Top 50 Home Building and Cosntruction Blogs

My "Home Remodeling Bootcamp Blog" got nominated as one of the top 50 home construction blogs - thank you! See it here: http://bit.ly/gU807F

Top 50 Construction and Homebuilding Industry Blogs

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If you are a home remodeler, home builder or a construction manager who is about to begin a remodeling project, the list of the top 50 construction and home-building industry jobs on this page can be of great benefit to you. Here, you will hear first-hand information from a wide range of constructio

The “Green Approach” To Hiring Home Renovation Contractors

3 Tips Homeowners Can Use to Reduce Wasteful Spending and Create a Sustainable Project That Moves Forward With Fewer Problems

Summary: Green building has been growing as way to reduce waste, conserve energy and repurpose materials, all with the goal of creating a sustainable home. Using these same principals is what I call the “green approach” to hiring home renovation contractors that will reduce wasteful spending, conserves time and energy and contributes to a sustainable project that moves forward with few problems and a positive experience for everyone.

Green building has been all the rage the last couple of years and for good reason. Reducing waste, conserving and repurposing materials and creating a sustainable structure and project benefit’s everyone and protects the environment.

But did you know that you could apply these same principals when hiring home remodeling contractors that will protect your money by reducing the potential for wasting it while creating clear and concise guidelines that both parties can consistently depend on to guide them throughout the project?

Read the rest of the rest of the article: http://www.contractorsfromhell.com/the-green-approach-to-hiring-home-renovation-contractors

To Trust or Not To Trust: When Should You Place Your Trust In Your Contractor

First of all, the number one confession homeowner 's reveal when burned by a contractor is that they "trusted" them right off the bat. They did not do any research, did not check their license, (if required in their state) or check for any history of complaints, either through regulatory agencies or the BBB.

Many believed that because the person called him/herself a contractor, had a business license, cards - the whole kit and caboodle - was enough for them to move forward. BIG MISTAKE!

Consumers have to do more than just the bare requirements to avoid a home remodeling nightmare and an encounter with the contractor from hell. Doing your license check and relying on that plus a "no history of complaints" is only a necessary formality but in no way gives you the entire picture. Plus a 'No history of complaints" from a regulatory agency does not reveal ongoing investigations not yet disclosed to the public. Same thing goes for checking references. How do you know those are legitimate references? Homeowners check references, get good reviews ( we did!) and still end up with serious problems.

Bottom line - trust is something that is earned, not freely given to a stranger. Once you've done all the necessary ground
work on potential contractors and conducted thorough interviews will you be able to get to trust your contractor of choice. Trust is based on their behavior, past and current record and what you discover in your research.

If you want to learn more on how to best protect yourself check out the "Home [Pre]modeling Bootcamp for Women and the Men Who Love Them" and get informed!

Renovating in a Recession

As I'm typing this the house next door is being completely renovated - actually they tore it down and are rebuilding - and the sound of nail guns popping away is constant. And there are three other renovations within a couple of blocks from us under way in the last couple of months. So at least in my neighborhood contractors are working, albeit not in the way it was during the hey days of refinancing.

I've written an article on renovating in a recession, which you'll be able to link to and read at the end of this blog, the theme being that more than ever homeowners need to protect themselves from ending up with an unethical contractor.

Just stating "renovating in a recession" sounds silly given the fact that recession denotes a lack of money, but there are going to be those folks who are beginning to remodel or rebuild their home out of necessity. Natural disasters such as wild fires and floods as well as those fortunate to be financially set to do so, but perhaps waited to see how the economy would play out. Either way, a heightened sense of being smart about doing all the important research, knowing what needs to be included in a contract and choosing a contractor wisely are even more critical during these challenging times.

I see articles that are geared towards encouraging homeowners to strike up deals with contractors whose businesses have been hit hard by the recession believing they are willing to cut their profits to get the job. The fact is that contractors can indeed pass on savings such as lower material costs but they have to pay themselves as well. Any contractor that promises thousands of dollars in cost reductions (this includes labor) isn't being truthful and that shouldn't be the basis for your choice in a contractor. Far from it. If you read through my site, you'll know what you need to look for and do and certainly in my Home Remodeling Bootcamp For Homeowners I stress these points in a lesson format that takes you through all the elements, but never is it about getting a great deal.

Unless you define a great deal as getting quality workmanship, having an ethical contractor who is transparent in his business practices and communicates with you on a regular basis, giving you an opportunity to ask questions and address concerns. That's what I call a great deal and something most people overlook or fail to understand, and that it doesn't come with every contractor out there.

I've written an article entitled "Renovating In A Recession: Why It Could Cost You More If You Don't Protect Yourself With These 7 Key Clauses In Your Contract".

I've taken some of the points I cover in my "Home Remodeling Bootcamp For Homeowners" and stress these in the article. You can read the article by clicking here: Renovating In A Recession.

