If you want to remodel your home significantly, there are a lot of decisions you’ll need to make, starting with which company you’re going to hire for your remodel. There are a wide variety of contractors out there that specialize in home remodeling. Some are equipped to do an entire home remodel, while others have specialties (like bathroom or kitchen remodeling). If you’re overwhelmed with the number of companies to choose from, try using this list to narrow down your options.
Define What You Need
Before you reach out to remodeling companies, you need to establish what exactly you want done in your home. Are you looking to remodel your entire kitchen or just the countertops? Are you looking to replace tile flooring or wood flooring (or both)? How much have you budgeted for this?
Depending on your answers to these questions, you’ll be able to start to narrow down the best remodeling companies for your project. There are both national chains and local services that you’ll come across in your research. Some will offer all kinds of remodels, and others only specialize in one or two things, which will also help you narrow down your list of companies to contact.
Get Estimates
Once you’ve created a small list of remodeling companies to contact, it’s time to get estimates from them for your project. Getting several estimates from a variety of companies lets you evaluate both the market for this sort of remodel and your budget itself. If one company’s estimate is significantly higher (or lower) than the others, that might be a sign to eliminate them from consideration. If all the estimates come in significantly over your budget, you might need to reevaluate what you’re willing to spend.
Now, while price is an extremely important consideration, it’s not the only thing that you should consider when choosing a remodeling company. Just because one is priced a bit higher than the others, that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth the price. They may have more years of experience or may use different, higher-quality materials than the others. Use your best judgment.
Check If They’re Licensed and Insured
A small thing that is often overlooked when choosing a remodeling company is to make sure that they are who they say they are. Anyone can print off business cards and walk around a neighborhood advertising their services. Check your local database to see if they’re licensed, assuming that’s required for where you live. Ask if they’re insured and how they handle accidents on a worksite. Asking these questions will help you ensure the remodeling company is legitimate and, frankly, good at their job.
Check Online Reviews
As with anything else, online reviews are a great way to see if the general public is happy with the work this company does. The person doing the estimate is trying to sell you a service, so they are going to be on their best behavior. Third-party opinions, like online reviews, give you more of an unbiased view of what to expect if you hire this company.
It’s important to keep in mind that people are more likely to leave a review after a bad experience than a great one. When you’re looking at Google reviews (or reviews on your site of choice), read the reviews rather than just accepting the average rating at face value. Look for patterns in the reviews that show either great work or bad work.
Check Their Past Work
If you’ve come down to a couple of remodeling companies and still can’t decide between them, consider looking at the work they’ve done in the past. Even if both companies are trained and skilled in the type of remodel you want, you may like the look of one over the other. Most companies have a gallery of pictures on their website, so you can get a feel of the type of work they’ve done in the past and how it turned out.
Ask Questions
At the end of the day, no one expects you to know everything about this process–especially if you’ve never hired a remodeling company before. Ask questions of everyone you talk to. You might think they’re stupid questions, but they’ve probably answered those questions before and expect you to ask them. If the remodeling company you’re talking to makes you feel bad for asking questions, they’re probably not the ones for you anyway.
