Lets say you are a home owner in city like Mumbai and you need to fix or Renovate your bathroom. One fine day you call a Contractor for inspection. If you want to know what to expect in first visit of Contractor keep reading further.

There are two situations in which a home owner calls Contractor, it could be general home renovation or to fix some specific problem.
For example Home owner wants to fix or renovate Bathroom or renovate Kitchen. In such case Contractor inspects particular part of home and asks questions about requirements in mind of owner. Contractor starts explaining his recommendations and changes that can be done for renovation.

If Owner likes the high level plan suggested by contractor, next step for Contractor is to prepare rough estimate or quote. Contractor takes measures rough square feet of the area which needs renovation and gives rough quotation to owner. There could be some minor plus or minus changes to the estimate or cost when Contractor comes up with actual Estimate.

Owners are always curious to know cost of home renovation after listening to suggestions made by Contractor after inspection. A good contractor gives you rough cost estimate as per present market rate of materials. For eg: Contractor includes cost of square feets of tiles, commode, plumbing, cement, sand and other materials, gives a rough estimate.

If rough estimate or quote sounds good to Owner, contractor starts working on more accurate estimate.
ContractorBhai.com is a community website for Home Renovation in India. It provides Free Estimates for your Home Renovation. Visit Home Owner section here

[Updated on 23-Oct-2019 by Nitin – founder of Contractorbhai.com]

Home Owners call 2-3 Contractors and try to get quotation from them. Quotes are compared. Common challenges faced at this stage is lack of clarity. If you are planning to do partial repair work for example just adding tiles to particular wall, it is easy to compare cost across contractors. However if you are planning to do major renovation, comparing quotations from contractors is like comparing apple to oranges. You do not have clarity on what material is assumed. You have no idea about what design is assumed. Home owners talk to contractors, whichever one offers less quote plus sounds reasonable is handed over the project. We once came across a Contractor who was extremely good at winning projects. His strategy was offer competitive quote & present ideas very nicely. Problem was when it came to actual implementation/execution, he was failing in all projects. He use to bring team and material that were below par.

Home owners are very keen on saving money, finding cheapest contractor, but you have to be careful.

[Updated on 25-Jan-2023 by Nitin – founder of Contractorbhai.com]

You are giving the big responsibility of renovating your home to a Contractor. It is a big, expensive project, and it is a tough decision to make…

Below are a few common questions Homeowners ask all Contractors before making a decision..

IMPORTANT: I am freely using ‘HE’ in the article below, but assume it’s just for ease of writing / sharing ideas…When I say HE, it means a CONTRACTOR (He or She)

Do you have any professional license or do you hold any certification?
Expected answer- fortunately or unfortunately in India, contractors do not have such arrangements..

Do you own or belong to some established company?
(Contractor may be owning a business/company which is established & paying taxes for many years.. That basically shows his business track record..)

The other way a Contractor can build his image credit is by mentioning if there is any group or any other brand/company with which he is associated..for example : many independent contractors who work with ContractorBhai in various capacities, they mention our name while pitching for the project. This helps in building assurance to customers/homeowners.

How much time will you take to complete the project?
Be careful with answers you receive here.. Most projects end up taking more time & money. Contractorbhai started a interior design service to solve this very problem. When homeowner gets designs & costing & material well planned before work starts, this makes Contractors work easy & enables him to achieve target time set.

If you are in a rush, and some smart Contractor is desperate to win your project, he might agree to an aggressive deadline.. Which eventually may not be practical.. So be reasonable and mutually decide upon the deadline..

How many years of experience do you have? How many projects have you done? How many projects have you done in the last 12 months?
Again.. All sorts of answers will come to you.. I know a Contractor who is 40 years old & when asked, says he has experience of 20 years.. Now he started working in this field at the age of 20, but for the first 10 years he didnt work as the main contractor (handling the whole team).
More relevant question will be how many projects he has worked on in the last 12-24 months.. This way you will know how successful he has been as a Contractor..

Which area have you done projects? What was the budget?
If a contractor has done projects across various parts of your city, he has more experience. If he has done big budget as well as small repair projects.. He has more experience. Believe me, there are contractors who just cannot work below a certain budget.

What was your starting speciality?
Every Contractor starts as a fresher.. If he started his career working for a Carpentry company, he will have more inclination towards wood work.. If he started working for a design company, he will have more inclination towards finishing/decor/design…If he started working for a civil company, he will spend most of your budget in Civil..You have to very clever find out this detail & then discuss with Contractor that you want to get holistic results & don’t want to wrongly spend budget on one particular department..Believe me, I know two Contractors, if you asked both to give quotation for same house interior..one will have 40-50% spending on wood work, other will have 50%+ of spending on Civil work..

Do you have your own/fixed team members?
Contractors do not really have an employed team. Contractors have fix team, people they have been hiring & working with for years. But they are not on their payroll. Everyone works on a daily wage basis. But get an idea about the main roles..one who is main carpenter, main mason guy..etc..

What will be your payment terms?
There are various arrangements..Many contractors will present their bills every week or every 15 days..Homeowners have to cross check the bill against work done. Material purchased and clear the payment. If the homeowner does not clear partial payment or delays payment..Contractor will slow down the work without informing you..Progress will become slow..You think you are outsmarting contractor, but you cannot..Contractors do projects for living..SO avoid such situation, make sure contractor sticks to timeline & you (home owner) sticks to clearing scheduled payments..

What materials, branded/non branded will be used in my project?
Get an idea about what material the Contractor suggests. As per your budget & project needs he will have suggestions…Either you make a list of materials or ask the Contractor to prepare a list & share with you..Stick to this list while the project progresses. Many homeowners change material (cost wise or brand wise)..this will change budget..

Will Contractor be available for providing after project service? In case any maintenance / repair comes up after a year or two, will he help?
First few months, the Contractor should provide free service for minor repairs or adjustments.. But after a year or later..he may ask for charges.. For example you want to make some change with furniture or fix some light point or add extra light point or add extra hardware/accessories.. Contractor will arrange for a person to visit your place, but you will end up paying some reasonable daily wage directly to this team member,..

How much time will the Contractor spend on site?
If you are in a crunch of time, you have to find a Contractor who can visit your site almost daily. On certain tasks, he spends the whole day.. For material selection he remains available when a client is available..Homeowners have to understand that on site meetings can happen during daylight hours…material selections can happen when shops are open..if you have a very tight work schedule, you have to clarify this with your contractor…

Can we visit your previously done projects & maybe talk to one or two past customers?
When you visit previous site, you ill get a idea about quality of work done. Focus on finishing, colour schemes. Do not create strong assumptions from previous projects.. Every project has different budgets and requirements..If you visited a previous done project where the homeowner likes very bright colours..after the visit ask the Contractor about it..Chances are that homeowner liked those specific kind of colours..

Can you reduce the figure in the Estimate ?
This answer is like a big article in itself…we will write separate articles on home renovation estimate ..If you get very high estimate, sometimes it may not mean Contractor is costly, but reason could be that he has covered all points which were missed by other contractors…If you get a very attractive cheap estimate, chances are contractor has played it down on estimate, but eventually hidden points will keep coming up in middle of the project…

Do you have a Rate chart?
In addition to Estimates, ask for a rate chart from all contractors, or you yourself sit with the contractor and prepare one…This will help you compare costing..for example if one contractor is charging very high for flooring, you will know difference, if he is charging high for electrical point, you will know reason.. Rate chart of major / common points will help you get an idea about costing.. High costing doesn’t mean, costly contractor, on investigation, you might come to know that a high cost includes some important task or material which was not covered by others..