Some Of The Pitfalls In House Renovations

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My first advice in house renovation is: Don't engage a contractor just because he is your friend. You see, I gave the job to a close contractor friend. This is despite that two of my wife's colleagues had highly recommended we engage the contractor who they both were very happy with. Because I thought, being a close friend, he would accord me special attention and also would not overcharge me. His original lump-sum quotation seemed reasonable enough at first. Unfortunately, it wasn't itemised as requested for he just conveniently forgot about it. That's where problem arose because later, I decided to drop certain components of the renovation, I was given peanut rebates compared to the costs I was verbally quoted or led to believe at the negotiation stage. So make sure you insist that your contractor gives you an itemised quotation.

In your negotiation with your potential contractor, make sure he will be the one doing the job and not a subcontractor. Because if it's the latter, he may simply pass your job to someone he just knows, which is what happened in my case, using you as a guinea pig. If the sub-con turns out to be experienced and honest that's not to bad. But if you get one who turned out to be unscrupulous and irresponsible, like the one I got, God helps you. Mine not only overcharged me exorbitantly for the various VOs (changes made during the renovation) I wanted later, he also didn't bother to supervise the workers. Most of the times he was elsewhere tending to other (I presumed, more costly) projects. In the end, I had to monitor my house renovation myself.

My another mistake - For not asking VO be given to me in black and white. As a
result, there were many misunderstanding and arguments with the subcontractor as to what were agreed upon what weren't.

Lastly, make sure that the quotation is as detail as possible, more about that tomorrow.