A few years ago, Tricia Sinn bid on a room addition and master bath project designed by an architect. The president of Sinn Design Build in St. Louis usually does not bid, but made an exception for a strong referral from a previous client. The prospect chose to hire a contractor they had previously worked with whose bid was $50,000 less than Sinn's bid. On the past project, not only had this same contractor gone way over the contracted price, but one of the crew had stolen the homeowner's pool furniture. Read more
While some use small jobs as a gateway to larger projects, many remodeling companies continue to focus solely on smaller jobs, and still others maintain separate small-job divisions to keep from turning over these jobs - and profits - to other remodelers or handymen. Read more
Laid out on the table under the intense rays of the fluorescent lights, the victim was a $100,000 addition that had exceeded your estimate by 10% and missed your scheduled finish date by six weeks. Precisely what went wrong was unclear, but the evidence suggested a multitude of culprits. Read more
The results of this month's Reader Panel show that for the overwhelming majority of remodelers, competitive bidding is simply a part of business. Read more