The decision to hire a professional contractor to oversee a remodeling project at your home is not something that you should take lightly. It is imperative that you carefully select who your contractor will be. Do not simply choose the first name you see listed in the phone book. This could turn out to be a disaster. You need to invest some of your time into doing research that will help to ensure that you hire the right person for the job. Here are several of the most important questions that you should pose to any general contractor who you are thinking about hiring.
1. How long have you worked in this area?
You might be curious why this is an important question to ask a contractor. The reason is that there are many contractors who are dishonest. They travel around to different cities and perform work that is substandard for the people who are foolish enough to hire them. The contractor is already long gone when the homeowner realizes that he has been duped. This is why it is so important for you to hire a contractor who actually has ties to your area. Make sure the home improvement contractor has an office. This will make it extremely unlikely that he will skip town after he finishes working on your home.
2. When will you be able to begin working on my remodeling project?
Contractors are very busy people. They are often booked for several months in advance. This is especially true in the summer months when the weather is very good for working outdoors. This is why it is so important to find out exactly when a contractor will be able to get started on your project. You might want to consider hiring a different contractor if the one you were planning on hiring will not be able to start for an extended period of time. It is all a question of how long you are prepared to wait. It might be worth waiting a little longer for a certain contractor if he comes very highly recommended. You will need to make sure that you have all the necessary building permits from your city before the project is started.
3. How long will it take you to complete the project?
You will also need to get a good idea of the length of time that the contractor will require finishing all of his work. You might have a certain deadline that you need the project to be completed by. Talk to previous clients of the contractor to make sure that he has a reputation for completing his projects by the proposed deadline.