Those “Find a Contractor” Services

Here is a true story about those “Find a Contractor” services you see everywhere.

We recently got a call from a nice woman in a split level house. She let us know she has asthma. Her house has forced air heat which is important to remember as you read further.

A first floor toilet in this house overflowed, ruining some carpeting in the first floor den. The home owner’s handy-man removed that carpet and some damaged molding and then he noticed black colored mold on the drywall.

The home owner and he decided to remove the drywall to find the source of the mold. She can’t live in this house with a bad mold situation. When they got the drywall out the handyman realized he was in over his head.

The home owner got our company’s name from her carpenter. I was there later on the same day. She called a few folks from those “Find a Contractor” services who also gave their opinions. They were there earlier in the day.

Not surprisingly the “Find a Contractor” guys wanted to do stuff like patch in new studs against the old ones or patch in sections of new bottom plate. No one looked at why the damage happened in the first place. No one addressed the serious problem of the moldy stink in this woman’s house or the fact that she is asthmatic.

When I got the this house, the water damaged den was divided off from the rest of the house with plastic sheeting. The room was stripped down to the studs. We could see many of the 2×4’s were termite damaged. We could see that the fiberglass insulation was black along the bottoms from mold. So the water and mold issue was not a new one related to an overflowed toilet. The water had been entering the house for years.

I chatted with the home owner about this and she agreed that the concrete back patio was letting water into the house. Additionally, a neighbor up hill of the back of her home was using her yard as a dumping area for his rain water run off. It had been a problem for 10 years. I commented that her neighbor to the side had a sign in their front yard from a mold remediation company. That yard and hers too showed run off damage in the form of a small canyon from the neighbor up hill.

I suggested the fixes needed to start with regrading the back yard to direct water away from the house. I told her I could smell mold when she opened her front door. I told her this was serious and more complicated that replacing a few studs and some drywall. We gave her a contract to do just the studs and remove and replace the insulation. But we made it clear other things needed to happen too. We do not want our company held accountable for a pre-existing water and mold problem in this house.

This home owner was confused. How could so many answers be the right solution to the problem in her den? Like most of us, she didn’t want the solution to be expensive or complicated.

Why couldn’t it have been a simple carpet replacement? How did it turn into a huge water issue? Is the mold making her sick? How could the ‘Find a Contractor” guys offer to do only part of the work? Why were they so cheap when compared to the company who told me to get a landscaper in to fix the patio and yard drainage?

You don’t know the skill set of the person who is coming out from a “Find a Contractor” service. Don’t use them. Many times these “contractors” have not been qualified. They simply pay a fee to look at your project.

You are better off asking friends and neighbors for a contractor recommendation. Even better, contact NARI or Remodelers Advantage for a professional contractor recommendation.

A general contractor sees the “Big Picture” of your home and its systems. So their answers will often be more complicated. They can help you break the issues down into sections that need to happen in a particular oder. They can help you “stage” the sections of work so you get the best results at a pace you can afford. They help you manage your largest investment, your home, over the long run.