How To Choose The Right Contractors To Interview For Your Renovation Project
Choosing to renovate your home is a big decision. However, like it or not, it certainly isn’t the only decision you’ll need to make along the way. At some point (likely following plenty of time spent researching the feasibility of your project) you’ll need to begin the process of interviewing home renovation contractors for your project.
Can it be that hard though? Can’t we just choose the top 10 contractors that come up in our Google search and meet with them all? The more options and opinions the better right?
The bottom line is that every home renovation project is comprised of a series of decisions. Lots of them. These types of projects are a marathon, not a sprint. So while you’re probably full of energy and ready to go at this moment in time, let’s realize that we’ll be best served by conserving that energy to deal with the countless decisions that we’re likely to face throughout the project. Today, I’m going to outline a few simple principles that will help homeowners make some solid early decisions to set your project up for success. Let’s get into how to choose which contractors to interview for your renovation project.
Here is my 4-point plan for success:
Thin the herd early
Explore their track record
Confirm compatibility
Navigate affiliations & accreditations
Let’s get started!
Thin The Herd Early
The whole idea here is to be as selective as possible early in the process. This is intended to spare yourself from the inevitable decision fatigue that is likely to rear its head somewhere along the way. Interviewing 5-10 contractors may seem prudent. You’re just keeping your options open, right? The truth is, overwhelm will be knocking on your door sooner rather than later if you start down this path. Luckily, having a solid online presence is a must these days for reputable renovation contractors. This is a great early advantage for homeowners. Being able to investigate a Contractor’s world via their online content will help you narrow the field early. Your goal should be to settle upon a small group of reputable, project-appropriate Contractors to interview in person. I tend to believe 3 Contractors is the magic number. If you’ve done your pre-interview homework, you should be confident that any of those 3 should be able to do a great job with your renovation project.
Explore Their Track Record
We all want to work with a Contractor who is honest, transparent, and ethical. We all want to work with Contractors who are great at what they do. Most of all, we all want our dream project completed on-time and on-budget. A Contractor’s online content is the first thing you should evaluate to make sure your interviewees will meet these criteria. Now, let’s be clear that the Contractors themselves are the ones curating this content. Of course it’s going to make them look great! But if you know what to look for, you can still read between the lines and get a solid, accurate picture of reality. Here’s what you should look for when evaluating a Contractors track record:
How long have they been in business?
First, the truth: There are awful businesses that have somehow managed to string it together for 15-20 years. There are great businesses that are brand new. Length of existence is certainly not the be-all/end-all, but I think we can agree that experience is critical. A long, sustained history of success and excellence in this industry is usually associated with the criteria which we have laid out above.
Evaluate past project photos
A Contractor’s past project photos are one of the best ways to evaluate their past work from the comfort of your own home. Ideally, we should see a wide variety of great-looking projects in a variety of styles. Having said that, here are some common red flags to watch for:
Are all the photos just different angles of one project? Watch out for this, it may not be obvious immediately, but it happens more than you’d like to believe. Your ideal contractor should have lots of photos of many different projects.
Are these photos blurry? Taken on an iPhone? This may seem like an odd thing to get hung up on, but most high-quality contractors go out of their way to get high-quality project photos. Low-quality photos could be an indicator of low-quality work.
Client reviews
Like it or not, the online customer review has become a key part of the consumer’s world. These days, most people are using online reviews as part of the evaluation process for everything from which restaurant to eat at to which books to read. You’ll likely use these reviews as part of your contractor evaluation process as well. While online reviews can be flawed when used as the sole evaluation tool, if you are able to read between the lines, they can be useful. Here are some points to be mindful of:
Expect to see mostly good reviews. Most quality contractors realize the role that reviews play in generating work these days, and they’ll be actively asking for them in situations where they’re likely to get a great review. That doesn’t mean you should disregard the 5-star reviews. If a contractor has 20 or 30 reviews that are all 5-star, that should certainly mean something. Just realize that there is some level of cherry-picking here to be cognizant of.
Approach bad reviews seriously, but with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, a significant amount of terrible reviews I see online are coming from a person who has misunderstood the product or service. Again, please take these awful reviews seriously, but try to see if you can spot somewhere that a past client has potentially misunderstood, misinterpreted, or mistaken the product or service.
Realize that the best information may be in the average reviews. In a 5-star system, 3-star reviews tend to be the most detailed, most honest, and most balanced. Here you’re likely to get a decent look at both sides of the coin. 3-star reviews will usually highlight what the Contractor did well, while respectfully pointing out what could’ve been done better.
Make sure your project is in their wheelhouse
This one is simple. Try to make sure that your project is a good match for the Contractors you are planning on interviewing. Now, most quality Contractors can handle a wide variety of projects, all shapes and sizes. However, your best results are going to come from a Contractor who is well suited to your type of project. Is your project a modest bathroom renovation? Maybe engaging with a high-end luxury builder specializing in complete home renovations isn’t your best bet. Are you planning a large-scale luxury kitchen makeover? A Contractor who normally undertakes basic basement developments maybe isn’t the best choice either, even if you like the price.
Navigating affiliations & accreditations
For Renovation Contractors, there is any ever-growing list of affiliations and member groups out there. While numerous badges or membership seals displayed on websites and company vehicles infer that a Contractor is reputable, let’s first understand what some of the common affiliations really are. In Calgary, you’re likely to come across the following:
The Better Business Bureau (BBB)
The BBB is a reasonably quick way to view if one of your prospective Contractors has had any serious complaints filed against them in the past. The BBB also offers mediation/arbitration in the event of a consumer dispute with a business holding membership. However, it should be pointed out that the BBB is a private, nonprofit organization funded via membership fees. They are not a government entity, thus have no real authority to force a business to act when a problem arises.
The Building Industry & Land Development Association (BILD)
BILD Calgary is the local chapter of the Canadian Homebuilders Association. BILD provides numerous services to their members, but functions most notably as a government advocacy group for the building industry. While some consumer resources are available through BILD and the CHBA, it’s efforts are geared predominantly towards the prosperity of the building industry at large. Most reputable local builders and renovators hold BILD membership and pay a fee to do so.
Renomark
Renomark is a renovator-specific member-group that is run in association with BILD. Members pay an annual fee and are expected to adhere to a renovation-specific code of conduct, which can be viewed here. Consumers can use Renomark as a resource to find local contractors who currently hold membership.
TV contractor affiliations
As reality-style home renovation shows continue to grow in popularity, a number of well-known TV Contractors have established their own Contractor-affiliate groups. One goal here is to connect homeowners with Contractors, and another is to collect membership fees from Contractors. While I’ll stop short of calling these groups fan-clubs (but they send you a sticker for your truck!), I think most savvy consumers will realize that their favourite TV Contractor likely has no idea who belongs to their member-group, let alone has actually vetted said Contractor’s ethics, quality and business practices.
Conclusion
The sheer vastness of choice available online these days is enough to make the average homeowners head spin. It’s my hope that with these 4 simple principles in hand, homeowners can now go about selecting Contractors to interview in a much more deliberate and informed way. The better sense you have of what to look for prior to conducting your interviews, the more certain you can be that any of the Contractors you meet with will be able to produce excellent results.
Renovating your home can be a long, difficult process. Forming a solid partnership with a great Contractor will not only ensure that you end up with the renovation you dreamed of. It will ensure that you and your family make it out the other side with your sanity (and chequebook) intact. Happy interviewing!