10 Things Your Remodeling Contractor Wants You to Know

Remodeling contractors are actually crucial allies in your quest to improve your home. Not many homeowners have the time, experience, and ability to do it all themselves. That is the place that the remodeling contractor steps in: to organize your house remodel and see it to successful completion.

Remodeling contractors bear more than the share of their complaints on online contractor referral sites. Occasionally, these complaints are actually legitimate. Still, the vast majority of remodeling contractors are actually honest, competent, and diplomatic – and they believe that the procedure might only be improved whether clients knew a couple of important things before signing the contract.

1. They’d Rather Not Work with The People of yours

   You have hired the contractor for a full-scale kitchen remodel. The contractor is fully on board. Then you spring the media that you want the cousin of yours, who’s a plumber, to deal with the plumbing. And you have an uncle who is going to handle the electrical work.

   As author Leah Cole notes, “To me, a contractor’s most important asset is the network of his of tradesmen.” The contractor is actually a facilitator at the center of a great group of subcontractors (subs). The contractor has gone to folks and has others in mind as backups. Almost as important, the remodeling contractor has a blacklist of problem subcontractors, a list forged from years of hard knocks.

   By using the uncle of yours to install HVAC, the contractor will be working with someone with whom he or perhaps she’s no established relationship. Next, the contractor is actually depriving work of a group of subs who may rely on the contractor for work that is constant. Third, you are doing yourself a disservice by not taking advantage of a team of workers who’re pre-screened to get the job done.

2. They Do Not Like Reusing Your Old Stuff

   You simply love those knotty pine kitchen cabinets from 1952. So vintage and evocative and romantic so of a mountain cabin, right? You ask the contractor of yours to pull, refurbish, and reuse them with the remodel.

   A problem with old things, and cabinets, in particular, would be that they may hold up while in place, but fall apart upon removal. Old things have that tendency. Wood flooring can’t be quickly removed and reused. Old leaded glass windows look great but are actually impractical in the long term, both from an energy standpoint and for functionality.

   If you want to reuse an item, factor in the additional cost and time (to you) that it is going to take to shop it out to a certified professional.

   Contractors only want homeowners to understand the full implication of reusing old, pre-used items. Instead of being a money saver, it is able to increase the cost than the homeowner expected.

3. They have a Greater Allegiance to Their People Than You

   As a client, you are valuable to the contractor, not just as a source of immediate revenue but for that all-important thing called word-of-mouth. No contractor referral site or perhaps advertisement can remotely come close to the importance of positive word-of-mouth.

   While that is true, it is also true that you are only a ship in the night as compared to the interactions of theirs with the trades. Contractors might know you for 2 months, but usually, they know the folks of theirs for years, decades even.

   Should you have got an issue with a particular person in the trades, the contractor might go and so far as to pull the individual from the project, if only to smooth things over with you and keep the project running. But that is a rarity. In general, you need to have little or perhaps no problems with the trades in case the contractor feels good enough to work with that individual.

4. They are Not Trying to Make Extra Work

   Suspicious homeowners are often convinced that contractors underbid remodel projects, all the while planning to load up the projects with extra tasks after the contract is actually signed.

   Although some unsavory contractors may do this, it doesn’t represent the majority. In the book Staying away from the Con in Construction, Kia Ricchi reminds us that “change orders can be costly and disruptive.” Really, who wants another change order?

   In an ideal world, contractors would like to have all of the planned work itemized on the contract. Simply because this’s not a perfect world – walls are actually found to be crumbly when thought to be sound, foundations worse than expected – change orders exist. Change orders are not to be feared; they’re a part of normal business when remodeling a home.

5. They could Help With Permits But Can’t Work Magic 

   Imagine a scenario where a homeowner wants special provisions: “I want to build the addition of mine on a drainage easement, have no receptacles on the kitchen island, and put no windows in my residential basement. Is it possible to get the permit office to approve this?”

   Likely not. Contractors can’t make the permit office bend the rules. Don’t ask the contractor to try to do this. Doing this may jeopardize the contractor’s standing with the permit office and might actually lead to fines.

   Contractors might have relationships that are great with the permit office that has often extended for years. One reason behind the great relationship would be that the contractor does not ask the office to do things that can’t be done.

   Nevertheless, we are living in a social world. The goodwill that the contractor has built up over many years of working with permit officers and staff counts, and this’s one reason why you hire a contractor: connections.

6. They Want You to Shop for Contractors

   Client’s words that are actually music to a contractor’s ears: “I searched the world over and decided on you since I thought you were best suited for my project.”

   No, it is not a vanity issue for contractors. Rather, the contractor wants to understand you are settled and confident that the contractor’s company is actually best for your job. Second-guessing once the project has begun will not help anyone.

7. The Markup Fee Is Actually Not Negotiable

   Those remodeling contractor fees are able to seem high. Ten-percent? How about 20 percent? Any fee tacked onto an already high budget might seem burdensome. In the event, you try to bargain down their fee?

   Contractors could be your ally in saving money. Contractors who operate professionally, which describes the majority of them, work in concert with the client, not against them. Thus, with the contractor’s years of experience, the contractor is able to help identify a myriad of locations where you are able to pare down costs.

   But the contractor’s markup is not one of them. In case you envision the fee as pure cream, know that just part goes to the contractor as individual income. The contractor also has a business to run, and that pays for the company.

8. They Like Perfectionist Clients More Than Legal Opponents

   Do you feel as you are being a nuisance by delivering clear, precise info to the contractor? Do you think you’re afraid to add to the punch list that will come at the end of the project, detailing the remaining items to be completed?

   Don’t hesitate to speak the truth. While no contractor likes a client who’s impolite, the contractor does want to deal with requests now, long before the project is actually completed. Resentments that fester and turn into lawsuits help no one. Just be professional and civil about it, and the contractor will, also.

9. They Want You Out of the House

   The contractor is actually remodeling the entire first floor. Certainly, you are able to live on the second floor. Is not that why hot plates and microwaves were invented. Does not that bathroom counter have room for a microwave?

   It’s the house yours, and also the contractor won’t tell you to vacate your own house. But for big projects, it is best for everyone in case you stay out of the way. It is a safety issue. It is a space issue. The farther away you are able to go, the greater.

10. They Wish to Do Business

    

    Secrets and truths aside, the remodeling contractor wants to do business. More than likely, the contractor wants to do business with you, particularly. So long as you have the job type that the contractor is actually experienced at, and you’re easy enough to work contractor will probably want to go ahead.