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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Contractor Tips: 10 Hats Your General Contractor Wears.

1. Therapist. Remodeling or building is incredibly stressful. 

2. Mediator. Neighbors, inspectors, architects, homeowners, subcontractors — many parties are involved and impacted by a renovation, and a good contractor can keep anyone from coming to blows.

3. Marriage counselor. A good contractor doesn't take sides, just guides the ship safely into the harbor.

4. Financial adviser. Your contractor has probably dealt with many banks, insurance agents and loan consultants over the years. Take advantage of this expertise.

5. Secretary. Though every contractor goes to bed dreaming of a project where there are no changes over the course of the job, that's not how remodeling works. There is much documentation needed.

6. Realist. Regardless of what has caused a project to drift into a realm populated more by dreams than reality, the contractor has to bring things back down to earth.

7. Real estate adviser. Contractors end up seeing almost as many houses as Realtors, so they know what houses in your neighborhood are like. They can tell you if you are over-improving or under-improving.

8. Your house's best friend. Even though you may have hired us to figure out why the attic fan stopped working, we're going to listen to what your house has to say while we're crawling though the attic.

9. Translator. Architects, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, cabinetmakers — they all use terms most homeowners are not familiar with. Your contractor has seen that look on your face before and knows when to explain what was just said in a walk-through.

10. Builder. Sometimes when it's quiet, we get to take off all of these other hats, hang them up and put on our tool belt. It may seem like all we ever do is respond to text messages and chat with subcontractors, but once in a while we actually get to pick up a tool other than a cell phone.

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