General Contractor Or Handyman - Who Do I Really Need? - Part 1

By Author: Susan Hu
Total Articles: 2
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The more familiar you become with your home and the more home renovations/decorating you do, the better you'll get at being able to decide if you need the services of handyman or a general contractor. Here are some things to consider, which will hopefully be helpful in providing some guidance in this area.

What to Consider Before Hiring a Contractor

The very first thing you should ask yourself before even considering hiring a contractor is, Can I do this myself? In other words, can you act as the general contractor and oversee the others doing the hands-on-work? The obvious benefit would be the money saved from not having to pay a professional. But there are other things to consider such as the many responsibilities entailed in taking charge of the role of the contractor. For instance, can you afford the time it will take away from your full time job? And if you're fortunate enough to find subcontractors who are willing to work on evenings and weekends, it will eat into personal time and time that could be spent with loved ones.

Furthermore, to be a general contractor, you must have at least a rudimentary ...
... knowledge of construction or you won't know if the people you've hired are doing a good job. Keeping all this in mind, let's assume that you want to avoid a lot of hassle and save time by actually hiring a contractor.

Referrals are Essential

This is obvious but deserves repeating -- referrals are essential. This is one obvious way to determine if the remodeling job that's desired has a good chance to turn out the way you'd like it to. Don't limit this to just getting a list of past satisfied customers. Make sure you visit the homes and personally see the work the contractor has done and be sure to chat with these satisfied clients. Ask if the work was done on time, on budget, and if they would hire this person again for a possible job in the future.

The General Contractor Is the Builder but Not the Creator

The general contractor and his team are skilled in building, but you have to have the vision of how you want your room to look! You must be the creator and be able to share that vision with your general contractor. There are at least two ways to go about doing this. If you have the money to spend on a designer, this person will draw up a detailed design (based on your desires and specifications of course) that will be the blueprint for the general contractor. If, however, you want to go a much simpler route, you can possibly avoid having to hire a designer by looking through magazines that specialize in featuring and contain photo spreads of renovated and decorated homes to find the layouts you want. Select the homes you like and tell your contractor you want it to look like this and if you want add some minor modifications like a different color for the cabinets. A qualified contractor should be able to emulate the photo and incorporate any or all of your changes to that picture. It's a good idea to get final drawings of the overall design so that you know you're both on the same page. Bear in mind that many magazines feature top of the line products in high-end homes, which may not be at your target budget.

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