Contractors And Home Owners

  • What Most Home Improvement Contractors, Don't Want You to Know - They've heard all the horror stories and honestly, they would be happy, if the job actually got finished on time or finish at all. But it doesn't have to be that way and I'm going to tell you why.
  • How Important Is an Honest Contractor, Really - The one thing that I know about honesty is that even people who lie, want to be around people who tell the truth. Honest people seemed to bring an air of comfort with them and this makes people feel comfortable. If you're looking for a contractor that's going to make you feel comfortable, honesty is going to play a big part in your contractor selection.
  • Five Things Every Homeowner Should Do before Contacting a Contractor - Anyone in business understands time and time shouldn't be wasted by anyone, especially a contractor who is providing a free estimate for your construction project. You wouldn't go to a business meeting unprepared, yet thousands of homeowners contact contractors to look at projects that turn out to be a waste of the contractor’s time.
  • Five Reasons Why You Should Make an Emergency Home Damage Contractors List - Millions of homeowners throughout the country don't know how to react to a home damage emergency. I was asking a couple of my friends the other day if they were actually prepared for a broken water pipe or an electrical fire.
  • 21 Lame Excuses Contractors Tell Homeowners - I'm not the kind of contractor who likes to give or hear excuses, but here are a few of them that I have heard, during my career as a general contractor. I hope you enjoyed reading them, because I enjoyed finding them.
  • How to Make the Most Out Of Your Meeting with a Contractor - I don't know how many homes I visit annually that aren't prepared for me when I come over to give them a free estimate. Often this irritates me, because I don't think that most homeowners value my time. Here's a couple of things that you can do to make the most out of your meeting with the contractor.
  • Why Do Referred Contractors Charge More Money? - It might seem hard to believe, but whenever you refer a contractor to one of your friends or family members, there's a good chance that your contractor will charge them a little more money or premium prices, because they feel like they all ready got the job.
  • 10 Things a Homeowner Won't Tell a Contractor - Common Courtesy - I've been a contractor in the state of California for over 20 years and there are some things that a homeowner won't tell a contractor. These are a few things that a contractor might want to hear, but a reluctant homeowner, might have second thoughts telling their contractors how they really feel.
  • How to Deal with a Contractor That Constantly Lies to You - One of the biggest problems with any relationship in business is dishonesty. I have dealt with my fair share of dishonest people, including my ex-wife. There is nothing worse than someone lying to you or trying to convince you that something else is true.
  • Problems with Hiring Contractors Who Don't Speak Your Language - I don't know how to say this any other way. If you don't speak the same language as your contractor, you're going to have problems and these problems aren't going to be small problems either. If your contractor doesn't speak the same language as you, you should hire them.
  • How to Hire The Cheapest Remodeling Contractor in Your Community - The best way to find a cheap contractor is to call as many of them as you can and ask them to come over to your house to give you an estimate. If you're only interested in hiring the cheapest contractor, I would like to give you a few pointers on how you can find them.
  • You Should Always Listen to Your Water Damage Contractor - If you're a contractor or a homeowner who has hired contractors, there's a good chance that you will be able to relate to the things that you're about to hear. Every once in a while, people make mistakes, but making them right is the difference between good contractors and bad ones.
  • My Deck Collapsed Because I Hired the Wrong Contractor - If you're looking for a little bit of advice, you've came to the right place. If you're looking for some answers to some difficult questions about hiring the wrong contractor, you’re in the right place. Let's get started and don't ever let this happen to you again.
  • Read This It Could Change Your Opinion about General Contractors - I would like to start out by saying, that I have been a General Building Contractor for quite some time now. I'm not the type of General Building Contractor who does large projects and works in an office most of the time.
  • You're Tired of Your Contractor and Now It's Time to Take Him to Court - If you're having problems with your contractor and you're not getting anywhere, it's probably time to take them to court. I don't advise this, simply because it is a timely process that could take months and sometimes years.
  • Difficult Home Remodeling Contractors Creates Problems for Homeowner - You've got your three bids and you've examined the contracts. Now it's time to make the decision about which one to hire. You hire the contractor that you truly believe you can work well with and you know that they gave you a reasonable price.
