for your home
How to hire a
good general
PHOTODISC
contractor
Compare the cost of getting your own loan
versus contractor financing.
•Don’t make a final payment or sign a
final release until you are satisfied with the
work and know that subcontractors and
suppliers have been paid. Some state laws
allow unpaid subcontractors and suppliers to
put a lien on your home for bills the contractor failed to pay.
•Pay by credit card when you can. You
may have the right to withhold payment to
the credit card company until problems are
corrected.
38 ;e Costco Connection FEBRUARY 2011
By Will Fifield
CHOOSING A GOOD contractor (such as
Mike Holmes, on page 36) is often the most
important part of a home-improvement
project. A good contractor can make the
entire process smooth; a marginal one can
leave you drained, financially and emotionally. The following tips can help you choose
a good contractor.
•Get recommendations and references.
Talk to friends, family and others who have
used the contractor for similar work.
•Get at least three written estimates.
Insist the contractors come to your home to
evaluate what needs to be done. Be sure all the
estimates are based on the same work so that
you can make meaningful comparisons.
•Check contractor complaint records.
Your state or local consumer protection
agency or Better Business Bureau can provide
this information.
•Make sure the contractor meets
licensing and registration requirements.
Your state or local consumer protection
agency can help you find out what these
requirements are.
•Get the names of suppliers and ask if
the contractor makes timely payments.
•Contact your local building inspection department to check for permit and
inspection requirements. Be wary if the contractor asks you to get the permit—it could
mean the firm is not licensed.
•Be sure your contractor is insured. A
contractor should have personal liability,
property damage and workers’ compensation
insurance for workers and subcontractors.
Also check with your insurance company to
find out if you are covered for any injury or
damage that might occur.
Be especially cautious if the
contractor:
• Says the job will be a “demonstration.”
•Offers you a discount for finding
other customers.
• Quotes a price that’s much higher or
much lower than other estimates.
• Pressures you to make an immediate
decision about proposed work. C
Source: The Federal Citizen Information
Center (
www.consumeraction.gov)
Alarming situation
YOU CAN’T SEE IT and you can’t smell it,
but carbon monoxide (CO) can kill you.
Each year hundreds in the U.S. die from CO
poisoning and thousands more
are hospitalized. That’s why the
National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA,
www.nfpa.
org) recommends placing at
least one CO alarm on each level
of a home and one in or near
every bedroom or sleeping area.
A recent survey conducted
by First Alert, a leading supplier
of CO alarms, found that nine
out of 10 U.S. households are not
in compliance with the NFPA’s
carbon monoxide alarm recommendations. In fact, the survey
showed that 40 percent don’t have any working CO detectors in their homes at all.
To address the problem, close to 30
states in the U.S. now require carbon mon-
oxide alarms in new and existing homes,
condos, town houses and dwellings where a
portion is used for sleeping (www.
systemsensor.com/co/pdf/State-
CO-Code-Summation.pdf).
Often called the silent killer,
carbon monoxide is created when
fuels such as gasoline, wood, coal,
natural gas, propane, oil and
methane burn incompletely.
Stoves, furnaces and other resi-
dential heating and cooking
appliances that burn these fuels
are potential sources of carbon
monoxide. Vehicles or generators
can also produce dangerous levels
of carbon monoxide when left
running in an attached garage.
Carbon monoxide poisoning can easily
be mistaken for the flu because its symp-