Before even attempting to hire anyone you must ensure that you have a direct plan for your project, including budget, timeline, and renovation specifications, by doing this you will save yourself a great deal of time, money, and energy.
Ask for referrals. Same goes for anything, ask your family, friends, and colleagues’ opinions and see who they recommend and why, this has been a proven way to ensure a happy renovation for all parties involved.
Take your time when choosing contractors and other trades people, other than your original renovation plan, this is the most important thing you can do. Take your time, dot your I’s and cross your T’s, ask for certifications, photos, and past references. You want to ensure that you’ve covered all your bases before embarking on this huge project.
Get more than one quote. A second or even a third or fourth opinion is often a very good idea, you could benefit in two ways by doing this, one is you get to meet more people, maybe the right one is in there. Second, you may save yourself a lot of money and heartache, just by being sure.
If you come to the point where you’ve met two different contractors, one of whom can do the job faster and at a fraction of the cost, trust your gut. If you get an uneasy feeling for any reason I would strongly suggest listening to that feeling. Sometimes it is worth it to pay a little more and/or wait a little longer.
Before giving the go ahead to start a project have a friend or family member who is familiar with home projects or who has taken on the challenge themselves to read over the plan with you to help ensure you haven’t left any important matters out.
Before the workers get started make sure that you get a signed document that you keep in a safe place, noting that the workers are covered by insurance, this can protect you if someone gets injured in your home while on the job.
Good communication is key when attacking a large job such as this, make sure that your requirements, details, and goals are laid flat out and there are no questions left unanswered from yourself or the trades’ people.
Coinciding with Tip number nine, you must ensure to keep those lines of communication open during the task from beginning to finish. If you don’t reside at the place of project, arrange a time either at the beginning or end of each shift to see the progress that’s being done. If everything is going smoothly, offer words of encouragement and appreciation.
Make sure you are ready, you want to steer away from making any changes to the plan once work has begun, things could get quite confusing and costly if you decide to make changes.
When hiring someone to work on your home, it’s important to get the job done right and of your standards, so take the time to write out a detailed plan for your project to help ensure everything goes smoothly. It seems like these days there are so many scary stories of trades people who take advantage of their customers by not doing the job right, taking way to long & charging way to much. Truth be told, there are far more good builders, trades professionals & contractors than there are bad, the same in any business; there are always a small number of people you need to watch out for. The reason it’s so scary is because this is your home, the biggest purchase of your life. It’s imperative to take your time in finding the trades people that are perfect for your project. The best way to get good trades people are to get a referral from a friend, colleague or neighbour who have used these workers in the past. Be patient with the hiring process. Have several trades people give you a quote and go over the plan & time line of the project to make sure that all your needs can be met; however you want be very cautious when getting quotes, many times a contractor will quote at a lower price to get the job and then increase the cost substantially when they know you have no choice but to pay it or you will end up with an unfinished home. It’s impossible for trades people to give you an exact quote, but what is recommended is to get a ball park quote, with parameters within your budget, for example if your budget is $20,000 and the trades person is quoting between $17,000- 19,500 this will work for you.
Devote an ample amount of time for your renovation plan; you want to have every last detail with appropriate specifications down on paper. If you have a partner make sure you do this together and that you are 100% on the same page, if this is a task you are taking on by yourself look for support from friends and family, and have them be detailed with questions or concerns for you. It is very important to make sure that your plan is the final plan; you don’t want to make changes to the draft once work has started, and proper planning will save you time and money. If the rare occurrence happens, and changes must be made make sure that you discuss them with the building contractor, rather than the workers, and make sure you put the changes in writing. If the project is a large one you may want to consider hiring an architect, the architect would then provide the contractors with a detailed plan and specifications.
There are many good trades people, builders & contractors that take pride in their reputation & making their clients happy. Communicating all your needs & pricing issues before the work has started is a very important step to take. Be clear & concise and keep to the original budget & design. A professional builder, contractor or trades person will appreciate your organization and your job will run more smoothly, in turn when a good job is being done, take the time to let them know, this will boost moral and the trade people will then work harder because their hard work is being recognized. In the case of work being done to an existing property, discuss the order of work with your building contractor first. Discuss which rooms or spaces will need to clear; discuss storage space for materials, where you would like the workers to have their meals and toilet use (will you be supplying a portable washroom or are they permitted to use one of the toilets in your home) and discuss suitable working hours, keeping in mind your working hours and respectable hours for neighbours. You also need to talk about job cleanliness your contractor should clean up while work is in progress and when the job is complete. Don’t forget to discuss the question of a convenient place for debris and rubble and confirm who is responsible for its removal. Make yourself aware of the local by-laws regarding noise, dust, litter etc. You may also want to remember to be courteous to your neighbours, some building operations may cause a nuisance to them or damage the environment. Communicate with your neighbours before the job begins. Warning them will gain their respect for your project.
Before beginning the job, a very important matter must be addressed that many people overlook. Check to ensure that your workers are insured, make sure that you have written and signed documentation of this placed in a safe place. This could result in protection on your behalf if a worker is injured in your home on the job.
Generally, you would never be asked to pay before work has begun, if you are; however, you may want to take a step back and make sure that you are not at risk of fraud or being taken advantage of in any way. Normally for smaller jobs you would pay the full balance at the end of the job, if it’s a larger project, depending on what you’ve agreed on in the contract you may be required to make either monthly instalments or payments upon completion of projected areas of the job.
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