The stress level & success of your renovation is determined before the first hammer is swung. It’s decided when you select your contractor.
I’ve got 20 years of renovating experience under my belt along with the grey hairs & empty check books to show for it, so here is what I have learned during that time to help you avoid stress and delays by hiring the right contractor.
Find Contractors to Interview
The Interview
Call and get references
Set your clear expectations
Money money money
Get out of the way
Ok, none of these items are ground breaking but how you do each step is important. Follow my suggestions and you’ll be a step ahead of 90% of other folks who are doing renovations.
1 FIND CONTRACTORS TO INTERVIEW
How do you find contractors to interview ? Easy enough through some obvious and some not so obvious sources.
Ask friends/colleagues/realtors who has USED a contractor for suggestions.
“Used” is the key word. If you post on FB “hey I’m looking for a contractor”, you’ll get 20 responses like “oh my friend Brad is awesome, use him”. Ok, that’s fine, but ask the person referring if they have actually used Brad themselves or if they just play on the same softball team and they’ve heard that Brad has a few power tools. Only take recommendations from people who have put their own money where their mouth is and hired the contractor they are recommending to you themselves.
Drive around, it’s Charleston, so you’ll see construction work going on everywhere. Keep an eye on how the place looks, is it busy every day, are they there working at 8am, is their trash cleaned up daily, do you see permits in the windows ? These are all signs of a good professional contractor and you should stop in and ask to talk to the foreman.
If the place is empty for days at a time with no work, or there’s trash and the obligatory contractor Red Bulls cans in the neighbors bushes, keep driving.
Facebook : Type in “Charleston Renovations” into the search on Facebook and you’ll get a lot of results. Click on them, see if the work that they are doing looks similar in style and budget to your plans. If so, then click on their FB page and see if it’s updated often. It’s another sign of a real professional if they are regularly posting their work on FB or Instagram. It shows that they’re busy, they’re getting work done and they’re proud of it.
From those above, you’ll easily draw up a list of 3 companies to interview. 3 is plenty. If you’ve found 3 through the methods I’ve suggested above, one of them will be good.
2. THE INTERVIEW
The interview begins before you meet the contractor.
Call or email them and tell them you are looking for a contractor to do some work. How long does it take them respond ? I have no problem with a contractor not picking up a phone during the day, because it means they are busy hammering nails and not checking their phone. I’d expect them to focus on the same thing when they are working on my house, but I do expect a response by the next day. If they are not quick to get back to you when they are trying to win your business, they are not going to be anymore responsive once they have your business.
It’s Charleston and they’re all busy, but if they don’t call back, move onto the next on your list.
Research them on social media, look at not just their business page but also their personal page, does their behavior look like someone you want in your house ?
Ask if they are licensed and insured (if they’re not, don’t schedule an interview)
Schedule a day and time to meet at your house. They need to show up on time, if they don’t, it’s a warning sign. You need reliability above all with your contractor.
You have your role to play in the interview by being prepared. Have concrete ideas of what you want, what your budget is, what your timeframe is, have screenshots of stuff you like online, but be flexible too, a good contractor has been there and done it themselves hundreds of times and may have some really good suggestions for you. BTW : I’m a big believer in hiring an interior designer. They’re not that expensive and they will make your renovation look worthy of a magazine. You’ll get every penny of their cost back in increase in value of your home.
Questions I ask during contractor interview :
Is this too small/too big a job for you ?
Who does the work ? Are you a general contractor who subs out all the work or do you do any of the actual work ? (I prefer guys who do a lot of the work themselves and only sub out the specialist trades)
If you work with subs, how long have you worked with them ? Do you always hire the same subs ?
Will you be working on other jobs when you are working on mine ? (I prefer they only work on your house, which is more likely if they actually do the work themselves)
What days do you work ? Saturdays ?
What time do you start/finish each day ?
Will my job need permits to be pulled ? Do you have contacts at the city to ‘help’ push them along ?
How will the billing work ?
How will purchase of materials work ?
Ask about timeframe and what could possibly go wrong to delay that timeframe. Ask them for worst case scenario.
Get minimum three references of recent work they have done.
