Shim & Mallet Advocate

Initiatives: the home jobs this site helps you check

A quote for home work is only as good as the written scope behind it. Here is which kinds of job this site covers, and what a careful hirer looks for in each.

Four kinds of home work, and the question they share

We cover four kinds of home work, because they are where first-time hirers most often sign for something they have not read closely. Outdoor stonework and landscaping means patios, walkways, retaining walls and the planting around them. Remodeling covers kitchens and bathrooms, where cabinets, tile and fixtures get chosen weeks before a crew arrives. Foundation work is the hardest to judge from the outside, and seasonal plowing is a contract that runs for a whole winter on a handshake unless someone writes it down. Each kind raises the same question: does the paper say what will be built, and who builds it?

A bid is only worth comparing when every bid describes the same work.

The sections below move from the places a first hire usually goes wrong to the order a careful hirer works in. Nothing here is a price list, and nothing here recommends a particular business.

Read the scope before you compare prices

A worker in a face mask crouches beside a clawfoot tub against a pink-tiled bathroom wall
A generated picture of a bathroom job in progress. Every task in it, from the fittings to the tile, should appear as its own line in the quote before anyone picks up a tool.
Two men in work jackets read printed sheets beside a brick wall on a driveway
A generated picture of two people checking a brick wall against paperwork. Hold a quote up the same way, one line at a time, against what the wall or the room will actually need.

From the first call to a signed contract

The order matters more than most hirers expect. Start with a written description of the job in your own words, including what you want to stay as it is. Ask two or three contractors to price that same description, and read each quote against it before comparing totals. Only after the scopes line up should you look at payment terms, start dates and who is responsible for permits. For the detail on references, written quotes and checking a contractor's license and insurance, see the Better Business Bureau's tips for hiring a general contractor.

One bathroom job, shown in sequence

This walkthrough follows a full bathroom renovation from demolition through planning and build. It is one channel's process, not a standard we have checked, so use it to see how the stages follow one another rather than as advice on any particular job.

Where first-time hirers get stuck

Is the lowest bid the one to take?

Not automatically. A low bid often leaves out work that the higher bids include, such as demolition, disposal, permits or a finish coat. Compare the lines first. If the cheapest quote is cheapest because it names less, the saving is not real yet.

Does a verbal promise count for anything?

It can be useful evidence after the fact, but it is hard to enforce. Anything that matters to you, such as a finish date, a cleanup commitment or a warranty, should be on paper before you sign. If the contractor will not put it in writing, treat that as information about the job.

Should I hire one large firm or several specialists?

It depends on how the work is split. One firm taking responsibility for the whole job can simplify things, but ask whether it subcontracts the trades and who answers for them. Separate specialists can cost less, but someone has to coordinate them, and that job falls to you unless it is written into a contract.

What this site's own pages add up to

When you have a quote in hand, the quote check on the resources page asks seven questions about its wording and returns one of the three verdicts above, with the reasons shown.

Read the resources page next, or keep this one open while you go through the quote.