September 25, 2008

Your Home: Improvement and Remodeling tips

Choosing the Right Contractor

By Jim Kabel
Special to the Times

Editor’s Note: The Times is pleased to launch this monthly column to provide useful information and tips on home maintenance and improvement. The goal is to help you make wise and timely decisions about maintaining the functionality, beauty, energy efficiency, safety, security, and return on investment of your biggest asset.

Although new residential construction has slowed nationwide, the Bay Area and many parts of Santa Clara County continue to have a relatively healthy remodeling market.

Why? Much of our housing stock has passed the 30-year mark, which is creating improvement projects driven by both aesthetic and functional goals. The employment picture is better here than the rest of the state while home values have held up in neighborhoods less impacted by the sub-prime mortgage problem. And with the traditional long-term growth and strength of the Silicon Valley housing market, upgrading your home continues to be a good investment whether you just recently purchased it or are planning to stay put for several years.

Unfortunately, there are two major issues that make home improvement an uncomfortable subject for many homeowners. First, home improvement products and services can be confusing to understand and choose. Most of us don’t make major repairs or remodels to our home each year. With the number of choices and the rate of change of materials, fixtures and other related products the decisions can be overwhelming. (We’ll cover some of these issues in future columns.) Homeowners are also more familiar with the buying process for homes, furniture and appliances versus the buying process for remodeling.

The other challenge is that home improvement companies, commonly called “contractors,” typically have the highest number of consumer complaints annually. Almost every homeowner has a neighbor or friend with a horror story from a remodeling or repair contractor experience.

So why is the industry so flaky? First, every year, illegal contractors and scam artists victimize homeowners in Santa Clara County leaving many with unfinished work, poor craftsmanship and, in some cases, lost money. California and many other states have started to put pressure on illegal contractors by enacting new laws and increasing fines to prevent them from operating freely in local jurisdictions.

I receive the California Contrac-tor State License Board newsletter, which publishes the names of over 500 contractor companies with licenses revoked in the past year.

In addition, other legitimate licensed contractors unfortunately do a poor job of managing their businesses. While their construction skills are strong, they often lack the business savvy to run the non-construction parts of their businesses and become overwhelmed. Some stop returning phone calls to new clients or even existing clients with active projects. Others try to grow by adding staff but do not invest in the necessary processes to organize and delegate work effectively. It’s not surprising that two out of three remodeling companies fail within three years.

Despite these issues, choosing a good contractor does not have to be a daunting task. With any major purchasing decision, you have to conduct due diligence through research, background checks and asking all the right questions.

Here are some important tips to consider when choosing a contractor:

- Make sure they are licensed and that the license is active. You can check license status at www.cslb.ca.gov.

- Verify that they are insured properly. All contractors in California must have liability insurance and carry worker’s compensation insurance if they have employees.

- Find out how long have they have been in business.

- Ask for references and/or find out if they are rated or certified by an independent agency or organization. Examples include Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List or Diamond Certified. Can they provide three references from clients in the past 12 months?

- Trust your gut feelings about them as your working relationship will be important, especially with a larger project. Are you comfortable with them?

- Ask for photos of completed projects. Do they have a before-and-after picture portfolio?

- Are they familiar with local permits that may be required?

Things to watch out for include:

- No verifiable business address (or P.O. Box only)

- No alternate phone number to their cell phone

- High pressure sales tactics

- Immediate availability to start

- Requests for large deposits up-front. California law requires that contractor can collect no more than a 10 percent up to $1,000 deposit up front.

- Requests for “under-table” payments

Next month we’ll discuss how to compare estimates, bids and proposals, and what should be in your home improvement contract.

About the Author:
Jim Kabel is the owner and general manager of Case Handyman and Remodeling, a full-service, award-winning, residential re-modeling company based in San Jose. For questions or suggestions about future topics for this column, please contact by phone at (408) 323-5300; e-mail; jkabel@ caseremodeling.com or online at www.caseremodeling.com.