How to choose a contractor!

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How to choose a contractor!

Date Added: June 10, 2009 03:57:13 AM

Author: Wes Hamilton

Category: Construction: General Contractors

How do safely pick a good contractor for your home improvement project or repair work? Written by: PLUMB PRO, INC Wes Hamilton Almost every for of advertising from a contractor, whether it be simply their vehicle signage or phone book advertising, you will repeatedly see the cliche phrase "Licensed, Bonded and Insured". Do you as a consumeractually know what each of these words mean and how they can affect you? You BETTER! Well, let me explain it to you! First off, about me, my name is Wes Hamilton and I own a plumbing company in Alabama called PLUMB PRO, INC. We are a legitimate company - If in doubt check us out! Just google plumbpro.net or look us up on Manta.com or Dun & Bradstreet. I know these terms well - and pay dearly for them. Much of my competetion exploits these terms, or rather fradulently use them. This bothers me since I run a legetimate business and am actually LICENSED, BONDED and INSURED - these words- come at a substantial cost to those of us who run legitimate businesses and actually meet the requirements to take good care of our customers. This article is slanted towards plumbing, since i am in the plumbing business and fully understand plumbing contracting - but is relevant to ALL other forms of contracting. FIRST- Being Licensed can mean many, many, many things. So, if your plumber says that he is licensed what exactly does HE mean? Does he mean that he has a DRIVERS LICENSE - HA :-)!! Does he mean that he has a STATE ISSUED PLUMBING LICENSE, or a local business license, or BOTH? Well if he is legitimate he will certainly have a STATE ISSUED MASTER PLUMBER and/or MASTER GASFITTER license. A journeymany license does not count -- that is different! He will also have a local business license and perhaps multiple business licenses for each municipality that they service. He should be able to produce these things for you upon request - if he actually has them. You can also call or go online your State Plumbing and Gasfittiing Board to check the status of your plumber without them ever knowing! Also, call your municipality (City / County) to check their business license status. SECOND - Bonded -- what does that mean? Well there are many types and forms of Bonds and Bonding. For, instance in my service area, which covers approximately 15 different municipalities, I am only required by two of those municipalities to actually have a bond on file with the jurisdiction (city / county). Heres the real KICKER - the bond required for the year is only for $ $10,000.00! If a customer had a problem and had to challenge my company or the city on a job that was messed up they could could only claim up to $10,000.00 of damages (the ammount of the bond on file). That naturally will not cover much in damages. Remember that I am not required by the rest of my service area to be bonded. If there were to be a problem then customer (you) would have to HOPE that I am a decent human-being and honest businessman and will honor my warranty. If I do not choose to honor my warranty - then what will you do? Well, you will have to hire an attorney and sue me for damages! This is a long drawn out process and sometimes is not worth the trouble. Lets assume, though, that you do sue and win -- If your contractor is an INCORPORATION or an LLC then he could simply close the company. This would leave you without anything. I guess the reason that I am telling you this is that YOU SHOULD USE A GOOD, ESABLISHED COMPANY and be willing to pay just a bit more for their services! You will save in the long run. THIRD - Insured -- What is this. Well, hummm....sometimes the only thing that is insured is the vehicle and it is not even on COMMERCIAL POLICY. HA, a lot of good that will do you if there is a problem with the work, your house floods out or burns to the ground! The proper insurance you should be looking for is called GENREAL LIABILITY INSURANCE - preferabaly with a WORKERS COPMENSATION policy. General Liability Ins. should be a policy with a MINIMUM of at least $1million dollars with an umbrella (excess coverage per incident) of at least the policy minimun( $1MILL in this case) or in most cases double the base policy coverage. Having this insuranse is EXPENSIVE and many contractors do not have it. They manage to skate by never being caught or even asked. You as the consumer should only deal with contractors with the afore mentioned qualifications. A contractor who meets these qualifications will probably take good care you - it is in their best interest to keep you happy. Thank you for taking time to read this article, hopefully it will be of help to someone! Wes Hamilton PLUMB PRO, INC http://www.plumbpro.net/ http://www.plumbproinc.com/