Ask the Architect

Contractors and their promises

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Q. I hope you can give me advice about choosing a contractor. My neighbor had work done, and the contractors promised to be on a schedule — even promised to work every day except Sundays. Right from the start that didn’t happen, and I don’t want to have that happen to me. If I give someone my key or make an agreement, I want to trust them. It seems typical to ask for one thing and get another, which I don’t want. Can you recommend someone reliable, and how do I get this done without problems?

A. That is the most frequently asked and hardest question to answer. First, I would be hesitant to ever recommend only one contractor, not because there isn’t one I can recommend, but because any architect who works only with a particular contractor isn’t really looking after your consumer protection. You have to be the one who chooses the right “fit” after reviewing at least three contractors. I know that contractors hate the bid process, and for good reason. Interviewing and bidding is a strain on contractors’ time, and costs them money to even try to win you over, but you do deserve to compare.

I know that any business has to have more than one job going just to keep income flowing so they can pay suppliers, employees, insurance. That’s just the way it is. But the promise of a schedule is still an agreement, and these days there are many media places to voice a rating of how the job went, or is going. We all get behind. Things happen, which I call “turn-backs,” where you thought you had a task done and then someone turns you back to do something again. Dealing with authorities, especially ones like NY Rising, which notoriously have changes in policy every day or two, a new form to fill out or a different acceptable way to construct (if you want the funds), for example, just prolongs a project.

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