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[151949]

On 5/5/2014 sunnysw said:

Have you ever watched any of the programs on Dateline or 20/20 showing homeowners left high & dry by UN-LICENSED contractors? A LICENSED contractor in the state where you reside will be able to provide: The states contractor's license number 2. General Liability insurance & 3. Work Comp insurance. If you reside in California, you can check a contractor's license number with the state at: cslb.ca.gov. It will also show if there have been any claims against the contractor & if the license is in force. Lowe's, Home Depot & other like companies only hire licensed & insured (both GL & Comp) contractor's. If you hire a person who is not licensed & insured you do not know what you are getting, i.e., if electrical work needs to be done, is the contractor licensed for that? Using an un-licensed contractor is at your own risk. Good Luck!

Not all states license people to do work like contracting.I live in Fa now and they license here for everything - even the condo watch guy has a license but not all states are the same.

[AnimalFarm]

DH & I have done 3 bathroom remodels. Two were in the same house, at the same time & finished in 7 days. DH was our superintendent & everything went according to the schedule. My advice would be to get someone to help you do the tear out of everything old which would give the const. crew a clean slate. A MAJOR portion of a remodel is the tear out!

[country gal]

I agree with AnimalFarm..If you can do the demo yourself you can save a lot of $$$. We gutted our MB in 2010 and our hall bath last year. My DH, his friend and myself were the "crew". It was not easy because the walls were 40 yr. old plaster (not drywall) that we took down to the studs, but we didn't want to pay the contractor's hourly rate for demo.

[Nuttmeg]

On 5/5/2014 AnimalFarm said: DH & I have done 3 bathroom remodels. Two were in the same house, at the same time & finished in 7 days. DH was our superintendent & everything went according to the schedule. My advice would be to get someone to help you do the tear out of everything old which would give the const. crew a clean slate. A MAJOR portion of a remodel is the tear out!

If you are going to do demo, you should know what you are doing. You may have to cap water pipes, and move electrical lines.

[depglass]

You may end up treating your guests to the use of a Porta John if the work doesn't get done. If it were me, I would wait.

[Kachina624]

As far as I'm concern after some unhappy experiences, Angie's list is the only way to go on these projects. You can read the reviews from multiple users. I've never had a bad experience with anyone I've hired from there. Well worth the minuscule fee to join. I even use the list to find a honest auto repair shop.

[casuallady]

On 5/5/2014 casuallady said:

A few months ago I posted that we were getting an estimate from Lowes. It came in higher than we could justify on the Labor side. I love Lowe's however as retirees we couldn't pay the amount the high end contractor was charging. A friend that I greatly value her opinion gave me a referral of an individual. I called him today and he is going to come and give us an estimate. He said he may not be able to do it until Sept. Hubby told him we have family coming in late June, he may put us in. I am hoping this all works out.

I have an update on our potential Master Bathroom remodel ! It is good news ! We met with an established contractor today. He was a referral from a good friend. Although he is backed up to August with jobs, he took the time to meet with us and give a quote. It was about 1/2 what the Lowes' Contractor quoted. As one individual mentioned Lowes is usually high. My husband, who has general contracted 2 homes with my help, was confident he would do a good job. While he was here he mentioned he had done a bathroom for one of our Pastors and was scheduled to do the Pastors' Parent's kitchen next week. We are scheduled for the first week of August, so won't have it done for our guests.
This will give us time to get all the materials.