PDA

View Full Version : How To Manage Contractors



billbenson
06-24-2013, 11:02 PM
In Florida wells are common for irrigation. Mine failed a couple of weeks ago. I had a well guy come by when I bought the house. I forget why. I couldn't find him (phone disconnected) so I found another company. Usual web searches. They put in a new pump but it failed in a week or so. Now I have a well company fixing a bunch of things that appear to have been done wrong for probably 20 years. Long before I owned the property. The current well guys appear to be very knowledgeable. At least they show me the way that they feel it should properly be done and the way it was done. Some of it is so obvious when they explain it that I'm sure they are correct.

That's an example. But how is a home owner going to know how a well should be installed. I'm searching the web now, but it's after the fact.

I'm in an old house that probably needs to be gutted or bulldozed and put another house up. Great location; old house and floor plan. I'd like to redo the house in a few years. My brother had a new house put up on his property 10 years ago. To much stuff is failing.

My current thought on a house redo is to hire someone just to manage the project. Not to recommend any contractors etc. No vested interest other than his hourly rate.

So for the well thing, it went from sprinklers don't work to new well pump to digging out the old well. So how does a lay person find a good well guy (it's rare enough that the neighbor isn't going to have a recommendation) to managing a home redo?

vangogh
06-25-2013, 02:17 AM
I don't think the average homeowner should be expected to know the right way to install a well. I suppose when buying the place whoever inspected it should know and be able to let you know if it was done correctly. For the most part you're trusting whoever you hire to install or inspect the thing. That's something I do think we can all figure out how to do.

It sounds like you're just not interested in managing the project. In that case I don't see any reason why you couldn't hire someone to manage it. I'd keep in mind that you want to find someone you can trust. If it's not someone you know, you probably wanted to pay them well enough to care.

As far as finding a well guy I'm not sure where to look. I'd probably just keep asking around and searching online. It sounded like the guy you found was someone you trusted to do the work.

Freelancier
06-25-2013, 11:48 AM
We got lucky a few years back and found a home reno guy who actually knew his stuff and had a very strong regard for standing behind his work (and we ended up testing that and found we were right to pick him). We had to interview a bunch of them until we found one we were comfortable with, then we evaluated their proposals, asked a lot of questions, called the references that the contractors offered for work similar to what we wanted, asked a lot more questions of the references and even went to look at the work the contractor did for the references, then picked one and gave him a $10K job to test. Reno work isn't quite the same as building a home from the bottom up, since you also need an architect to make sure the home won't fall down, but the process is likely the one you want to use.

Yes, it's time-consuming... not as time-consuming as the work will be, but a lot of time spent on picking a contractor to work on your home. It works better if you're not in a hurry.

PayForWords
07-20-2013, 12:34 PM
Believe it or not, look for masonry companies. A select few of them do well work. Good luck!

billbenson
07-20-2013, 06:29 PM
Makes sense. I was looking at a Chinese company that had freeway guardrail systems a month ago.I don't have time for that right now, but products like that are worth researching.