10 Ways to Save Money by Hiring the Right Waterproofing Contractor.

Think of your house as a system, just like your body for example: a group of individual parts, each with a specific function and peculiar features, working together to make the whole system functional. If it makes sense to seek, for example, a cardiologist if you have serious heart problems, rather than just your primary care doctor, it makes sense to hire a waterproofing expert to fix a wet basement. As knowledgeable as a general contractor might be, he will never be as knowledgeable about waterproofing as a waterproofing expert would be, or in electric systems as a certified electrician would be. Think about it. The certified waterproofing contractor does only that type of job. That is how he makes a living, therefore he needs to be up-to-date and offer always the best technology available to stay in business.

This is the part many homeowners neglect when hiring a contractor. And many times, only to regret it deeply. Consider that you are bringing someone you don’t know to your home, to be around your family, being paid to perform repairs on your most valuable asset.  In other words, everything you cherish the most and worked your whole life for is being jeopardized if you hire the wrong person. Don’t just pick out a name from the yellow book and, most of all, do not hire anyone that shows up at your door, out of the blue. Get referrals from friends, family, co-workers, and fellow church members. Search the internet, inspect their website, see how informative they are about their business and area of expertise. Make sure the contractor has a place of business, a land line phone number and fax, a physical address not just a PO Box. And email.

And a third…., Get at least 3 estimates from 3 different companies. The more people you get to inspect and quote the job, the more you improve your chances of getting the right contractor. It might be tiring and sometimes unpleasant to sit through 3 or more different sales presentations and discuss the same problems with 3 different people, but it can make all the difference in the world on how much money you will save and how good the final result will be.

Ask for references and actually check them. All you need to do is make a couple of phone calls. Check your local Better Business Bureau to see if there are complaints filed against that contractor. Go to your state’s official website and check to see if the contractor is certified and licensed. Look at websites like Angie’s List and Merchant Circle to see if he has bad customer reviews.

Once you pick a contractor and make an appointment for an estimate, make sure you are there at the time scheduled and make notes if the contractor doesn’t show up, shows up late without giving you a call in advance to tell you he is going to be late and asking you if that is OK or you will want to reschedule. A good contractor knows that your time is just as precious and valuable as his. If he fails to honor his very first commitment to you, how can you trust him to deliver the whole job in a timely fashion?

So should your contractor. And since he is a business person, he should have name, business cards, ID tags, informational and sales material, samples, tools, a clean, nice looking vehicle preferably with the company logo on it. He will introduce and identify himself right away. He will conduct himself as a knowledgeable professional. If someone who is supposed to be in business shows up at your door wearing worn work clothes and a tool belt, driving a beat up and dirty old truck… well he might be a reasonable worker, but he is far from being a knowledgeable business man, don’t you think? Even though contractors do a lot of “dirty” work, there is no excuse for a contractor to show up at your door for your very first meeting looking like he just got off a trench digging job.

Before you sign a contract you need to be 100% sure about the whole deal. That includes understanding exactly what is to be done, the kind of material that is to be used, and what kind of results you are to expect after the job is done. Do not let any contractor “fast talk” you into a deal, or confuse you with technical terms and professional lingo. Make sure you can understand what he is saying and proposing.

This is another part many homeowners tend to neglect and the one that ends up costing them the most. Anything that is not written down and signed by both parts is not considered part of the deal by any court, should you ever have to dispute any terms of the deal. Even though some courts recognize the validity of some verbal agreements, you will have to prove that such conversation ever happened, which is very difficult because chances are that the contractor will never admit it. So get it in writing. Make sure he specifies everything that is to be done, every product he will use and, above all, every detail of the job he is not going to do too. For example: will he repair the drywall he had to cut to install the drainage system? Will he install dedicated circuits for the sump pump or dehumidifier? The more you get in writing, the less is left to argue about if anything goes wrong.

Every one wants to save money, but if a contractor gives you a very cheap estimate, much cheaper than the other 2 competitors (Remember the rule #3 about getting more than one opinion?), chances are he is either going to deliver a bad job, use cheap materials or, even worse, not deliver the job at all and just run away with your hard earned money.  Likewise, it is OK to try to negotiate down the asking price for any job. However, keep in mind that a good contractor will charge you a fair price for labor and products, and when he gives you an estimate, you will know exactly what you are paying for. If a contractor is giving you a huge discount, chances are that we was overpricing the job to begin with, and is know charging the real price to look good. Now,  what that kind of sales practice tells you about the contractor’s trustworthiness? Be equally suspicious of those who try to force you into closing the deal right away by offering significant discounts but “only if you sign it today”. Chances are that they know that if they give you time to shop around they will not be the ones you will hire for the job.

 Before signing any contract you should be 100% sure about the whole deal. You want to feel confident about the contractor, the price, and the nature of the work to be performed. If you are not 100% sure, do not sign it. Unfortunately, not everyone can say no to an aggressive sales pitch, especially when the sales person is at your home and will not leave you alone until he or she gets an OK from you. If you ever feel you were pushed into signing something, or did it just to get rid of the very persistent and obnoxious sales person, keep in mind that the law in every U.S. state gives you about 3 days, from the time the contract was signed, to change your mind and cancel the deal if you signed the contract at your home. You remain entitled to a full refund and will not be charged cancellation fees.Therefore,  by all means, sleep on it, take your time to go over the proposal after the contractor leaves. And if you have any questions and the contractor is not capable or willing to address them, cancel the deal.