Hiring a professional home renovation contractor is an excellent alternative for all homeowners, who do not have enough time to perform the complete renovation job on own. However, when you choose Brisbane builders and renovators, you have to narrow down various options to come up with the best one. For this, you should examine the previous work of companies according to their portfolios, check license, look referrals and collect a few of the competitive bids before your final decision.
Get Recommendations
The first and the most important step to find the right Brisbane builders and renovators is to prepare a list of local companies with the right level of expertise. After this, you have to narrow down your list gradually according to the top ones and select the renovators. You will find various ways to compile the initial list, which include-
Ask your relatives and friends to get recommendations, especially the ones underwent home renovation recently
Search for the specific type of service you want in a specific area
Have a look at online reviews
Use Facebook and other social media platforms to get local recommendations
Successful renovators always stay in touch with their prospects and customers while remaining prepared to share their work. Hence, you must be cautious of home improvement professionals lacking basic details, like online reviews, presence on social media and professional websites.
Compare the Portfolio
You have to look for Brisbane builders and renovators with specialization in the renovation job you want, accordingly, if you want an expert in renovating kitchens you must not approach bathroom renovators. Moreover, home improvement contractors with sound creative skills are helpful for specific projects. For instance, if you are looking for laying entryway of your property with tiles, detailed mosaics or want to use faux finish for painting your home, you must approach contractors capable of doing the respective task well.
You have to check the long list and ask each of the home builders to provide a portfolio of projects at least from the previous year. The companies may have physical portfolios or direct you to their websites highlighting images. Good portfolios must contain a minimum of 10 projects and must include the photos of every space before the commencement of any work, at the time if remodel and completion of a project. If possible, you should collect sketches, blueprints and other related plans to get a good idea of various approaches adopted by your contractor.
Check the Certification, Operating License and Liability insurance
Your list should contain six or eight names at the point. An easy way of narrowing down the search work is to ask for license and certification of a contractor. Here, the certification and operating license depend on a specific project handled by your contractor. As requirements may vary according to cities, you must approach the community’s license division to check the requirements.
Other than assuring of the right certification and operating license for completion of a job legally and safely, you must make sure that the professional in your list has the mandatory liability insurance if any damage occurs to your property. The insurance covers the contractor as well as his workers with worker compensation. You must check the copy on insurance policies and verify that they are all up to date ones.
Look for References from Companies
Once you narrow down the list of Brisbane builders and renovators to only a few of the top contenders, you must start looking for references. This is a common activity and hence, any reputed builder or renovators always stay prepared to show you a list of its references. The reference list of a reliable company or service provider has at least 10 jobs with name, contact number and address of each of the customers.
After this, you have to give calls to each of the references you have. If you find a long list, you must select a few of the old and few of the recent projects. You must prepare a detailed note of each project on your call. You must ask a few of the references to visit their residence for looking the renovation project in person. Especially, you must collect some important details of contractors, such as the work schedule, neat and cleanliness of a job site, ways of addressing problems and so on. You should also check the punctuality of contractors regarding work days and appointments. Along with this, you must assure that a potential contractor charges a reasonable amount.
