Tips for choosing “Good” building contractor for house renovation or new house!

Reading Level: BeginnerNow is common that people renovate their house. If the property owner is not work in the construction sector, the owner may not know how to look for a “Good” building contractor. The owner may go through recommendation. Somehow, sometime the recommendation may end up with trouble. How to avoid this to happen? Below is some recommendation which may help owner.

1. When ask contractor to quote the construction works. Bear in mind that looks for few contractors to quote but not too many (around 3 to 4 contractors). Compare pricing of them. If they quote for market pricing, their prices should not vary much. If one of them quotes much lower then others. As for example most of them quoted around RM100, 000 but one of them quotes RM60, 000. Owner should NOT choose this contractor. It is possible that it has some tricks hiding behind such as contractor will gain the difference from additional cost of construction works.

2. When project is small, owner will not prepare contract document for contractor. A lot of works will be based on verbally discussion. Therefore, it will end up with arguments. As a result, it is recommended that write down all the scope of works and pass to contractor to for acknowledgement.

3. Normally owner will not know how the performance of selective contractor is? Therefore, one of the easy ways to track the contractor performance is by checking on the contractor’s previous project. Do have a visit to previous project and visually check contractor works done. If possible has a short discussion with previous project owner. Asking this owner about the contractor performance?

4. Owner must know the contractor say about “BAU”(take care all the works) the project. It must be clearly justify avoiding any dispute.RM=Ringgit Malaysia, 1USD+-=RM3.50www.civilstructural.com.my