Can Your Potential Contractor Pass These ‘Dealbreaker’ Tests? (6 photos)

2. How much deposit do they need up front? It’s not uncommon for contractors to ask for a deposit before work starts. Ten percent is the industry norm. However, if your remodeling professional is asking for more than that, say, 50 percent, or pulls a number out of thin air (“I need $30,000 before I can do anything”), slowly back away. Or better yet, just run! A bigger deposit request is almost always synonymous with financial instability.

3. Do they have a scope of work? I’m willing to bet that any remodeler who gives a price up front with no scope or plans to back it up has overlooked or not included something in the bid. I cannot stress enough the importance of having a clear specifications document that you understand and agree with.

An ideal spec labels (and maybe even numbers) each individual room that is being touched in the project. It calls out every detail from the type of baseboard to be installed to the finish of the paint on the walls.

In a perfect world, it is even formatted like the Construction Specifications Institute’s MasterFormat, a specifications template that separates the project into 16 divisions of labor and includes a massive amount of detail. (Seriously, check out the CSI’s MasterFormat sometime. It’s pretty cool. But I know — I’m a construction nerd.)

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