Ask how they get their business (you want to hear that it is referral business i.e. other people recommending them, not because they spend a fortune on advertising)
It’s an interview, a lot of it comes down to how you get on with the contractor. You want them to be nice of course, you’re going to be seeing a lot of them and they’ll be camped in your house, but not too nice that they would be a pushover when it comes to working with subs and permits etc.
3. CALL AND GET REFERENCES
This is crucial and skipped by so many people. You should have gotten three references from the contractor and these three should all be within the last 3-6 months.
I say this because people change, life happens and can impact people’s performance at work. I just found this out the hard way myself when a contractor, who has done great work for me and my clients over the last five years, let a client of mine down in a big way. It turns out he’d had some personal issues and he went from Mr Reliable to Mr Unreliable in a very quick period of time.
Ask the people if the contractor showed up on time, was reliable, explained any delays or budget issues with clarity. Were they responsive to communications, was the quality good and would them hire them again.
You need three out three good references. Any warning signs at all and move on.
4. SET EXPECTATIONS
You’ve settled on the right person for the job and it’s time to proceed. You both need to have a very frank discussion about setting expectations of each other. You’re now in a partnership and before anything is started, you’re all friendly and there are no issues, so have this expectation setting discussion now will prevent a lot of headaches in the future
Here are some items to consider with regards to expectations
Working hours & days
What condition the house will be left in at the end of each work day
The best method of communication between you
The frequency of communication
Set the milestone dates (demo will be complete by…, prep work will be complete by….)
How to handle unforeseen issues that come up. I have yet to do a project that doesn’t have an unforeseen issue
if contractor has autonomy to make decisions or if they have to wait for your approval. Will it take time to get your approval and if so, will this cause delays
Is it completely turn key project or will there be anything that will need to be done when your contractor is finished.
Payment (will discuss this further later)
Ask the contractor what their expectation of you is and what can you do to make the job go as smoothly as possible. THIS IS CRUCIAL !!! Listen to them. They do this every day, you don’t (and a hint : the answer from the contractor is usually Step 5 below)
4. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
If you’re paying attention, you'll have noticed I haven’t mentioned cost or money in any of the above.
Money is important of course, but I have confidence that if you take the approach in Step 1,2 & 3, you’ll end up with the right contractor without even having to factor in the ugly word of money.
Any contractor can give you an estimate and quote you a low price to get the work, then bid it up gradually once the job starts (it’s just like real estate agents telling sellers their house is worth more than it is just to get the listing and then asking for price drops because the house isn’t selling).
Yes, the good contractors usually do quote more and charge more. If you haven’t figured this out in life yet, you get what you pay for and usually have a quality contractor who shows up when they say they will, does the work they say they’ll do and does it to a high standard costs more and it’s worth every single penny.
In the long run, if you hire the wrong contractor just because he’s cheap, I can 100% guarantee it’s going to cost you more in the long run. I have learned that the hard way myself on more than one occasion.
Now, I’m not being flippant with (your) money, but I’m doing Step 3, which is setting expectations.
If you’re hired the right contractor, you can have faith that they’ll do the job at a fair price, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten the recommendations, the references or the repeat business.
One huge bit of advice that I am going to put in bold so it is really highlighted to you is this :
Don’t pay for work that has not been done yet !!!!!!
They don’t need 50% upfront. As part of the interview, agree that you will pay them at the end of each week for work that has already been completed. Any reputable contractor will have the cashflow to pay his staff and subs, then recoup that from you. If they don’t have the cashflow to do this, then they are not running their business correctly and you don’t want to hire them.
If you prepay them for work and then you decide you are not happy with them, the very best of luck trying to get that money back !!!!!!
5. GET OUT OF THE WAY
The work is finally starting. What’s the best thing you can do ? Get out of the way, stay out of the way and let the professionals do their work.
Don’t micromanage, don’t keep questioning every nail. If you’ve hired a pro, let them do their work. This is what they do every day, all day and have done for years. You do a renovation once every five years. Who knows more ? You or them ?
Of course, you can keep an eye on things and ask questions but let them do the job you’re paying them to do. A lot of the money you’re paying them is for them to handle the headaches and stresses of the project. There’s no need for you to take on those, you’ve paid someone else to do it.