How many chances to give a contractor?

[SkipW]

1) I've already mentioned it here before but this was the icing on the cake: the bathroom carpenter drywalled my cat behind the shower wall and was peeved when I removed a section of drywall to let her out...

2) as a professional window restoration tradesperson, I have been in homes/buildings where I am astounded by what passes as decent work by others...

3) good luck to anyone who is hiring a contractor of any kind...dime a dozen and worth about as much....

...jade

1) OMG, I remember the story of the cat in the wall...if it wasn't so incredibly lame, it would be too funny to admit to...wonder if he does.

2) I work in homes of all vintages and love helping folks in older homes, but lately the bills are being paid by a development that has gone up over the last several years nearby. I built a porch for one owner and then got referrals, etc...Out of 41 homes, 21 are my clients. At least 50% of the work I am asked to do is basically "fix" stuff that is wrong from the builder(s). Most of it is just stupid, but some is downright dangerous.

3) Referral, referral referral...I can't stress it enough. Ask all your neighbors and friends and GO SEE the work and see if it is up to your standards/needs. And sadly, you really do have to pay for professionals...saving a buck by hiring some guy/gal working out of the trunk of their old car might not be the best choice.

[Sashguy]

One chance. If they do not have it, they just do not have it.

I pretty much develop friendships with my customers, and they are quick to confide problems that they have had with previous contractors.

You are NOT going to get anything done quick, inexpensive and excellent. There are too few true craftsmen out there, and they're always booked up because they are good. If they are second rate, they can probably start tomorrow because nobody else will hire them. Get on the craftsman's pending and wait it out.

Unless the job is material intensive, don't pay up front. Far too many contractors get large sums of money up front, thereby removing their incentive to please. They have what they want, why should they be overly concerned with what you want.

Angie's list is diluted with friends and relatives talking up third rate contractors. REFERENCES, many, and if you are bold, "could I please come take a look at the work that they did?"

Ask who will be doing the work. Craftsmen are hands on, second rate contractors don't know which end of a hammer to hold so they hire subs (who can start tomorrow) and expose your home to a bunch of strangers who you do not know, and sometimes, who the contractor doesn't know.

Drop in to see often. I don't mean look over their shoulder, but keep yourself aware.

If you find a good craftsman, ask them about recommendations for other work that needs to be done. They see the good and bad every day.

[Kmarissa]

Thanks for all the responses. I like the point about some people being great at their job but not necessarily great at running a business. Those really are different skill sets. It's when the big operations miss appointments and don't get back to us with quotes that I get the most frustrated. We had another no-show no-call last night from a biggish company last night. Sigh.

I do wish we had more friends and family in the area getting work done on their homes, who we could ask for references. We did end up going with a roofing company that had been recommended to us by a neighbor. Otherwise we haven't had much luck. I'd love to learn how to do more of the work ourselves, but at this point most of these projects are really too far along the learning curve for us. Although, now you've got me wondering how hard is it to build and install a new porch railing...

There are some great ideas here like checking in ahead of an appointment to be sure they're still planning on coming. I think I'll get more proactive with the individual craftspeople (at least the ones that seem particularly skilled) but I won't necessarily do the same for the big operations that have hired staff to deal with the administrative stuff.

[vvzz]

My father always told me, "Trust only your family." It took me a while but I find this to be completely true (and for some, not even!).

I never higher anyone except for unskilled labor, but once I hired a relative(wife's aunt's husband) to service an oil boiler. It hasn't been ran for a while so I figured I'll use a 'professional' to do it right. The guy did a pretty crappy job cleaning it and then when I asked him if he's going to use a combustion analyzer to properly setup the burner, he said he can do it by eye(no one can do it by eye correctly) or I can pay $50 extra for him to use the analyzer. It's not like he was giving me a discount to begin with and it's not like using the analyzer costs anything.

So yeah, that was the last time I ever hired anyone and I just do anything myself.

[heartwood]

i make a point to contact clients the day before a scheduled meeting to confirm the time....most remember, a few don't....
...jade

[JacquieJet]

I agree on the one chance to make it right thing. Mistakes happen, and I will usually do a follow up call to see where the quote went or what the timeline for the project is. But, I won't make a second phone call.

My reasoning for this is if there is ever any problems with workmanship in the future, if the contractor isn't willing to be prompt when there is money on the table, then there is NO WAY they will show up to fix anything when they have already been paid.
A contractor who respects my time is a better investment, I believe. Sometimes you have to go through a lot of them to find a good one, but I believe it's well worth the effort. Also, as previously mentioned, my greatest success with contractors hasn't been from online reviews- it's been from my neighbour's recommendations. Recently, we've gotten the house painted, and I had some quotes done that I wasn't happy with (both too high and far too low to know what they were getting it to, in addition to no-show quotes), but I saw the house across the street being painted so I walked over and spoke to the painter. Turned out to be a great guy, very good at his job, and gave me a reasonable quote and great tips on paint and care.

