Regardless of whether you are looking to remodel your bathroom, rewire an electrical box or any other home improvement project, you need to choose a general contractor who can come out and get the job done for you. While this might seem like a daunting task, you don’t want to choose just anyone. In doing so, you could end up making the project take longer and cost you more than you planned on spending. You need to take the time to choose a general contractor wisely to ensure your project goes off without a hitch. Consider the following tips to help make the process simple and effective.
Conduct a Few Phone Interviews
Once you have a list of potential contractors you are looking to hire, you need to take some time to call each one of them on the phone and ask them relevant questions that pertain to your project. Some of the common questions you might want to ask are as follows:
- Are you willing to complete a project this size?
- Do you have any financial references from banks or suppliers that you use?
- Do you have a list of clients that you did work for in the past?
- Will you have a bunch of other projects going on while you are working on mine?
- Have you been working with your subcontractors very long?
By getting the answers to all of these questions, you can determine whether the company is going to be available to complete your project, how reliable they are, how much time they are going to have to dedicate to your project and how smooth the process of completing the work will be.
Talk with the Contractors One-on-one
Once you get through the phone interviews, you can narrow down the choices to determine who you want to pursue the discussion with further. In meeting the general contractor, you can ask for estimates, ask questions about the project and more. These individuals should be able to answer any questions you have with ease. You should be able to communicate with the other party easily, especially since they are going to be spending a decent amount of time inside of your home. See if anyone has filed any disputes against the contractor. This will prevent you from hiring someone who has a history of problems.
Do your Own Research on the Contractor
Once you have gotten to the point where your list is down to the last few contractors, you want to start putting everything you learned to the test. Begin calling some of their former clients to see what they have to say about the work the contractor did. Take some time to check them out at work on another job site to see how things are going and how well they do their job. How does the job site look? How are the workers treating the owner of the property?
All of these things are important to whether you should choose that individual general contractor or not. You need to make an informed and accurate decision about who you want to do the job for you.