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House Improvements

How to Choose a House Framing Company

Selecting a house framing company to build the skeleton of your new home is a task full of pitfalls for consumers who are not experts in the industry. It requires diligent research and thorough checking of facts and references. Start with a list of local companies, and narrow it down to a few potential choices by doing the following:
Visit the house framing companies’ websites and determine whether the companies seem to be professional and to have good reputations. Read customer reviews and the “About Us” pages to find out how long each company has been in business and what its qualifications and areas of expertise are. Determine each company’s area of specialization and make sure it is competent in drywall framing, if that is the type of work you want.
Select a shortlist of between five and 10 house framing companies to investigate further. Check each company with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for your state to see if there is any record of the company and feedback on its performance. Confirm legalities such as business registration, and find out whether the companies are licensed to operate in your state. For example, in Florida you can use the resources at sunbiz to check if companies are active and filing taxes.
By now, your shortlist should be down to around three to five house framing companies, by eliminating those whose credentials may not be impressive and those who have negative BBB reports. Contact these companies and ask each one for a list of at least 10 contactable references, as well as addresses where they have done other work. Don’t accept written testimonials, which are easy to fake, or comments on their website from “former clients’ who are not identifiable.
Contact each telephone reference personally, asking a variety of questions about the house framing contractor’s expertise, reliability, honesty, adherence to completion dates and any other points. Visit the sites for which you have addresses and inspect the drywall framing work done by the contractor as closely as you can, and speak with the homeowner if he or she is not on your list of telephone references.
Contact each of the house framing companies and ask for detailed, written quotations for the work you want done, with breakdowns of all costs including labor. The contractors should meet with you individually on site to survey the land available, discuss the home you want to build and identify any areas of concern. Ask each to explain what the job will involve, the equipment that will be used and whether they carry insurance for accidents or failure to perform.
Once you know which house framing company you want to use based on your research and reference checks, obtain the contractor’s draft agreement and get a lawyer to take a look at it before you sign. Make sure you know what is expected from you and when, and what the implications are for breach of contract by either party.

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Remodeling

Deciding Whether to Buy a New House Or Renovate

You may have various reasons as to why you want to leave your house, perhaps you’ve outgrown it? Perhaps you live in a noisy street? Or maybe annoying neighbours have just moved in next door?
Before you decide it’s time to move on, consider how you feel about your current home. Do you want to stay? The problems mentioned may be fixable through a little renovation work.
With the right planning you could turn your current home into an even cosier place to live in. If you’re not comfortable planning these sort of things, consider getting in touch with a professional and see what he can offer. If done correctly renovations will work out to be cheaper than buying a new house. Consider the Real Estate Agent fees, moving fees, the cost of having your house sit empty while waiting for a buyer and so on.
However, depending on the size of the job you intend to carry out, renovating may get complicated. That is why hiring a professional contractor or designer may be a good idea. Since these professionals have a lot of past experience, they may surprise you with new ideas for your home that you would have otherwise never thought of.
To ensure that you get a good price, and high standard of work, always get at least three quotes. Make sure you ask for completion dates as well, and ask to see past works of contractor / company. If you can, talking to past clients is a great idea.
Sometimes however, even the best laid out plans don’t work out perfectly, so make sure you’re not stretching yourself in terms of budget or time frame. Always leave some “wiggle” room just in case.
Once you have an expected time frame for the project, make sure you notify your neighbours so that they don’t get irritated later on because of noise, dust and so on. At the end of the day however, renovating will bring up not only the standard of your home, but also the appeal of the street in which you live. Your neighbours will benefit from this as well.
Make sure that your family also understand how long the process will take, you need everyone’s support behind you. Also make sure that they understand that they may need to make some small sacrifices while the renovations are going on, however it will all be worth it in the end.
I wish you luck in your future renovations, and I know you will feel a sense of pride seeing the final outcome knowing that you were involved in the process.