Are you considering adding a room – or perhaps more than one room – to your house? It’s a great way of increasing the space you have available, especially if you are happy in your home and don’t want to move (or to endure the stress and strain that comes with finding a new house, the buying and selling process and the move itself). It can also be cost-effective, and should you eventually come to sell your house, a well-built and sensibly planned extension or addition will certainly make yours more attractive than other homes in the area.
So, the first thing you need to do is find a reputable builder, a contractor you can be sure you can rely on. How to go about this? Step one, ask friends, neighbors and family who have had similar work done before, and get an honest appraisal of not only the work, but their professionalism during the process. Once you have a few names, start getting in touch, and ask them to come to your home and have a look, and give you a cost for the work involved. You’ve now made the first step!
Comparing Quotes
If you want, try looking for bathroom addition contractors near me in a search engine. That’s assuming you want a bathroom addition, which is one of the most popular of all, but you’ll find they do other rooms too. Once you have all your quotes in, you need to start comparing them, and this is where things get a little tricky.
Our first piece of important advice is not to get too many contractors involved. This takes up too much of your time, and will also lead to you becoming in decisive. They don’t have the time either, so keep it to three or four maximum.
Now, consider this: you’ve asked all of them to provide a price for the same job. You’re using local contractors, so their costs should all be pretty similar. Therefore, you should expect the quotes to be not too far away from each other. This makes sense, as each contractor should do the same job the same way. If you put, for example four quotes together and one is considerably lower than the rest, you need to be wary of that quote.
It may be attractive to go for the cheapest price, but here’s the thing: either they are going to give you a very cheap job – which won’t be up to scratch – or they have misunderstood what the job entails. So, you concentrate on the contractors with the quotes that are not far away from each other, but which do you choose?
How To Decide
It’s quite simple: you now have three contractors, who may have been recommended or you have come by via an internet search. Do your research: have a look at their website, browse their gallery, ask if you can talk to previous customers. If they’re honest and reputable, they will be more than happy to help you get feedback on their work.
Most of all, talk to your contractors, ask them how they will manage the job, what problems they envision, and who will be on site to supervise. Get to know them, and you’ll soon find one that you feel comfortable with. Check they are a member of a local builder’s guild or association, and ask to see any credentials that you may have found to be important during your research.
It pays to take time to find the right contractor, one you are happy to work with, as this will ensure you get the best results for your room addition project.
