Hartwig - Contractor heaven : bringing out the best in your home improvement contractor

Contractor Heaven

Bringing Out the Best in Your Home Improvement Contractor

The Art of Hiring, Managing and Paying Professional Help

Gettingbestprice.com

Copyright 2014 by Lynnette Hartwig All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, without permission by the Author.

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ISBN: 978-0692273203 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-0989178426 (digital)

1. DwellingsMaintenance and Rep air. 2. Dwellingsremodeling 3. Construction contracts. 4. Contra ctors. 5 Consumer Education. I. Title

643.7dc20 2014914746

Printed in the United States of America

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the author has devoted many years to the acquisition of this information, there are no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaims any implied warranties for infallibility of advice or fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the author nor anyone involved with the publishing and distribution of this book shall be liable for any loss or damage arising from information in this book.

Examples used in this book are altered to protect privacy.

This publication is designed to provide interesting and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the author is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, financial planning or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

This book is available in digital, e-book and paperback formats. While efforts are made to render the content of all formats alike, the author regrets any variations appearing in the differing media and publishing methods.

This book is dedicated to tradesmen,

honest and skilled as the day is long.

Theyre out there; I find them every time I look.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Very quickly, cell phones, online research, and innovative new materials and processes have changed the home maintenance landscape. Lucky for us, it is easier than ever to obtain prices which are fair to both customer and contractor, easier to monitor the work and easier to detect complications before work starts.

Unlucky for us, the shrinking of the high wall between white collar and blue collar castes since the 1960s combined with the retirement of the last fellows from the old system makes it harder to find high-caliber blue collar workers, since the bright ones hop the fence to white collar. Hiring competence takes more effort than it used to; its not merely nostalgia blurring recollection. Today, the good ones want to make white-collar wages, and frankly, they deserve it. In the long run, wage equity is the only way to restore high caliber workmanlike quality to the building trades. Making a good living, however, is not synonymous with making a killing.

Contractor heaven is about the good guys thriving because they have happy customers.

Ground Level

Owning property can be one of the greatest sources of pride in our lives. Our home is evidence we did something right; it stamps us as full-fledged adults. Our house grounds us, figuratively and literally.

American culture related to housing can be epitomized in one word: upgrade. Whenever we run into a little money, we upgrade. If we gain a good chunk of money, we upgrade to a better house entirely. Otherwise we just enhance, add on or replace aged or unpleasing parts of our house in piecemeal fashion over our entire lives.

This is not true everywhere. Between France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the UK there are over four million houses whose exterior is virtually identical to their 1850 appearance. In the United States, you would be hard pressed to find even ten houses that have the same footprint and look identical to their 1850 appearance. Its in our DNA to fix the old and install the new.

A 2013 CNN Money Magazine survey showed that the typical homeowner averages $4,000 per year on home improvements. Undoubtedly, a significant percentage of those funds are lost to inept work, opportunism, or unnecessary tasks added by the contractor simply to puff up the price. Thats not even counting outright fraud, the kind which should be reported to the authorities so they crack down on those offenders. What authorities? When? Ah, read on.

All home repairs and renovations are a service. You are not buying an object from a store, where shopping for the lowest price makes perfect sense. I can buy a Snickers bar from the grocery store in a pack of eight for a real bargain, or from the hardware store or gas station checkout line for a bit more, or from a vending machine for even more. The taste and calorie count will be identical. The only difference will be the price I pay.

Throw that thinking out the window when engaging a contractor. When you hire a contractor, you are buying the hands-on work of an individual, one who cannot provide more than his own skill level with the equipment he knows how to useno matter what you pay him. There is no Snickers bar in the construction world. Every single contractor will give you a different set of skills, a different work pace, a different attention to detail, and a different level of cleanliness at the end.

To get the Snickers bar that you want, you need to find a contractor who makes Snickers bars all the time so he can tell you what goes into making one and can show you a couple of pretty good Snickers bars hes made recently. You can take a look at his past Snickers bars, count the nuts, check the thickness of the caramel, make sure the chocolate was applied evenly the whole way around, and see if the material used in the wrapper does the job and looks right.

In short, you want to hire experience. Someone who has done this very thing several times before. The M&Ms guy or even the Payday bar guy is not going to be right for you.

This applies whether youre hiring a handyman, having a dead tree removed, getting your kitchen remodeled, or having an architect design a whole home. Your satisfaction with the work habits, neatness, skill, error level, punctuality, duration, and price depend upon how well the boots-on-ground workers do your particular job. The Supervisor of THIS crew, the strength, dexterity and experience of THIS worker, these are all that matter. Company reputation or good references mean nothing compared to this. A good reference is relevant only if you get the same supervisor and the same workers; anything less and all bets are off.

How does a homeowner get good work for a fair price? Its easy, yet hard.

Hard, because the contractor negotiates price several times a week, so has done a bit of trial and error on what to say. He has discovered phrases, arguments and tone of voice that work for him. You are not so polished and not so confident. Its not easy to tell if what he says is true or just well-rehearsed.

Hard, because most of whats written on the internet is written by the contractors themselves. I seldom read an internet article by a contractor which doesnt contain a couple of self-serving bits peppered in with otherwise rock-solid advice. I am not a contractor, so I have no horse in the race. That means you will likely find at least twenty truths in this book that you have never heard before, starting with quick ways to spot the wrong contractor, how contractors set prices, the best way to keep your job progressing, building materials to avoid, and ending with no-cost ways to resolve issues without taking him to court.