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We're looking for a list of GCs that members have used before for major renovations. We're touching basically every room and redoing much of the house.
It would be helpful if he/she has experience with garden city villages rules/regulations as well. Thanks in advance.
Hijacking the thread... but since I am in a simular boat (total top/down remodel of a house I am about to close on in the town of North Hempstead), it migth be helpful for some to get some info on other ways to get refferals online.
Besides getting some leads from forums (like city-data), how successful have people been with getting referrals online?
This has been my experience so far:
City-data (or other forums)
- Rare to find good leads
- If there are any leads, some turn out to be of high quality... then some just plain suck. Just the nature of forums... you get a mix of good people giving out great refferals, and then those that don't. Still worth the risk since you just need to filter out the bad leads.
Angieslist (or other review sites):
- Ton of leads... almost too much
- The problem is that the highly reviewed ones seem fine, but does not mean they are the best at what they do. They tend to be less established businesses, or businesses that are trying to obtain more customers. Good for quick finds, or fixes that does matter if the quality of work is high. Thinking of cancelling my membership.
Houzz (or related self-help sites):
- Some decent leads... but same problem as Angieslist
- Why I seperate Houzz from Angieslist is because some of the leads are interesting since either you can see actual examples of their work, or thier general tastes since their profile will tag pictures for a project they are working on... which allows me to get a sense of the grade of work they aspire towards.
- So far, I just started to reach out to some contractors, so I am not sure if the leads are of high quality or good value.
Any oter online methods?
I've already walked around the neighborhood to look at any houses that look like they've had a recent major renovation... any that look new turned out to be a tear down project... or no one was at home.
Already have personal referrals, but so far, I've never met a person who had a general contractor that they felt did great work for mid-range prices.
So far I only qualified two GCs to try to get actual real quotes when I close soon. First one is a small time GC. A family in Great Neck reffered them to us, and visted their remodeled homes a few times. The work wasn't bad, and they said they were the cheapest. The second one is Great Additions who speicalizes in extensions/shells. Picked them since I've seen them do a bunch of work in Manhasset / Flower Hill, and the actual reno work was fast and the renovation work looks decent while living nearby. Another big reason is because they list all their projects online, and posts a TON of pictures... more than any other LI GC I've seen. Gives a sense of their taste and what they put into it.
I have a recommendation if you're renovating your kitchen or bath. I just remodeled my kitchen and used Gold Coast Cabinet company in Massapequa for my kitchen cabinets and countertops.
Great prices and excellent service - another bonus, they provided a 3D rendering of what my kitchen would look like. Prices were WELL below other shops. Just to give you an idea, I spent $18K on custom cabinets made 100% in the US, which I thought was pretty terrific. (The quotes I was getting elsewhere ranged from between 25K-40K)
While I was only remodeling my kitchen, I loved their bathroom vanities as well - really unique stuff. Home Hope these suggestions help! Good luck with your renovation!
I added Homecraft Remodeling to my list of GCs. Oddly, after getting a referral from my wife's friend who said they were affordable, I realized that they were on my broader 20+ list from Angielist, and also happened to be on my list from Houzz... go figure. I initally didn't bother to call them up since my impression was that they were one of the big shops. Will know when I finish getting quotes. Hoping to get one more to my finals list so I can compare four reputable GCs, but my gut feeling says it will come down to whoever is willing to work with us and have time on their hands to work on our project. Avoiding the big boys like Allure, since it's already expected the price will be too high for me... Might try the other big boy, Ambassador Home Improvement... but looking for another lesser known one to mix it up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jshlee
Hijacking the thread... but since I am in a simular boat (total top/down remodel of a house I am about to close on in the town of North Hempstead), it migth be helpful for some to get some info on other ways to get refferals online.
Besides getting some leads from forums (like city-data), how successful have people been with getting referrals online?
This has been my experience so far:
City-data (or other forums)
- Rare to find good leads
- If there are any leads, some turn out to be of high quality... then some just plain suck. Just the nature of forums... you get a mix of good people giving out great refferals, and then those that don't. Still worth the risk since you just need to filter out the bad leads.
Angieslist (or other review sites):
- Ton of leads... almost too much
- The problem is that the highly reviewed ones seem fine, but does not mean they are the best at what they do. They tend to be less established businesses, or businesses that are trying to obtain more customers. Good for quick finds, or fixes that does matter if the quality of work is high. Thinking of cancelling my membership.
Houzz (or related self-help sites):
- Some decent leads... but same problem as Angieslist
- Why I seperate Houzz from Angieslist is because some of the leads are interesting since either you can see actual examples of their work, or thier general tastes since their profile will tag pictures for a project they are working on... which allows me to get a sense of the grade of work they aspire towards.
- So far, I just started to reach out to some contractors, so I am not sure if the leads are of high quality or good value.
Any oter online methods?
I've already walked around the neighborhood to look at any houses that look like they've had a recent major renovation... any that look new turned out to be a tear down project... or no one was at home.
Already have personal referrals, but so far, I've never met a person who had a general contractor that they felt did great work for mid-range prices.
So far I only qualified two GCs to try to get actual real quotes when I close soon. First one is a small time GC. A family in Great Neck reffered them to us, and visted their remodeled homes a few times. The work wasn't bad, and they said they were the cheapest. The second one is Great Additions who speicalizes in extensions/shells. Picked them since I've seen them do a bunch of work in Manhasset / Flower Hill, and the actual reno work was fast and the renovation work looks decent while living nearby. Another big reason is because they list all their projects online, and posts a TON of pictures... more than any other LI GC I've seen. Gives a sense of their taste and what they put into it.
I absolutely could not recommend my contractor. He tried to cut corners in a number of ways and I had to watch him like a hawk.
The only advice I can give is to make your contract as detailed as possible regarding the work that will be done. I know that Nassau County consumer affairs has some guidelines.
If I had used the simple agreement that my contractor first provided, I can guarantee we would now both be in court. Instead, I took control of the process and wrote the contract myself, outlining every specific task. Even with that, for example, I forgot to put in the contract that the walls touched by the contractor had to be made paint-ready through spackling, etc. When it came time to repair the walls, he tried to renege and said that it was the responsibility of the painters. With more than 40% of his fee still not paid, I told him we could shut down the project then and there. The next day, a rather lousy spackler showed up and I still had to have the painters do some remedial work.
In the end, our project turned out pretty well, but I still worry about some of the work that was done behind the walls. Choose your contractor very carefully and, at the end of the day, inspect the work that's been done and take a level to everything. If you can have someone observe the progress of the work during the day, absolutely do so. If you don't know anything about home repair or renovation, find a friend or relative who can help you supervise the project.
I added Homecraft Remodeling to my list of GCs. Oddly, after getting a referral from my wife's friend who said they were affordable, I realized that they were on my broader 20+ list from Angielist, and also happened to be on my list from Houzz... go figure. I initally didn't bother to call them up since my impression was that they were one of the big shops. Will know when I finish getting quotes. Hoping to get one more to my finals list so I can compare four reputable GCs, but my gut feeling says it will come down to whoever is willing to work with us and have time on their hands to work on our project. Avoiding the big boys like Allure, since it's already expected the price will be too high for me... Might try the other big boy, Ambassador Home Improvement... but looking for another lesser known one to mix it up.
jshlee - which GC did you use? How did they do? Looking for a GC also. Thanks.
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Architect
