efficiency and skill they put into their projects. You should make a point to observe safety measures they undertake on job sites.

Additionally, determine if they use innovative technology, such as3D laser scanning services, to help them provide a better quality of work for their customers. Take notice of how the contractor’s team interacts with their customers on those other job sites.

They should be polite and courteous, and they should take care in how they treat the customer’s home.

Start Taking Bids

By this time, you should have narrowed your choices down to two or three contractors. You should ask each of them to submit a bid based on the plans and information you provide to them. To ensure the bids are as accurate as possible, make sure to provide a complete set of blueprints to each contractor.

Each bid should detail the costs of materials, labor, and profits. As a general rule of thumb, the materials should comprise 40% of the total cost of the project. The rest covers labor, additional expenses, and a 15-20% profit.

You should compare each bid side by side to determine which contractor is able to give you what you expect at the fairest price.

You can also trust your feelings about each contractor. If you feel one is more trustworthy or competent than the others, you should consider hiring that contractor. Alternatively, a contractor who strikes you as deceitful or unethical should be avoided.

Often, a person’s instincts are accurate, so it’s okay to listen to your internal voice. This can be especially helpful when all of the other factors about the contractors are similar. In that situation, your choice may have to rely on your own personal instincts.