Avoiding Shoddy Home Constrction Defects

A Consumer Reports investigation conducted a couple of years back found that 15% of new homes built during the booming days of building and renovating had serious construction defects. That's probably doubled in today's climate given the length of time these homes have been on the market and the time it takes for defects to show up.

Industry types attribute this to the "face pace" and frenzy that was on going and the lack of skilled workers presented challenges. But builders and contractors alike took advantage of these non skilled workers aka, Mexican immigrants - some legal, some not - hiring them to do jobs they should not been involved in performing due to insufficient training. Add to this low paying wages and little to no supervisoin and you have a recipe for disaster. So it's no surprise with the rise in foreclosures being scooped up by home buyers that they're also facing a myriad of construction defects.

You can read a report from ConsumerReports.org that addresses the most common problems to look for when purchasing a home here: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2008/04/shoddy-homes.html

What The Downturn in Residential Construction Has Given Consumers

Last week I spoke with a contractor - whom I hired to do some landscaping that requires the buildup of two small walls - not retaining - with some grading and backfill. Not a big project by any means but we got to talking about the current state of construction and how his business is surviving the downturn. According to him, they are doing OK but his phone isn't ringing off the hook as it did in the years past. They have also scaled down to their original "trusted" choice of subs they've worked with for years and the other sub contractors they brought in during the booming days are now gone.

On that subject, we talked about the difficulty many contractors ran into with taking on new subs that they didn't do any background checks on - because they were too busy to do so - and very often it came back to bite them in the form of shoddy work and complaints from homeowners. Which is why homeowners need to do their own checking on the subs their general contractor chooses and include in the contract that they must be licensed and insured, separate from the contractor himself. Using this contractor as an example of some one who ran an ethical business and prided himself on producing quality work, once he chose to deviate from his usual practice of vetting his new subs to bring on for the added workload, he ended up taking the hit and spending money to correct the problems created by the new workforce. And that's a lesson he learned and when things pick up he states he will be more careful in his choices and make the time to vet new subs. But clearly, that's a problem I've heard from other contractors as to their available pool of so called "skilled" workers. And that's another area where educating the building workforce on meeting industry standards and quality workmanship needs to be fostered on a local level. But does the industry care enough to raise the bar and the need for greater education? If so, it certainly hasn't worked so far. Complaints against contractors for shoddy work is still the number one complaint with national consumer organizations.

Finally, the contractor made an interesting and likely correct assessment of todays' still standing and thriving -albeit much more leaner - contracting workforce. And that is given the downturn and lack of demand for residential construction those contractors - licensed or not - have left the area or have taken on other work as their only interest was to cash in on the renovating boom of years past. These guys were not interested in building a sound business and creating a solid reputation in their communities. A lot of these characters easily got licenses or registrations and jumped on the bandwagon and started basically ripping consumers off. And there were far too many of them; I don't care what anybody says the proof is in the complaints and resulting messes left behind by these con-men and I was sickened by the numerous complaints I received over the last nine years. And the contractor not only agreed with me but shared some stories he witnessed of these so called contractors taking advantage of unassuming homeowners.

It is my intention with the help of my Home Remodeling Boot Camp For Homeowners that the next round of an up tick in residential construction will yield more educated consumer swho ultimately can help themselves avoid a construction nightmare and mitigate the most common problems most homeowners make.

Debunking Conventional Thinking When Hiring Contractors

Over the last year I have had frequent discussions with a construction consultant discussing various ways in which we could help consumers understand the need for educating themselves on the risks and realities in residential construction. For himself, locally with consumers and me on a national scale.

And one of the areas I would like to shine some light on is the notion that everyone suggests homeowners to do -myself included - when vetting their contractors. Here it is:

Consumer agencies and home improvement sites who offer tips to homeowners on how to properly vet their contractor always suggest that the homeowner visit an ongoing project that the contractor has going. OK, well what will that tell the consumer? Do they know what they are looking for and why? Do they understand anything about constructing a house? How important is this in the scheme of things that is important for the consumer to do in their research?

Using our case as an example, we went to a project the contractor from hell supposedly had going and the walls were open so that you could see the studs, joists, brackets and essentially the guts before everything was sealed with the drywall. There were no windows or doors installed yet, but my husband with a background in construction knew what he was looking for but me - not so much. I relied on his expertise. The only thing that could be construed as a red flag - and probably was given our experience with the contractor from hell, was that we had gone by the project three different times over the course of several weeks and no one was ever there working or otherwise.

So the lesson here for the consumer is, with all the other factors that must be researched and considered when preparing to get your project underway ,visiting the job site of someone else's projects tells you little to nothing about the contractor or even how it will translate to your particular project unless you're schooled in construction practices. Otherwise, you're clueless as to what you're looking at and so I have to consider this one suggestion for homeowners as pretty much worthless in the overall vetting of your contractor.

There are so many other essential and critical areas to discern that will truly help the homeowner to achieve a more positive home remodeling and building project and I'll touch on those in future blogs.