Questions To Ask Contractor And His References

[Csara]

We are currently in the market for a contractor to install our new kitchen cabinets. We have looked up different contractors on Angie's List and Craigslist. I prefer Angie's List since it is legitimate. People need to pay for their listings. They are based on a rating system and are reviewed by customers. Anyone can place an ad on Craigslist and it's up to you to make sure they are legit. We are speaking with people from both lists and getting estimates. One major thing I am intent on doing is asking for and speaking to references. I've come up with a list of questions to ask the contractors and their references.

To ask contractor:

Does your company carry workers compensation and liability insurance?

Are you licensed and registered with the state?

Do you give written warranties?

How long have you been in business?

To which professional associations do you belong?

To ask references:

Were you able to communicate well with the contractor?

Were you happy with the job?

Did the crew show up on time? Were they pleasant?

Was the project completed on schedule?

Were there unexpected expenses?

Would you use the contractor again and refer them to others?

Did workers clean up after finishing the job?

----------

I know many people suggest asking to see a finished project that the contractor has done, but I'm not sure how I feel about going to someone's house and seeing their kitchen? I suppose it is the only real way to get a feel for the quality of work, since quality is relative and you really do need to see for yourself to decide if it is up to par.

What do you think? Would you mind having strangers come to your house to check out the work that a contractor did? Can you think of any questions I'm missing?

[honeybunny]

When we had someone come to work on our living room walls, we also asked if they do background checks on their workers. It's often not the guy running the business who does the work, so that was important to us since J was at work when they came over. The guy who runs the business we used actually does not do background checks, but he said he's been using the same guys for 5 years and would trust them alone in his own house. I felt comfortable with him and his ability to assess his employees after working with them for that long. If it had been a larger company, I would have wanted the background checks before I felt comfortable being alone in the house with them.

[Turtleheadfred]

That sounds REALLY good C! I've had some BAD contractor experiences - and my most recent was with a contractor who was BEST FRIENDS with my husband!!! (No - I'm not kidding!)

I won't go into everything, but he and my husband are no longer friends after the horrible job he did for us: poor work, over budget, didn't finish, drug addicts showing up to do work unannounced, you name it!

You're going about this professionally and correctly. And as long as you and Jester can agree up front and ALWAYS present a unified front... you'll be great!

[Jester]

So far the contractors we've worked with have been great. We have one more to work with.

I'm going to post some pics before and after so far in the project. Was going to post my budget spreadsheet as well to see if anyone else found it useful.

[heather6773]

Any work we have done on our house is done by my DH so I know his history
Those are good tips though.