Many homeowners try to evaluate this by getting two or three references from the contractor. Although this practice is widely recommended by many pundits, we respectfully disagree with this approach.

If you ever heard the story of a homeowner who hired the same guy who did a beautiful job next door, but then did a lousy job for him, you will understand our point of view.

There are at least three reasons why we feel this way:

• When your neighbor recommends a contractor to you, the neighbor very often doesn’t know himself if the job was done properly. Very often the recommendation is too recent. The job is not even a year old. Show me that same roof five years from now, or the same bath, or dormer…you get the idea.
• Even the worst contractors out there can find three or four jobs they did well…possibly even an aunt’s, uncle’s or cousin’s job that he did not even do!
• The job next door, or the ones shown to you, may have been done by the same company, but by different work crews who are no longer with the company. Many of the smaller companies hire sub-contractors, and some of them even try to find the cheapest ones.

We believe that if all of the other issues we mentioned above are taken into account, then the workmanship will naturally follow.