Have a small or large remodeling or construction project in mind? Well, that’s great, but you really want to make sure your contractor is reputable, knowledgeable and responsible. Before the work begins, everyone can tell a pretty story about how great they work and how easy it is to do everything. But before handing your money to him, here are a couple of things you might want to do to protect your assets, money, and home.
You have a great tool you can use, Google to research and dive a little bit deeper into your contractor. Check his reviews, check where the reviews on his profiles come from, how often and read the most recent reviews. Most likely your contractor of choice is advertising on several platforms such as Yelp, Houzz, Angie List, Buildzoom etc. If he has a youtube channel (which we do) take a look at his videos and see the projects he usually does to make sure he is up to the task on yours.
I think asking for references is a must, if you are doing remodeling it isn’t a one day job, usually contractors develop a relationship with their clients, they are in their house daily for weeks or months, so it would be no problem for your contractor to provide you with previous clients contacts. Ask for the most recent ones and take your time to call them and ask them about their experience during the project. You really want to make sure your contractor has great communications skills and problem solving skills (regardless of how skilled and reputable your contractor is there will always be problems here and there. Just make sure he knows how to deal with them), not always does everything go by plan so talking out key issues is important.
I won’t lie this is a tricky one, not all clients are keen on having strangers come into their home and taking a look but if your contractor even suggests such an idea that means he is very confident of his work, it might take a while to setup such a walkthrough due to scheduling of three parties but we have done that previously and we always suggest such an idea to our client if they have a large remodeling project such as a kitchen or bathroom. That way you can see first hand that your contractor is reliable and is able to complete similar tasks.
This is also an important step, but perhaps more important than others, you want to make sure your contractor has all his documentation up to date, he might be a good worker but in case any trouble arises you want to make sure you have a proper government institution to turn to. Your contractor having red flags in the past might also be a good sign that not everything will turn out smoothly. Construction is not only about how well you can install tile or kitchen cabinets but how well you navigate with all government codes and policies.
Check their license.
Use a very convenient tool from LNI to see what the status of their license is
Is it current or outdated ? If its current then he is all good and is allowed to perform labor works. Short and easy, below is the link where you can check.
• Check the bonds if he is a general contractor he should have a general contractor's bond (30,000$) vs special contractor bond (15,000$)
We make all of our estimates binding, that way you can plan out your budget with no surprises. It is to get your foot in the door with a low price and then keep asking for more money when the project starts, we like to avoid that this guarantees our clients that they won't have any unexpected budget issues. So before singing the contract and starting the work make sure to ask your contractor for a binding estimate. Of course your contractor has no X-ray vision, so you must understand if a problem arises when the flooring is lifted or drywall taken off and such issues like rot, mold, or corrosion could drive your expenses a bit up and that’s why change orders exist. If you have been in the contractor world for a while in Seattle you do learn to recognize patterns and we always give heads up to our clients what problems might be hiding underneath the floors and behind the walls. So always set a bit of the budget aside for unexpected problems.
Carefully look for any caveats on any documentation you sign, yes, read the small print, fortunately if you don’t have any glasses no worries everything is written in large font on our contracts and we usually schedule a meeting to go over the contract together with the client. You can take a look at our contract attached below.
Disclosure statement (required by state but often overlooked by contractors and clients)
It's needed if the contractor disappears with your money without completing the work and vice versa when the client doesn’t want to pay for honest completion of the work. This way you can receive his bond money. You can download that document from the link above.
