Hiring a Contractor: Not As Easy As It Seems Articles | Interior Design

You might think that locating a skilled and dependable contractor is easy and can be done only after a good scan through the Yellow Pages and selecting one located in your area, but home owners who have done any repairing or renovation of their homes would tell you that it is really not that simple. It takes a lot of time and effort to find someone who will do a good job of remodeling your home.

One of the first points to remember when hiring a contractor is that you and your family members will have to literally live with them for many days or even weeks while they are engaged in doing up your house. These people will also have easy access to nearly all sections of the house. This means that you must be completely at ease while working or hiring these people. Here are a few methods to find contractors who you can trust:

• Go by names referred to by friends, neighbors or colleagues.
• When the contractor provides names of his past customers, check with them regarding their quality of work as well as credibility.
• Your local lumber store or home renovation outlets may refer some good names of contractors.
• Your local zooming and/or code enforcement offices may recommend some contractors who you might like to contact.

Once you have short listed a few contractors from these sources, you should now interview them. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the following questions are suggested which can tell you if the contractor is suitable to do any renovation work in your home. So during interview, you could try the following questions to assess the feasibility of a particular contractor:

• How Long Have You Been In Business?-Are You Registered and Licensed With the State and Local Building Authorities
• How Many Projects Like This Have You Completed in the Past Year?
• May I Contact Some of Your Former Clients?
• Will You Be Hiring Any Subcontractors for This Project?
• What Types of Insurance Do You Carry?

After you have selected the contractor based on the questions cited above, there are a couple of things which you must get it in writing before you hand over any monetary deposit to him or his company. These are:

• Cost of the total project.
• Total deliverables.
• Firm date of completion of the project.

Like every industry, there is no dearth of fraudulent and unscrupulous contractors and contracting companies. So you want to be doubly sure that you are entrusting some one reputable with your home renovation project. Here are some pointers to look for before you finalize any deal with a contractor:

• Door-to-door solicitation.
• Offers to use leftover or balance materials from past jobs.
• A contractor who only accepts cash payments.
• Someone who insists on receiving full payment before commencing work.
• Pressurizes you to make an on-the-spot decision.
• Offers you financial assistance through loans from ‘own’ lenders.