Johnson & Sons San Francisco General Contractor
Finding a good San Francisco general contractor is important in helping you understand what you want and need when building or renovating your house or building. The first step that you need to do in choosing a good general contractor is make sure that they know the type of construction, language, and details needed in building a house. If you and your contractor have the same level of understanding it would be easier to find the one that will suit you best.
Choosing a competent, skilled, and professional contractor can be hard. There are a lot of contractors offering their services and expertise but you have to be very careful because the main reason for having a badly built house or building is having a bad contractor and not a bad plan. Having said this, try narrowing your list of candidates to the best 4 or more soliciting their bids until you find the best one. In order to find the contractor that will best suit your type of construction you have to find the type that will fit your needs. Here are the different types of contractors and their specialty:
Established General Contractor
These contractors are a bit expensive but builders with great reputation. They are often connected with projects for popular and high profile buildings and are employed in an established company or partnership.
New Skilled Builders
These types of contractors are experienced builders previously working under a different builder or contractor before starting on their own. Most of these contractors are skilled and are very willing to work because they want to garner some positive reputation to build trust in the industry.
Marginal New Contractors
These contractors are the type you would want to work with for minor building projects because they do not have any formal training but are knowledgeable and skilled enough with the intricacies of constructing a building or a house. Mostly their work output and quality is average.
Inept and Dishonest Builders
These are the worst type of contractors that you need to avoid working with. They are also known as the "vanishing builders" because they tend to disappear and leave their projects midway unfinished after they take the final payment.
Finding a good contractor that will suit your needs can be very challenging. It is important to ensure that your contractor can provide quality work at a good price to help you finish your projects. Here are some important steps in finding a good building general contractor:
Make a short list of potential general contractors to consider
You can't just start listing down random contractors on your list of potential candidates. Finding a good contractor is like finding a good employee for your business, always consider the contractors experience, work ethic, and customer feedback. Always ask friends or check the web to find contractors that have good client feedback and work quality so your list will only include the best of the best.
Look into each contractor's qualifications
Always choose contractors with general contractor’s license, personal liability, sufficient insurance coverage for worker's compensation and damage to property on top of each candidate's qualifications.
Ask for a quote from each contractor
Once you have your final list of qualified contractors the next step is to narrow it down further by requesting a quote from each of them. Keep it mind that you don't necessarily need to choose the one that offers the lowest bid, a lot of new general contractors will always offer the lowest bid as a means to lure clients. Always remember that it is not wise to hire new or inexperienced contractors to work on important building or house construction. Always choose the ones with the most experience and skill suited for the job.
Make sure the contractor you hire is easy to work with
This is very important in ensuring that your construction project runs smoothly. Finding out that the contractor you have chosen is constantly missing and have mood swings can totally affect you and the workers and may cause the whole project to crumble. Before choosing a contractor always assess how he will approach different tasks in a professional manner.