  • Don't Fall in Love with the First Contractor - Always Get Three Estimates - If I was to guess, I would imagine that more than 75% of everyone that I work for, never even gets another bid or estimate. Since I am not the kind of person who wants to take advantage of my customers, I don't really find anything wrong with this.
  • Never Give Your Contractor Their Final Payment until You're Happy with the Project - It doesn't seem to happen as often as it used to, but every once in a while I would get a call from a homeowner, about a job that wasn't completed and they had given the contractor all of their money.
  • 10 Mistakes That Homeowners Make - Dealing with Contractors - I consider myself to be a reasonable and honest general building contractor and rarely have problems with the people I'm working for, because I'm not out to take advantage of them.
  • How to Avoid Hiring Bad Contractors - I was talking to someone that I used to work with and they were telling me a story about a contractor that did extremely poor work on one of their friend’s home. I was familiar with some of the contractors in the city that my friend was talking about and I ask him if he knew the contractors name.
  • Think Twice before Hiring a Contractor with the Biggest Ad in the Yellow Pages - When I first started contracting I was only 25 years old. That's right, I have served my four years as a journeyman carpenter and got my contractors license at an early age. The only problem was, I needed to advertise and the only way to advertise back then, was in the Yellow Pages.
  • Think Twice before Hiring a Neighborhood Kid to Remove Snow from Your Roof - A lot of people think it's cute to hire a neighborhood kid to take care of their front or back yards. When I was a kid, I would've loved to have had a job taking care of one of my neighbor’s yards and I thought the same thing once I got older.
  • What Is a Water Damage Specialist? - Whenever someone injures their hand or foot, there's a good chance that they will need to go to a medical specialist. This would be someone who has been trained and understands how to make the necessary repairs and adjustments. A water damage specialist is no different.
  • Avoid Hiring Licensed Contractors That Don't Know What They're Doing - One of the worst things that could happen to any homeowner or anyone who hires a licensed contractor is to find one that doesn't really know what they're doing. You would think that they would, since the state that they live in, gave them a contractor's license, but this isn't the case all of the time.
  • Fire and Water Damage Restoration Should Be Left to the Professionals - If you don't know anything about fire and water damage restoration, it should be left to someone who does. You're obviously not going to do any medical operations, root canals or nuclear bomb testing, if you don't know what you're doing.
  • I'm Looking for a Good Contractor, Where Are They - If you're really looking for a good contractor, they're out there. The only problem is how you actually find one of them. I don't know how many times I've looked through the Yellow Pages, used online construction referral services and even asked my friends and family for referrals.
  • Is It Harder to Quit Smoking Than It Is to Find a Good Remodeling Contractor? - Well I guess it depends on who you're asking the question too. If you've never smoked before, there's a good chance that you wouldn't have any problems, but if you're a smoker, it's a completely different story. Let's start with the home remodeling contractor.
  • Don't Ever Higher Your Friends - Home Repair Nightmares - When I say don't ever higher your friends, I would like to clarify something first. If you enjoy your friendship with these individuals, you might not ever want to hire them. You could find yourself with more problems than you ever imagined.
  • Fraudulent Contractor Creates Home Remodeling Nightmare - It wasn't that long ago, when I heard a story about a fraudulent contractor who created a home remodeling nightmare for his customer. When I'm talking about a fraudulent contractor, I would like to point something out here, this person was not a licensed contractor and this was only half of the problem.
  • How Do I Get a Good Job Done, at Low Prices? - I can't think of too many people that aren't concerned about quality and price. Most of the time the two of these things don't go hand in hand. If you find an inexpensive contractor, there's a good chance that their quality level might not meet your standards.
  • How Can I Find a Licensed Contractor to Work for $10 an Hour? - The first thing that you're going to need to do is start asking as many people as you know, if they know any licensed contractors who work for $10 an hour. If you find someone who works for $12 an hour, you could always ask them if they would lower their wages and work for $10 an hour and you would have found your contractor.
  • Five Signs That Your Contractor Doesn't Have Enough Experience - If you really don't care what your new home will look like or how your home remodeling projects turn out, don't bother reading this article.
  • Two Things Homeowners Should Avoid Asking Contractors - This doesn't apply to every contractor, but there are some unscrupulous ones out there that will take advantage of every opportunity if you let them. Here's a couple of things that homeowners should avoid saying to contractors at all costs.
