Finding a Good Flooring Contractor

5 Minute Read

At Raleigh Renovations and Flooring we genuinely want to help people obtain a good flooring service. We know that many homeowners who are tricked into hiring nightmare contractors are the vulnerable such as elderly or new home owners.   This article will help guide you in your decision to choose the right contractor.


When searching for a contractor, especially if it is your first time hiring a flooring or remodeling contractor,  it can be overwhelming. There are so many types of companies with  wide price ranges, some with warranties some without, some use sub contractors  and some do the work themselves.   The  process of hiring a contractor   can   be daunting but this article will help you, even if you are not hiring us,  choose a good company. Your choice  on which contractor to hire will effect your homes look for years to come and if you are in the Raleigh, Clayton, Garner, Cary area we hope you hire us,  if not this article will give some guidance on what to look for and what to avoid.  

REVIEWS
While its easy to just go ahead and hire someone because your in a rush, its almost just as easy to do 5-10 minutes of research.  A real company who does good work will have a place for customers to put reviews. This needs to be a place where reviews cannot be edited out such as a website. Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc. are a good to start,  look for reviews written by friends, family, or  fake accounts; companies only on Facebook may have many good reviews written  by friends who may not have had any work done by the company. Also check to see how  they handled any responses to negative reviews. At Raleigh Renovations and Flooring strive to never get a bad review if we can help it. We only have 1 bad review from someone who is not even a customer. Not withstanding unreasonable customers or past employees there is not any foreseeable  good reason for a bad review.     

COST
Do not pay  any of the labor cost up front. This is the number  one problem people call me about is they just gave a contractor $2300 to start a job and now they are not answering after the first day, and as you will see below, they  mostly  do not have a real company, so suing them is very difficult.  
Draw payments as the job is completed is ok, but we at Raleigh Renovations and flooring very rarely ask for any money until the job is fully completed. 
Cost is one of the   most important factors we consider in all aspects of home improvement.   With flooring companies there can be a over $2000 separating the lowest estimate to the highest  estimate, for the labor alone, just for a medium sized  job.   
When considering  a contractor make sure to get in writing a very detailed estimate, even whether the quarter round moulding will be caulked OR caulked and painted. (It should at least be caulked.) Most do not offer painting 
Also make sure that if there is a  problem such as  subfloor rot at an exterior door they can fix it. This is not a rare occurrence, and if a company cannot handle a small repair job  it may be hard to find someone to  come and do that  small job for a reasonable price in a reasonable amount of time, this will  put your job behind schedule and add to the total cost. I get calls each week asking to repair subfloor because the contractor they hired won't do it. We, as most companies, do not handle small repair jobs. Ask what the cost is per hour of a repair, otherwise they can just stick an arbitrary price on it no matter how easy it is to fix. As contractors, repairs put us behind and obstruct our flow and therefore this cost per hour may seem high but it will probably be lower than hiring someone else to come in.  
Basic items that should be on an estimate. 
Flooring labor cost per sq ft:
Existing Flooring Removal:
 Exactly what materials  are included in the stated price and if material pick up is included.
You may need to ask for a list of needed materials if you are not sure. 
Materials you may need for hard serface floors: Flooring, delivery charges underlayment, transition strips,  quarter round moulding,  caulk,  hardwood nails, putty, glue. 

JOB COMPLETEION TIMEFRAME
When the job will start and finish is a very important part of the planning process when choosing a contractor. Make sure to get these dates in writing. We are not hired many times because we give an accurate finish date on a job when others may give an unrealistic finish date just to get the job. Some do not even start the job by the stated finish date, others may leave in the middle of the job to start other jobs or take time off. It is important for us to always start when we say we will start and finish when we say we will. Of course there may be delays depending on many factors. Occasionally a  1-2 day  overture may happen, although this may not be ideal, we can be understanding considering many  customers report contractors missing their  deadline  by over a week, or even weeks sometimes. 

WHAT  TO AVOID
Many "companies"  to watch out  for:
>A company that uses sub contractors for the install. These are many times not well vetted installers and  if there is a problem with the floor it may be hard to get your money back. These companies may have complaints against them. Do and internet search. 
>The   employee of another company  that  goes  off on their own without enough training or business experience,  many of these people do not have a real company and you will have no recourse if they mess up your floor.  Certainly if they do not have, at the least a truck and a small trailer do not hire them.
>The "one man band" who has "25+  years experience"  but  who is installing your floor by themselves is another to avoid.  Of all the men I've hired who have claimed 20+ or 25+ years experience and to have owned their own businesses, most did not know as much as the 23 year old who worked for me for 2 years.  
 >A handyman who is in over  his head by taking on flooring installation; the companies who "do it all" may can do it all, but they normally don't do any 1 thing very good. This type many times coincides with the 25+ years experience people. 
>The guy who has references but no reviews. Past customer references can be  family, friends, or cherry picked customers. (all have a few happy customers, any many have several happy customers, but the ones who are not happy don't have a way to speak out   and tell you not to hire them, its a sure way to get tricked. 

So in short, do not just take a contractor at his word. Do research on any company and get every thing in writing.  This will save you much time and money, no matter what contractor or company you hire for a job. 
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