How to Choose the Right Contractor for Your Home Renovation or Build

You can turn on your TV 24 hours a day to any home improvement channel and watch countless hours of scary home renovation gone wrong. The most common thing we see again and again is cheap under qualified individuals doing work they are not trained to do. Everybody knows Mike Holmes. He has been in the construction field for well over 20 years. He has been on TV since 2001 and the famous line he uses on every show is “Do it Right”. But you may not know that Mike Holmes has also been an advocate for the improvements to the building codes in Canada and a huge supporter of using skilled qualified trades. He was honored for this in the House of Commons for this in 2006. Mike Holms was also voted the 2nd most trusted Canadian behind David Suzuki in 2010.

Mike Holmes is not the best-known and trusted Contractor in Canada because he is the cheapest. He is well known because he prides himself in using skilled trained individuals that ”Do it right”.

We feel that when clients are interested in starting a construction project the following four criteria should be used in the following order.

1.) Quality work, Why not do it right the first time.

2.) Warranty, Everybody should stand behind their work.

3.) Customer Testimonials, Honest feedback from past clients

4.) Price, does it fit within the budget I can afford or want to spend.

We find that when projects go wrong often price was used to make the decision. Price is not the most important factor when you consider the long-term effects of using lower quality materials and services. If you get 2 quotes from good qualified contractors and the prices are close you have to ask how the third price is so much better. You need to double check what materials are being used, you need to confirm that Workers Compensation Insurance is in place, you need to confirm your Contractor has a warranty and you need to verify licensed skilled trades are going to be used. Are all the prices “Apples to Apples” If you just look at the last page of the quote or proposal you will run into issues.

Construction projects do not always go smoothly, surprises do come up and mistakes will be made. We feel that clients hire good contractors to handle the hiccups. If everything always went smoothly why would you even need to hire a Qualified Licensed Contractor? Wouldn’t you just do it yourself?