Mar 15 2007
With the arrival of spring, a lot of homeowners are beginning to think about major home repair and home maintenance projects.
And that leads to a daunting dilemma: How do you pick a home repair or home maintenance contractor who'll do a good job without ripping you off?
Home repair and home maintenance expert John Ward offers these eight tips that may help homeowners pick the right home repair or homemaintenance contractor for their work:
- Experience matters. Pick a home repair or home maintenance contractor with enough experience to do your job right. When we're called in to fix problems caused by other contractors, the most common cause of the problem is that the person who did the original work didn't have the experience or skill to do the job right the first time.
- Get a firm price. With a few exceptions, home repair and home maintenance contractors should be able to give you a firm price in writing before work begins. The exceptions are jobs where it's impossible to know up front how much work and materials will be required -- some emergency plumbing repairs, for example. Make sure the price quote specifies what's included.
- Get a firm schedule. There's nothing more frustrating than work that doesn't get done on schedule. Ask your home repair / home maintenance contractor for a firm schedule and insist on being able to cancel a contract if work doesn't start on time. Consider price incentives for work being completed on time for major projects that take a long time to complete.
- Get multiple bids on large projects. Always a good idea. Pay attention to how the people preparing the bids approach your project. The degree of professionalism a home repair / home maintenance contractor shows when bidding your project is a good indicator of the professionalism they'll bring to your work.
- Consider price and value. Price is always worth considering. But choose the home repair / home maintenance contractor who will give you the best value for your money. Value includes the quality as well as price. If you receive widely varying bids for a project, try to figure out why. The bids may include different quality material or levels of work. Cheapest isn't always the cheapest or best.
- Inspections are important. Be wary of home repair / home maintenance contractors who try to get you to skip permits and inspections by promising to do the work for less money if you do. Permits are there to protect you. The inspector's job is to make sure the work done on your home meets local safety and quality codes. Skip this step and the few dollars you save today may cost you big bucks down the road.
- Get a guarantee. Get a guarantee in writing and understand exactly what it covers -- or doesn't cover.
- Check references. Ask for references from other homeowners who've had similar work done. And check them out with the Better Business Bureau too.
Ward has owned and operated Applewood Plumbing, Heating & Electric for more than 34 years. He is a master plumber and recognized as an industry leader for his knowledge about home repair and home maintenance.