In article QnS3f.15720$fE5.8134@fed1read06, Nobody says...


I dunno - one can't of course always know these things, it's a bit of a
leap of
faith. But if one repeatedly has problems, one should look at what one
is
doing wrong. And I dont' think it's possible to expect to always get the
optimal quality vs. price. I certainly can't swear that I have! Over the
long
run, though, I think a bias for apparent quality is the best value.

I'm in an area which is hugely booming as far as new construction, BTW.

Banty


Yeah, you gotta know the refs personally or they dont mean jack. I wasn't
going with the lowest bidder per say. The problem with the smaller jobs is
that a lot of times you can't find anyone to come out. People that work on
larger jobs are just as sloppy and flaky. I had a $2000 electrical job and
an $8000+ tile job and while both did good work and showed up reliably when
they said they would, they both left the house is huge disarray.

OK you don't go for low bid, but you *have* indicated that you go for the guy
who can do the job immediately. So consider getting bids from the contractors
who tell you they can't start right away. After all, that right there tells you
that:
1. He's honest about schedule
2. He has other customers and he's busy

These days, those are two positive facts. Not all you need to know, of course,
but you're impatient, at the least, you won't get to talk to the contractors in
#2 category.

Are you really usually in a hurry?

Like I said in my post, these days, *you* as a customer are getting vetted, too.
It pays to take a flexible tack.

As to the jobs being small, one thing that I've done is to combine jobs. How I
met my favorite contractor is that I really needed three doors done pretty soon.
I decided to have two more that would have to be upgraded "down the road" and
added them to the job (like, getting the perfectly functional but older and
out-of-code inside garage door upgraded to a fire safe steel door).

Then spread out the work you need done. Sounds like you're running around
trying to get a lot of little stuff done immediately. Make an assessment of
what you'll need done in the house as a whole, and think about how you'll spread
it out through the years.

Banty