You have your work cut out for you if you’re trying to find a general contractor for a construction project. You need to get many little details right, and you need to find someone who can take your vision and make it a reality.
But with over 3.6 million construction businesses in the United States, it’s sometimes hard to find a company to handle the job. Not every company has the same skills, and others will provide lousy service.
Finding the best general contractor is essential if you want your contracting job completed right the first time. Below are seven key qualities to look for when hiring a general contractor.
1. The Right Experience
A general contractor may do well for the majority of projects out there. The question is, do they have the specialized experience needed to provide expert support and advice about your new construction project.
You may not get that specialized knowledge with a regular general contractor. That’s why it’s worth looking for a contractor with specialized experience in the project you want to complete.
When you work with someone that has done a lot of similar work before, they’ll know more about the ins and outs of the project. Your contractor will be able to provide better advice and be more able to meet your needs.
2. Valid Licensing
Before you hire a general contractor, you need to ensure they have the right licensing to work in your area. There are many local laws and regulations that contractors need to follow, and these rules can change based on your location, so there’s no set standard for contractors to follow.
That means a contractor needs to have licensing in your area to work there. They should provide you with a license number to confirm with your local government.
If someone provides you a valid license number, that means they’ve proven to the government that they know the rules. You won’t need to worry about them ignoring building regulations and causing you to need your work completed twice.
3. Insurance Coverage
Even though a general contractor will know how to stay safe on the job, that doesn’t mean accidents will never happen. Contractors work with dangerous equipment. What happens if someone makes a small mistake or equipment malfunctions?
That’s why any contractors you work with need to have insurance coverage. This coverage will ensure that anyone injured on the job will have coverage to take care of their injury. It will also cover any property damage that happens when people are working.
A contractor needs to provide details of their insurance before they step onto the job site. If you allow an uninsured worker on your property and they get hurt, you may end up being held liable for their injuries.
4. Detailed Work Briefs
The last thing you want to do is accept someone as a contractor without an idea of the project you want to be completed. Any good contractor will get every detail possible about your project before taking the job.
They need to do this because they can’t provide reliable pricing without this information. Unfortunately, some people may work on an hourly basis and take more time than necessary. They may not even complete your whole project and leave out key details.
A detailed work brief will prevent all those problems. It will detail every item of your project in writing. Ask for a work contract with this project brief so your contractor knows exactly what they need to do and you know how much you’re going to pay for the work.
5. Work Guarantees
Even the best contractor will make mistakes. Whether it’s their fault or something outside of their control, you need to work with someone who will stand by their work and guarantee everything.
That means that you have coverage in case of mistakes. You don’t want to pay extra money to fix something that should have been done correctly the first time.
The same is true for building materials. Sometimes it isn’t on the contractor when something goes wrong, and it’s the material that fails and needs to be replaced.
Work with a contractor that uses materials that have warranties. You should be able to get replacements for anything that doesn’t work.
6. Good Communication Skills
Communication is one of the most critical skills for a general contractor. You’re usually dealing with big projects, and customers are spending a lot of money. You need to talk to people well to keep morale up and ensure clients understand what’s going on at all times.
Try to gauge the communication ability of a contractor when you’re interviewing them for the job. Look at how they prevent themselves and answer your questions to see if their communication skills are up to par.
7. Great Testimonials
A new contractor fresh into the building world may have the skills to handle the job. The problem is that you can’t distinguish those people from new and old workers who don’t have the skills to work as a general contractors.
That’s why you need to look at customer reviews when hiring a contractor. An established general contractor like https://www.hcienv.com/ will have plenty of client testimonials that back up their skills.
In some cases, you can even look at a contractor’s past work. You can look at their past work to see what someone can do to help determine if they have the skill to handle your job.
Make Sure You Understand What Makes a General Contractor Great
The are many general contractors globally, and not all of them are good at their jobs. You need to understand what it takes to be a great general contractor. When you do, you’ll increase your chance of finding someone great and getting the result you’re looking for on your new project.
If you want to learn more about making renovations to your space, head back to the blog. You’ll learn everything there is to know about construction projects.
