“Contracting is a tough business,” says Kevin Capps, a 20-year industry veteran and owner of K.C. Customs & Remodeling, Inc. in Campbell. “There are a lot of disreputable contractors out there.” Mr. Capps doesn’t like to talk about other contractors; he prefers to talk about what he can do for prospective clients and thinks contractors who share this attitude are more likely to offer quality work.
Mr. Capps says it’s important for prospective clients to understand that deposits on a contracting job are limited by law to 10 percent or $1,000, whichever is greater. “Any contractor who asks for more is breaking the law,” he says, “and you shouldn’t hire them.”
Disreputable contractors will often underbid in hopes of winning a contract and then find “problems” that drive up cost once the job is underway. Some cost overruns, like dry rot repair, are unavoidable, but if the job is properly scoped out and the contractors are all bidding on the same project, the estimates shouldn’t be too different. “Be wary of the lowest bid,” says Mr. Capps. “If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
“Ideally,” he continues, “you want to hire a contracting company that believes in treating clients the way it wants its workers to be treated. You want someone who’s selling their services and isn’t concerned with what other contractors do.”
