Hiring a contractor can be an intimidating process. You want to fully trust the company you hire with your money and your project. It’s important to do your research ahead of time
Regardless of the project you are contracting out, there are three things that you should look out for when hiring a contractor.
- Licensing
- Insurance
- Past projects and referrals
Licensing
If your contractor is not licensed, this can create unnecessary risks for you as a customer. If you provide them with a down payment, you have no protection from them if they were to take your down payment and run. Although this is an unlikely scenario, deposits are a considerable amount of money that is important to protect. If the company is licensed, the state recognizes them, and any type of unjust use of your money can result in their license getting revoked.
Insurance
If you hire a contractor that does not have insurance, there is a risk for you as a homeowner if one of the workers gets injured. The company cannot cover the medical bills, so the hospital will turn to the next person they can come after: the homeowner. Ensure that the contractor that you hire has insurance so that you are not even potentially liable for injuries on your property.
References
Has the contractor company done many jobs that are similar to your project? If they haven’t, it might be beneficial to look at the projects they have done that are similar and see if they are similar to what you would like. Otherwise, if they are not up to your quality standards, it may be best to go with a different contractor. You can also request the contact information from a prior customer, so you can ask about the experience that they had with the contractor. You also might get some great tips and insight from the customer, good or bad.
We hope these tips helped you with your process of hiring a contractor! If you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to reach out.