Questions to ask your potential remodeling contractor

Five good ones, five better ones, one best one (by Thorn Jarvis)

Good question #3: How long have you been in business? Past history is one indicator of future expectations. The failure rate of building contractors is staggering, even in normal economic times. Consider your situation if someone does shoddy work in your home (which you may not discover until after they’re paid), and then disappears from the scene. In some cases, the cost of repairing poor work, or the “collateral damage” caused by substandard work, can far exceed the cost of the original shoddy work.

Better question #3: How long have you been in the remodeling business locally? Working on your home while you live there is completely different than building new homes. And blending new renovations with the imperfections of many existing homes requires a finesse that people used to new construction may not possess. The downturn in new home construction has prompted many contractors who used to do new homes to “turn into” remodelers, some literally overnight. It’s a tougher transition than most people realize. And if new home construction picks back up in a few years as expected, will that “overnight remodeler” be available to provide service on the work he did at your home?