Posted by MoparNorm on Monday, September 08, 2003 at 3:41PM :
In Reply to: Grrrr.... posted by Gordon Maney on Monday, September 08, 2003 at 1:36PM :
Anytime that you undertake ANY building project, the first thing that you need is a WRITTEN SCOPE of WORK. List everthing that you want or need, no verbal bs and no taking the "salesman" at his word that he will 'throw' it in. Once you have a written scope of work, yours not the suppliers, then get at least THREE bids. Compare the bids, read the fine print and the exclusions. DON'T jump on the lowest bid automatically, there is usually a reason it is low, find out why. Did they cut corners or are they really just a good contractor and have a lower mark-up due to volumn? Do You want a Cadillac but want to pay for a chevy? Won't happen, you get what you pay for. Cost is cost and labor is labor, if you only want to pay $10 an hour for a carpenter, don't expect much. Once you have the "apparent" low bidder, get references, check them out. Ask about liens and lawsuits filed against them in the last 5 years, in fact make sure that they have been in business at least that long. If you are in a State with licensed contractors, look up the license, in CA you can do that on-line, it will show complaints, fines and or penalties against the contractor. Ask about repeat business, that is a SURE sign that they are good. No repeat business is a sign of bad customer relations or a indication that the type of business that they do is a 'one shot' down and dirty operation. Do they advertize? 100% of my business is word of mouth, referals. Good projects leave good feelings and good references. If they don't have any then be aware!
Don't rush into a project!! Do your homework, buidling is an expensive undertaking, if a deal is too good to be true,...it probably is.
MoparNorm, Builder/Carpenter/Contractor, since 1968.
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