Questions to Ask Potential Home Contractors
When you need work done on your home, you need a reliable contractor who knows their stuff. In the U.S., finding a high-quality contractor takes work because, according to Get One Desk, in 2021, the country offered 7.56 million construction workers. That’s a lot of interviewing to do to find one individual, but your state probably only offers tens of thousands of options. In this blog, we cover how to reduce that massive number down to a reasonable amount of people to personally interview and what to ask your potential contractors.
Essential Questions to Ask
Start with the essentials by learning about your potential contractor’s background, experience, years in business, licensing, and insurance. Don’t take the person’s word for it; ask to see their license and insurance certificates for workers’ compensation, general liability, and construction liability insurance. If they claim to have any specialty training, such as certifications from roofing manufacturers, such as GAF or Tamko, confirm these, too.
Confirming the Contractor’s Experience
Note the license number of each contractor you consider. Consult the website of the issuing source to confirm what the license covers and that the contractor maintains it. Call each referral the contractor provides to check on their work and how they treat customers. Also, check their social media accounts to learn what their clients who don’t provide referral information say.
How the Contractor Does Business
You’ll also need to know what the contractor provides vis-a-vis site protection, clean-up, contracting, and payments. All of these questions to ask about how the company does business affect the cost of the work because if a contractor doesn’t provide tarping, you’ll need to do so, and if they don’t provide clean-up, you’ll need to hire someone who does. Whether a company uses the most common contract type, lump-sum delivery, guaranteed maximum prices, or line-item costing, can affect your final project cost.
Ballpark Estimates of Your Project
With regard to the estimate you receive for your project, you need to know what the estimate covers. Some estimates cover only labor, and some include materials, too. Not all contractors handle permitting for the clients, so discuss this with your potential contractors. In the U.S., between 22% and 24% of the population resides in HOA communities, which often establish covenants governing the appearance of homes and landscapes within their borders.
Guaranteeing Work Completed
Finally, discuss with each contractor any warranties or work guarantees provided. Some projects, such as roofing replacements, include a materials warranty from the manufacturer. Contractors with manufacturer certifications provide workmanship warranties through the materials manufacturer.
You’ll also need to know if the contractor helps resolve project disagreements. These can occur if more than one homeowner owns a property, something that can occur if a deceased individual divides their home by percentage of ownership in their will. This proves more common than you might think since in 2021, about 75.12% of U.S. estate plans consisted of wills.
Hiring a contractor takes time, but once you find the right general contractor, you can use that person repeatedly to address issues at your home. Continue to hire the same contractor to achieve cohesive results at your home. When you take the time to find the best option first, you reduce your work in the future because you won’t need to re-interview contractors when you want to make renovations or need to make repairs due to storm damage.
When you need to hire a home contractor, it’s crucial to ask the right questions. Before you schedule your appointment, make sure you get to know the potential professionals you may be working with. This can make all the difference in the results you get.