Four Things To Know When Hiring a Siding Contractor

If you're having a contractor put up siding on your home, you should make sure you are getting your money's worth. As you probably already knew, not all contractors were created equally. Some put their pride, dignity, and reputation on the line every time they do a job and are well aware of that fact. They pour their heart into the job and hope to secure repeat business and word of mouth advertising through this approach. Others simply want a fast buck so they can move on to the next job. With some preliminary research and education, you can avoid getting one from this latter pack.

License and Insurance
Whenever you hire a siding contractor or anyone else to do repairs or replacements on your home, one of your first orders of business should be to make sure they have all their ducks in a row. Part of this is asking if they are properly licensed and insured. This has several factors of importance. The first, and perhaps most telling, aspect is that it is a company that is doing everything above board. When you get in bed with a customer that isn't ashamed to take shortcuts when it comes to the government, what's to say they won't take similar shortcuts when it comes to your home?

Longevity
If a company has only been in business for a year or so, there will be no reputation for you to base your decision on. There is no shortage of fly-by-night contractors in the business, whether they put up siding or anything else. They exist solely to exploit an area before moving on. You don't want to get involved with this kind of business. True, a recently formed company isn't necessarily a scammer (after all, every company was new at some point), but that doesn't mean you should act as the guinea pig.

Detailed Estimates
Contracting jobs have a way of getting out of hand in a hurry when taken on by companies that are less professional than they should be. Don't let this happen to you. Demand a detailed estimate on your siding job before you sign on the dotted line. Include a clause that states you have to be contacted if the price exceeds that which you were quoted. Unless something truly unforeseen happens, there's no reason why this should happen. Hold your contractor to the price you were quoted and make sure you have some paperwork to which you can refer when making a dispute.