How in the world do I find a contractor?

This has been an on and off endeavor for the past 5 months. We want to have a 12'x24' concrete slab laid with a shingled, gabled roof over it which connects to the house. I just went through my list and I've called 16 different contractors. Of those I was able to get 4 to show up. 2 of them gave informal quotes. One guy was by far my favorite, said all the right things and even made fun about how other contractors promise the world and then never show. He was great for the initial walk through....then started making excuses for a quote. Finally gets me an informal quote and says to let him know if I wanted a detailed quote. 3 weeks later and he's not answering emails or phone calls.

Anyone know someone in the Clearwater FL area that can help?

I gots nothing, but this is the same story I hear all the time.

I've been going through this lately myself. Angies list and home advisor are as useless as used toilet paper in my area for finding people. Even companies giving me quotes, I tell them to come see exactly what needs done and never hear from them again. Magic people writing up estimates without even seeing the property. I'd recommend doing what I'm about to start and just going to job sites when the trade I need is working and talking to them there.

I find it hard to believe they get pick and choose jobs when no one is building currently.

Construction is busy right now. Most design professionals and contractors are under water trying to keep up. Prices are creeping up, too.

I had an asphalt driveway done.

My favorite was the guy in the loaded up black Silverado that gave me his verbal quote from the drivers seat. He drove up and back down the driveway and told me his price as I stood on my front porch. He never got out of his truck.

I've been suffering that, too.. I've got 17 windows I'd like to replace. The only ones who are eager to get back to you on it are the "chain" big window people like Renewal (HAH! What a joke their price was!) or Marvin. Otherwise, I've only successfully gotten one contractor to show up, and he won't get back to me with a quote.

I'm not sure how hard I should have to chase people to give them money.

A few months ago I tried to hire an electrician to re-wire some flood lights that are at the corners of my house. They are too high off the ground for me to want to mess with. I gave up after calling several. One guy actually showed up and provided a quote, but he also told me he didn't have a ladder tall enough for to actually do the job. The others were more like 10 phone calls and assorted text messages to schedule and then re-schedule the guy to come to the house to give me a quote. In the end, I just let it go for now and still have lights that need fixed. It was a frustrating experience. I think the folks that are good at their jobs stay so busy that they don't have much time for estimates or lining up new work since they always have a backlog of jobs they could do.

Construction is nuts right now in our area at least. But I would try to find a smaller GC, the larger ones may not want to touch anything that small since they have their choice of larger projects.

On a related note: how do I find a "Handyman". What's the correct industry term for said person? I need a few minor repairs around the house and they are simply things I will not get to. Am I still looking for a contractor?

I am in the business and can not get quotes on million dollar projects. Never mind getting the roof done on my house or some new siding done. Wait until later when they are looking for work and I am holding all the contracts. I will be remembering those that called me back when times were fat and at least were honest with me and said they can not take any more work on this season.

ProDarwin wrote: On a related note: how do I find a "Handyman". What's the correct industry term for said person? I need a few minor repairs around the house and they are simply things I will not get to. Am I still looking for a contractor?

In my area, they advertise as such like "handyman Mikes home help" or something. Household maintenance might work as a search term.

Sharing something that actually happened to me, I was working at the hotel at the time as a maintenance guy, and a random guy came in and asked to talk to maintenance. He just looked important, so we came to talk to him. Introductions, a few background questions from him about our work history, and he offered us cash to come replace a few doors and figure out a wiring issue at his house on a day off. It was definitely weird, but it worked out for him. We were happy to make $100 for a half day work, he was happy it was cheaper than anyone he'd called out of the phone book.

This is why I quit my job and did all the work on my house myself. I didn't want to deal with all the BS that comes with finding and dealing with a contractor. I could make sure the work was done right and exactly to my specs without having to stand over someone the whole damn time.

In your case with the concrete it may not be feasible to do it yourself. Unfortunately I have nothing to add of help to you.

I am a contractor, and yes it is nuts right now, in my area at least. And I try to call everyone back, but right now we are getting up to 30 calls a day. We are a very small company. Its a problem. Even to call someone back and decline the work is a five to ten minute conversation. So that is several hours out of my day just to say no to work.

One of our local "real" hardware stores is a good place to inquire about plumbers and electricians. They have a board with business cards on them and there is usually a handyman van parked in the parking lot getting supplies.

When I lived in Alabama, we were lucky to find the perfect guy. He was good, very reasonable and honest. On his last job for us, he told us he had gotten the calling and was quitting to go into the ministry. I really hated losing him to the Lord.

ask people who did their stuff and if they would recommend.

honest to god, one of our taglines is "Vinyl Masters. We Show Up" that gets people because we are there when we say we're going to be there. then i get to hear the "we called XYZ and you guys are the only ones that showed up" stories.

the thing is, we do not advertise at all. everything is referral or word of mouth, so unless you know someone or hear about us somewhere you're not going to find us.

I have had good luck with going to "Lowe's Depot". They both have approved local contractors. Who must do the job big or small.

All quotes are thru The store. The date is set and the work actually happens on that date. The work is warrantied. If there is a warranty claim 5 years later, the store will still be there. Jimbo's window's may not be.

I had 23 windows installed and got a middle of the pack price for the windows I wanted and installation, compared to other local quotes. The dates were set and work was performed on those dates.

I have a few contractors I work with that I know will show up and do good to great work. I have a few that it's like pulling teeth to get them to show up and I know they will do good work. But it's really difficult to find new reliable people, so we put up with it, until someone better comes along. And we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on work around the building, so I don't even know how a homeowner could get these guys to show up when the promise of future work is slim.

When you do find someone good - treat them right and keep their name and number!!

Try asking around at your local lumber yard. Also call up the local concrete company and ask who they recommend

Angies List

A part of this is that contractors get good at detecting the people who are looking for 83.7 quotes and wants to then try and negotiate a deal.

Lot of people get to drinking and thinking "What if we did this" and "We should get a quote" only to sober up when they find out what construction really cost.

I deal with contractors all the time & feel, based on my experience, that 98% of them are full of E36 M3 and couldn't be truthful if their lives depended on it.

Of course I'm sure contractors say the same thing about their insurance agents, except maybe we get a 99% BS rating!

Antihero wrote: Try asking around at your local lumber yard. Also call up the local concrete company and ask who they recommend

Actually, shortly after I started this thread this is exactly what I did. I called the concrete company telling them I wanted to have a slab poured and what they needed for that to happen. When I decided that was outside of my DIY skills I asked if they had recommendations and they did. So far this guy sounds like the most promising option and hes stopping by Monday. I also have a couple other phone numbers from a property flipper and a GRM user that I'm going to try if this guy doesn't work out. Cmonnnnnn concrete guy!

In reply to etifosi: That is funny.

Yep. Customers call 19 different contractors looking for quotes on a pathetically small job, then get online bitching about how unreliable contractors are when they get no responses.

Sounds about right.

SVreX wrote: Yep. Customers call 19 different contractors looking for quotes on a pathetically small job, then get online bitching about how unreliable contractors are when they get no responses. Sounds about right.

pretty much. the best thing about those pathetically small jobs that nobody calls you back on is i swoop in and do it. i can pretty much name my price because at that point they're so fed up they are just happy i'm willing to help them. tomorrow i'm hanging 3 pairs of shutters, putting brickmould up around a garage door, and across the street i'm texturing a ceiling in a bathroom. 50% of the time those small jobs that i took the time to do instead of blowing them off for bigger work lead to the bigger work at that same house, most of the time not even considering to get another quote because they know i will show up and do it right. best margin is on little jobs by far.