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Home Addition Contractors
How to Choose the Right Home Addition
Contractor for your Home Addition Project
By Mark J. Donovan
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Selecting the right home addition
contractor for your home construction project can be challenging. Home addition
contractors as a whole are very self assured and confident, and typically give
the appearance that they know everything there is to know about the residential
building market, even though they often do not. For the neophyte homeowner who
has not worked with home addition contractors before, they can quickly become
enamored and lulled in by the confident and fast talking residential building
contractor looking to close a deal.
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The old proverb that “if it is too
good to be true it probably isn’t” should be constantly rehearsed in the
homeowner’s mind prior to meeting with any prospective home addition contractor.
In addition, the homeowner should have a list of questions assembled prior to
meeting with the prospective home addition contractor. At the top of the list
should be how long as the contractor been in business and is he or she licensed.
The home addition contractor should be able to produce a copy of their state
contractor’s license and hopefully some type of portfolio of the projects they
have completed over the years they’ve been in business. In addition, they should
include a list of references that you can call.
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Also important is to understand the
home addition contractor’s work habits and payment expectations. The more
written information they provide that backs up their statements on work habits
and payment expectations the more confidence you can have with their answers.
When choosing a home addition contractor it’s important to do your homework
after interviewing a candidate. Make sure to call the state to confirm their
contractor license is valid and that there are no outstanding legal issues or
complaints with them.
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In addition, check with the Better
Business Bureau to see how they rank and again to find out if there are any
complaints against them.
Also make sure to check the
references. Though the references maybe somewhat biased, often you can glean
information from them that may be constructive on how to work and deal with the
prospective home addition contractor. I also advise to check older references as
well as the newer ones. Older references may be a bit more open with you. In
addition, you can get a better handle of how well the contractor’s work has held
up over the years.
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In regards to finding home addition
contractors you have a number of resources at your disposal. First, you can
check with friends and family who may have worked with one recently. Second you
can look in your local phone book, however this is like shooting in the dark as
there is no initial screening/reference when simply calling a number out of the
phone book. Probably the best method for finding a contractor is to use one of
the national contractor database services, such as through
Quinstreet or
RenovationExperts.
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These companies have large national databases of contractors that they have done
their due diligence on. To be included in one of these national databases each
contractor has to go through a thorough background check to make sure that they
are truly a licensed and reputable contractor professional.
To use one of these company services is free to you. Simply fill out one of
their online forms (See “Find Home Addition Contractor Form”), and 3 to 4 local
contractors will contact you to schedule a meeting with you to discuss your
project. There is no commitment required of the homeowner to use any of the
contractors.
Another part of the selection process is to carefully review prospective
home addition contractor bids for your project. Pay close attention to the
level of detail in the bids. In general the more detailed a bid is the
better it is. |
Photo by Mark Donovan |
A
detailed bid shows the contractor has considered all of the issues associated
with the project. Make sure it includes a detailed schedule and bill of
materials, a budget, payment milestones, and a description of what work will be
done and by whom. Also make sure the bid discuses how change orders will be
handled.
With these key items considered when choosing a home addition contractor your
chances of a successful home addition project are dramatically improved.
For more help on either hiring a general
contractor or acting as your own general contractor see my
home
addition and home remodeling bid sheets. They can save you a
fortune by helping you to properly plan your home construction project and hire
the right general contractor and/or subcontractors.
How to Finance your Home Remodeling Project -
can help provide funds for your new home improvement project if financing is
required.
Related Articles on Home Construction and Hiring the Right Home Building
Contractor
Additional Resources from Amazon.com on Home
Building
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