  • Remodeling Nightmare - My Contractor Isn't on Schedule - One of the biggest problems in the construction industry is the construction schedule. Sometimes contractors make tight or hard to meet schedules just to get the job and this can create problems between them and the homeowners.
  • Good Questions to Ask Your General Contractor - Here's some questions that I recommend every homeowner ask their general contractor. These questions will often save you a lot of grief and frustration. Use these questions if you're building a new home are remodeling an old one.
  • Construction Referrals for Home Improvement Contractors - One of the best ways to find a home improvement contractor is through your friends. You can ask anyone that you trust, for the name of a good home improvement contractor and find out if they were happy with the work that these contractors did on their home. There's a good chance that you will also be happy using them.
  • Contractor Testimonials Are a Joke - If you were to visit my website, you would find testimonials from clients that I have worked for in the past. This is just another way of selling yourself to the public and you will rarely find a contractor who doesn't have testimonials on his website or with them at all times.
  • Use Your Contractor to Your Advantage - I don't mean to take advantage of your contractor, but homeowners need to have answers to serious questions and most reliable contractors can provide these answers. So ask your contractor questions and take advantage of his or her experience.
  • Honest Contractors Are Scary - I've been working in the construction business for a long time and when I tell someone that I am a contractor, they often get a look on their face that tells me I'm not in a good business. Some people are a little more polite than others, but I often run into people who have hired contractors, only to find themselves amidst plenty of problems that they never even thought of or imagined were going to happen.
  • Keys to Solving Building Contractor Problems - Nobody in the construction business or anyone else wants to have problems, but they happen and the best thing that we can do is be prepared for them. Whether you're building a new home, remodeling an old one or simply using a contractor for simple home repairs, you need to prepare yourself for problems and anything else that could go wrong while a contractor is working on your home.
  • Why Doesn't My Contractor Show up When They Say They Will? - Well there could be quite a few things going on in your contractor's life, but most of the time, they are simply too busy to handle the work load that has been placed upon them.
  • Never Hire a Contractor That's Too Busy - A lot of people think that a contractor that's too busy, must be a good contractor. I'm not going to argue with that and I would even agree to that last statement. A busy contractor, is either going to be one of two things. He's either going to be one of the cheapest contractors in the area, or he's going to be one of the best.
  • My Contractor Wants $2000 As a Down Payment - Don't give it to them. I can't stress this enough and I'm going to say it again, don't give it to them. If you feel comfortable with the contractor, maybe there's something else that you can work out, some other way that you can get the job started, but that's a lot of money to give a contractor, especially if it's someone who you just met.
  • How Do I Check My Contractor's License? - The first thing I would like to point out, when it comes to checking your contractor's license number and making sure that they are actually licensed in your state, to perform the work that you are requesting, is that there are some states that still don't require a contractor's license.
  • Hiring a Christian Contractor - Watch Out - Let's just say that you belong to a church, and there are a few contractors that everyone uses at the church. These contractors are nice people and you know them to be generous and giving Christians. You're thinking about doing some work to your home and are entertaining the thought of actually hiring one of them.
  • Finding the Perfect Home Improvement Company - You're going to be looking for a home improvement Company that will satisfy your needs, first and foremost. If you're building a room addition, you're not going to hire a roofing contractor who has a friend that can build your addition, so that he can install the roof.
  • Hiring a Contractor for Bathroom Remodeling - Well here's the age old question, how do we go about finding a decent bathroom remodeling contractor. Here's some things you will be looking for in a contractor.
  • Feel Comfortable Working with Your Contractor - Almost every one that I have ever talked to, has at least one story of a friend or relative with a contractor horror story. Everyone's heard the story about the contractor who was paid up front for half the job and never came back to do any work.
  • 3 Big Problems With Bathroom Remodeling Contractors - I've been a general contractor for over 20 years and have over 30 years of experience in the construction industry. I've ran into almost every type of personality that you could possibly think of. I would like to share some of my experiences here, when it comes to choosing a good bathroom remodeling contractor.
  • Tips for Hiring a Good Electrical Contractor - Working by the Hour - I write very few articles and only advise those who understand home electricity to ever mess with it. If you're not familiar with how electricity in your home works, don't touch it. It can be hazardous to your health.