So, see who your neighbours are hiring! Talk to them, ask why they chose that particular contractor. Pros/cons.

[Kashka-Kat]

Recently been talking to people about doing some work on my house and- Im reminded why I totally got burnt out on the whole shebang about 5 yrs ago - from calling and waiting for people who dont show up, to the pain of paying hundreds/thousands of dollars for work that makes you cry every time you see the botched parts, to being called a micromanager for daring to ask questions like"why dont you do it this other way" Good grief I just want to understand!

Talked to a guy recently who simply will not give me ANY indication of how much it might cost, saying theres things that he could find that would up the cost. Im kind of mystifyed by this, because you can see underneath the porch and thru missing floor boards, but OK... fair enough, I understand that hed want to not be locked into too low a cost esp if theres old, possibly soft wood involved. How do you pro's generally handle this possibility of opening a can of worms when you are giving an estimate? Is it reasonable to ask for a ballpark high & how?

Oh well - somewhere theres probably a contractor complaining about me on some forum or another - LOL! Well you know, the thing is - there is an emotional component to things being done to one's house, and large amounts of money being spent. It can be challenging for both parties Im sure.

[Al F. Furnituremaker]

I've been following these posts for a while now and will finally add my $0.02, for what it is worth. First, I don't work on peoples homes anymore, if it can't be done in my shop, I don't do it.

Shashguy is right; "You are NOT going to get anything done quick, inexpensive and excellent." In other words, there are three parts to every project; cost, schedule, quality. The customer gets to pick 2, I get the other, and if what is left for me is not to do high quality work because of low cost and/or short schedule, I don't do the job.

I always return calls and provide a written estimate if requested. Verbal ballpark costs are not in my vocabulary. My written estimate clearly states it is an estimate and that final cost will be determined at completion. A down payment is an agreement with this fact. If the customer elects not to read the "fine print" it is their problem. I've never had a problem.

Good business owners have learned to read customers and make a determination if they want to do the work or not and will decline professionally if that is the case. Those that just walk away without following through and not declining, let 'em go.

I don't subscribe to Angie's List or any similar types of lists. Anybody can get on them and then get all their friends and family to say how great they are. I won't cater to the the internet is always right crowd.

Most of my work comes from repeat customers and referrals. I just secured a new account from another business. They were having problems with the previous shop building the same thing the same way twice, and dealing with multiple people. On our initial meeting I made it clear that I'm it, from start to finish. So far so good, the work and payments keep coming. I give them high quality work at a fair price and in a reasonable amount of time. Just delivered 9 vintage stereo cabinets to them.

All of my customers have to wait. The down payment gets them on the list, first come, first serve kind of thing. Right now my lead time is about 3 months to start a project, and growing.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that the good guys are out there, just hard to find. They are hard to find because they usually don't need to advertise, use Angie's List, or beat the bushes for work. If you do find one, be prepared to wait and pay a fair price. And whatever you do don't compete them with Lowe's, it is a sure way to get the contractor to "fire" you.

[heartwood]

al....spoken like a true professional...
in my trade, I know there are hacks out there who offer a low ball price and the work is fully unacceptable to my standards....

we have a base price for sash restoration based on number of panes, size of sash and general condition...we then offer contingency pricing for hardware, significant repairs, glass replacement, travel and over night accommodations, etc...I outline what is included and what is not included...if the price is in the client's budget, then I make a site visit to offer a more secure price and set expectation....communication is SO important on both sides...

we are now booked out for 18 months...really, that's too far out for me, I am hiring another employee soon...

...jade

[Sinoed]

I had an absolutely terrible time with contractors until I got into the local loop. After purchasing the house I had quite a few repairs to start with (starting with the electrical which was a fire hazard) and had to find a reasonable contractor. I asked the real estate agent for referrals which was a bad idea since everyone he referred turned out to be completely unavailable or a moron. I made many calls which weren't answered or ignored which was such a pain.

When I was trying to get bids for the electrical I let everyone know that I was going to be searching for at least three estimates before I decided on a contractor because of the cost. One contractor called to say he was going over to the house and I let him know that my aunt was there and another company was walking down the job. He showed up anyways then got ticked because someone else was there and left. I called him to follow-up he never returned my calls and never came back and as far as I'm concerned that was his loss. He was supposed to be one of the "best" in town, and yet I had excellent work done by someone who was very careful with my home - so it worked out in my favor.

Initially I was pretty frustrated, but I've decided that they're not worth chasing. My time is valuable - I'm not going to beg someone to spend good money. There are great contractors out there although they can be tough to find. I'm a pretty decent customer - I pay on time, rarely have questions and allow them to work at their own pace and suggest improvements or fixes. I think that's helped in the overall scheme - my house is "known" to the local trades.

If someone doesn't answer the phone, supply an estimate as requested or bother to show up - well I'm moving on to someone else. It's not a complicated process - just show up, give me an accurate quote and do your job. It might be the wrong way to look at it but I think being sloppy from the beginning shows a lack of respect for my time, so I'll look somewhere else.