Never pay anyone up front if it's in any way possible. Most of these
'people' out there are untrustworthy morons. We had a guy in to lay
laminate flooring a couple of weeks back. He ripped up the carpet, and
started leveling the floor with cement. The last thing we heard of hime was
when he said he'd be back at 9.00AM the next day to lay the floor. The good
thing was, we hadn't paid him a cent - but we were left with a concrete
floor for two weeks.