Best places to find remodeling for bathrooms/painters/etc (Manassas: coupons, credit card)

[mrsp1030]

Does anyone have good resources for finding these services for the northern va area? Angies List? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

[newnewsmama]

I found Angie's List to be helpful. The site has ratings, reviews, and coupons.

[spencgr]

I am a member of Angie's List and feel it has provided me some good recommendations on contractors. That being said, they have a (IMO) shady practice of renewal. Unless you call and make them change your preferences, they have an "automatic renewal policy" and will charge your credit card. While that might not be so bad, it is important to note that their "renewal rate" is $80 per year, which is significantly higher than the rate quoted on the website. By having automatic renewal, many people might not notice the increase.

I did, and immediately complained. If you call, they will give you the old rate, but it is not automatic.

[newnewsmama]

Originally Posted by spencgr

I am a member of Angie's List and feel it has provided me some good recommendations on contractors. That being said, they have a (IMO) shady practice of renewal. Unless you call and make them change your preferences, they have an "automatic renewal policy" and will charge your credit card. While that might not be so bad, it is important to note that their "renewal rate" is $80 per year, which is significantly higher than the rate quoted on the website. By having automatic renewal, many people might not notice the increase.

I did, and immediately complained. If you call, they will give you the old rate, but it is not automatic.

Thank you for the reminder. I paid $18 for the first year through Groupon. I will look out for the renewal rate.

[clothgiraffe]

we've hired some great people via servicemagic; you put in your info for the job you want and get calls from people looking for that work. we've liked that all the responses (maybe the focus for servicemagic?) have been from small, independent businesses.

[yolli71]

Angie's List and Washington Checkbook have worked well for me.

[Carlingtonian]

We have Angie's List and Checkbook. So far I like Checkbook a lot better. Angie's doesn't feature all contractors--just ones that pay to be included. So I've found a couple of good contractors on CC that were not listed on Angie's at all. Also, a couple of contractors with very high reviews on A.L. did not even return my calls!

One major flaw of Angie's List is that you can't exclude companies that have a certain number of low grades from your search--just those with an average grade of whatever you pick. There's no way I'd hire a company with three bad reviews, because that's a pattern. And yet a company with three bad reviews could easily have an average grade of B or even A.

And I think people are more candid in their reviews on Checkbook, because with Angie's, contractors get notified the minute a review is written and can call you up to beg you to retract a bad grade.

I don't think we'll renew with Angie's. (It's true that renewal is automatic, but they tell you that up front in a big obvious screen message you have to click.)

[Caladium]

Don't waste your time on people you meet at the Home Show. We're remodeling a bathroom this year, and every single contractor we met through the home show was a disaster. Lots of people who were not very competent and lots of people who will try to bully you into work you don't need done. Lots of people who will come to your house, take measurements, and then you never hear from them again. We're never, ever going the route of looking for contractors through the Home Show again.

We've had good luck with Angie's List, although we probably also will not be renewing our subscription after we finish this project. Also, local tile shops have lists of contractors they work with. For us, the list from The Tile Shop turned out to be the best way to get recommendations.

[Jon_In_NOVA]

Originally Posted by Caladium

Don't waste your time on people you meet at the Home Show. We're remodeling a bathroom this year, and every single contractor we met through the home show was a disaster. Lots of people who were not very competent and lots of people who will try to bully you into work you don't need done. Lots of people who will come to your house, take measurements, and then you never hear from them again. We're never, ever going the route of looking for contractors through the Home Show again.

We've had good luck with Angie's List, although we probably also will not be renewing our subscription after we finish this project. Also, local tile shops have lists of contractors they work with. For us, the list from The Tile Shop turned out to be the best way to get recommendations.

Hey Caladium,
Which Tile shop? I have only been to the one in Manassas, but just to look around with the wife for different ideas on a backsplash for the kitchen.

[Caladium]

It's called The Tile Shop, and it's in a strip mall on Rt. 7 near Cascades Parkway (the one with Target, Total Wine and Costco). It's a fun shop to visit, BTW. Lots of great displays, and they cater to the DIY market so the contractors tend to be reasonably priced and not "designers" who want to bully you into a $75,000 redesign.