re: Hiring a home improvement contractor

I apologize, I did not mean to come across as arrogant, after rereading my post, I'm sure it came across that way.

I do get annoyed when the general public takes licensed Remodeling contractors for granted .

..that we should come after hours( because you work and can't meet during normal business hours) or meet you on weekends so both husband and wife can attend the consultation,, burn our fuel, be away from our families , come listen to your ideas, offer up our ideas, then go back to our office work up the proposal in writing and then meet you again to review the proposal...all for nothing.?

Remodeling someone's kitchen is much different than driving up and doing a quote for gutters or for shingles ...it's a whole different ballgame.

Why is it assumed that a general contractor should not be paid for his time?..

yes in most cases we do not charge up front for an estimate but we do obviously have that time factored in our proposal.

But we don't get every job we quote so that's why we screen our jobs before we drive out to look at a particular job. "Are we a good fit for the homeowners project"?

Contractor is a loose term.

A licensed contractor is either a general contractor, architect, electrician, plumber, or HVAC after this list no one else is required to have a license in residential.


So it sounds like the OP is looking for a license remodeling professional, all I'm saying is the project is on the small side which makes it a difficult fit for the Builder.


Jobs under 10,000 typically do not have deposits.


I can only assume that if you were doing $100,000 project that you the homeowner would expect to make deposits and draws as the project progresses?


That's what I meant when I said we're not a bank we have to use the homeowners money to build their project.

A pantry, like I said it's not really a fit for a general contractor.... you said you wanted someone licensed so I provided our perspective.