Contractor Help
We are coming upon our first year anniversary of finding and eventually buying our first home. To celebrate, we have decided to start some of the renovation, repair, and maintenance projects that have piled up. Neither of us have ever really dealt with contractors before and would love some basic advice on a) how to…
We are coming upon our first year anniversary of finding and eventually buying our first home.
To celebrate, we have decided to start some of the renovation, repair, and maintenance projects that have piled up.
Neither of us have ever really dealt with contractors before and would love some basic advice on a) how to find them, b) what questions we should ask when assessing, c) warning signs to look out for when discussing projects with prospective companies.
Also, the projects range from small repairs around the house (weak floorboard) to rebuilding the front and back stoops, replacing the windows, repointing the brick-work, renovating the bathroom and creating vents for the basement, kitchen and bathroom.
We could do many of these over time or all at once and want to know how that would affect the deal.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Hi, I’ve been taking on a lot of small projects. Given the recession, no job is too small. For larger projects I work with Above or Environmental Design – both have done very high end work in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Last year I represented a business and sourced about 50 contractors around the U.S. for work in airports. I never had a bad experience with one of them. There are basic tell tale signs that let me know I’ve found the right people. I have also represented the government, sourcing contractors for projects on a college campus. By law they had to take the lowest bid, and it always got them into trouble. On the contractor end I have worked with some of the most prestigious builders and clients in the world. Clear communication is the foundation of a good contracting experience. It is a rare contractor who can offer that.
i am a contractor myself, and i highly recommend asking your friends and neighbors for a recommendation… contractors that are good in one area may not be so good in another…definitely do not go for the low bid, because that is probably too good to be true…
First of all, do NOT call anyone who suggests that you call contractor X or Y on this thread. Since you did not ask for that advice, my guess would be that anyone who responds with contractor recommendations is just someone looking for work for themselves. Sorry, but that is just not a recommendation you should seriously consider!
Instead, I strongly agree with the more objective, basic advice given by CGfan, Arkady and Vinca which is sincerely responsive to the questions you posted. In our case, we ended up finding our GC by going through this forum’s archives and searching for GC recommendations. The firm we eventually selected came recommended by a former frequent poster here who we did not know personally but whose knowledge of, and love for, old houses was consistently evident in her posts. After the first phone call with the recommended contractor, we felt an immediate connection. However, it was proof of license and insurance, extremely detailed conversations with his references — including actual site visits to some of his completed projects — that really helped sealed the deal for us. And, of course, we negotiated a very detailed contract which included project completion time frames and workmanship warranties.
In most cases, the bigger the project the more motivated a GC will be to bid both honestly and competitively on your project (as well as to to throw in small side jobs during the course of the reno that were not formally contracted). OTOH, you may not want to give a total stranger with whom you’ve had no prior experience the whole kahuna. Frankly, a lot of this contractor hiring business is about knowing how to be a smart, conscientious, organized and intuitive sleuth. At the same time, some of the best choices in general contractor selections seem, primarily, to be a matter of having good luck.
So good luck!
Call Bullfrog Builders, 718-228-0199 or contact them via the web at http://WWW.BULLFROGNY.COM. They are General Contractors who can handle any aspect of home renovation/repair/build or hwatever. They did plenty of work for me in the past and I always recommend them because they are licensed and insured, reliable ncontractors with great customer service. They will bdefinitely be inclined to offer a discount if you mention my name as well. Happy Hunting!
There is a definite learning curve to repairs/renovation/working with contractors. If you’ve never done any of these, a good place to start might be a book or online site with “how to work with a contractor”-type information. I am not recommending either of these links, just providing them because they were easy to find:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/contractor1.asp
http://www.amazon.com/Before-You-Hire-Contractor-Construction/dp/1891264656
Many of the jobs you mention are specialized jobs for which I, personally, would hire different contractors (for example, masonry and plumbing to two different contractors). You can certainly hire a good GC, and have him subcontract the various parts of the job—just understand that it will cost more, but might save some headaches (or, depending on contractor, might create some).
If you don’t have friends who have done similar work, walk around your neighborhood, note who’s working and talk to people on a jobsite (owners and workers, both). There are lots of contractor recommendations and commentary easily found on this Forum’s archives (search contractors, etc.). Keep in mind that seemingly small jobs (“weak floorboard”) can sometimes, but not always, indicate major problems (rotted or missing floor joist). Get at least three bids, be sure your contractor is legitimate, and sign a contract. Don’t let your payments get ahead of the actual work done. If all this is new to you, you might want to begin with only one job and learn from that experience.
It depends on whether you’re hiring a contractor or want to oversee the work yourself. I begin by itemizing each project in nit-picking detail so it’s obvious what kind of disruption is involved in each stage. I prioritize according to how much I can spend at a given time & which jobs are best done earlier because of either dire consequences of not doing them or the impact they’d have if postponed until after another thing is done – i.e. don’t fix the walls & then rewire.
You’re going to need several trades – I’ve found good people on this forum as well as by listening to friends who’ve had similar work done.
In my opinion, the best way to find a contractor is to tell everyone you know you are looking for someone. Accept only a recommendation from someone you know. Generally, friends will give you both the good and bad, so you know up front what you are getting into. When we were looking for a contractor, we heard only horror stories from many people until one person told us about their contractor who they loved. They warned us that he didn’t negotiate in price at all, but would complete the job on time and professionally. There are always trade offs — I have seen work by other contractors that is perhaps of a higher degree of quality but also takes much longer or the contractor is “flaky” and doesn’t always show up. Or the contractor is much cheaper, but takes much longer and your project is always on the back burner. But recommendations from friends/friendly acquaintances are always best, and once you know the good and bad, you can make decisions as to what your own priorities are.
To answer your other questions, it probably makes most sense to do all the projects at once. Many good contractors won’t do just a small repair, but if you have a larger job, will do all the little things you need done as well.