Toronto Renovation Stories & Expert Advice

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

6 lessons on hiring a contractor as determined by YOU

Everywhere you look these days there's an article on how to hire a contractor. While the available information is essential reading before you embark on your renovation adventure, we thought, "what the heck, let's give our advice too!" Only here's the thing...it's not our advice, it's yours, based on your experiences working with contractors, day in, day out, often for months, even (heaven help those of you in this situation) years! But, you've been there, done it and come out the other side and many of you have kindly shared your stories with us.

So we've gone through all your reviews on general contractors to find out just what it is that makes a good contractor and we've boiled it down to six essential points:

1. "On time, on budget." When reviewers have been happy with a job, one of the first things they mention is that the job was on time and on budget. Some contractors have been able to come in "under time, under budget" which is almost unheard of in this day and age.

2. "A pleasure to work with." Getting along with your contractor is a key to success of the project. You are talking to him on a daily basis so you'd better like and trust him -- and vice versa. If you don't think that's going to happen, no matter how far his reputation has carried him, it's best to find someone else.

3. "He's more expensive but the quality is worth it." People will pay more for exceptional quality.

4. "A great problem solver." Getting through a renovation without any unexpected problems is almost the same as winning the lottery: sure it can happen, but it's only a one in a million chance. The bigger point is, how does the contractor handle a problem when it arises? Is he proactive? Does he seek your input, does he offer several different solutions.

5. "Excellent subtrades." You can always tell a good contractor by the company he keeps. In this case, if the subtrades he brings in are experienced, on-time and as professional as your contractor, you know you are in good hands.

6. "Service, service, service." Follow-up service after the job was completed is always a winner. It is clear from the reviews we've read that reviewers were skeptical, and therefore pleasantly surprised, that a contractor would come back and fix anything that had shifted with time or was broken and still under waranty.

Labels: general contractors