What to look for in a bathroom remodeling contractor
Now you don't want just anyone working on your dream bathroom so you need to think about the qualities that you will be looking for in your bathroom contractors. Some of the things you should be considering are:
* Reliability - Will they turn up when they say they will and will they stick to the project timetable?
* Good at their job - The quality of your new bathroom will be as good as the workers that create it a high level of skill should be expected.
* No rogues - You don't want anyone that's likely to run off with your money.
* Reputation - This allows you to determine all of the above qualities.
Never buy anything from a door to door salesperson
The number one rule to help you to avoid being ripped off is never ever buy anything from someone who knocks on your door out of the blue. Personally I never buy anything from someone that cold calls me on the phone either. If you get called on like this and you are in the process of looking for good contractors then politely ask the callers to leave you with their details and you will research their company when you have the time.
The rogue traders will vanish when you do this because they will have no legitimate details to give you. Should the company turn out to be reputable then you can add them to your list for consideration along with all the rest.
Investigate the reputation of your bathroom contractor candidates
Personal recommendation is the best way to determine the reputation of anyone selling his or her services in the home improvement market. If you have a friend that has just had their bathroom renovated then go and take a good look. Find out how pleased they are with the job and with the contractors that worked on it. Bear in mind the points above especially how reliable and how skilled the bathroom contractor was at the job when your quiz your friend.
You'll soon find out if this bathroom contractor is a rogue and you can quickly cross them off your list but if the job looks good and your friend is happy then make a note and add the contractor to your 'possible' list.
Ask for references of similar small bathroom remodeling projects
Another powerful technique to weed out the rogues from the quality bathroom contractors is to ask for references. Ask them to give you contact information for 2 or 3 past customers and follow them up. Give the contacts a call and try to arrange to go and view the work. Most people are quite happy to let you do this because they know first hand just how difficult it is to find the right people.
When you visit the reference customers take them a small gift of chocolates, flowers or a bottle of wine to say thank you for letting you see their pride and joy bathroom. This breaks the ice and makes people feel more like opening up to you. Make the most of the information that you gain by doing this.
As a general rule a bathroom contractor won't provide a reference unless they know that it's going to be a good one so if they do give you their customer contacts it's a good indication that they are proud of their work. Make sure that you get more than one reference to make sure that they their work is consistent.
When I selected the contractor to remodel my own very small bathroom using the above techniques I was fortunate enough to find someone who was capable of doing the whole job from start to finish all by himself. People like him are rare but they live by their reputation so he was only too willing to provide me with a string of clients to go and see. This project went very well for me. There is more information about multi-skilled contractors in the article Small Bathroom remodeling - One Stop Contractors
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