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Hire Licensed and Respected Home Improvement Companies

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:59:30 +0000

Finding the right home improvement company to update or renovate your home doesn’t have to be a stressful and disheartening process. Yet most homeowners have no idea where to start because they are bombarded with bad press about contractors who are dishonest, inexperienced and downright unreliable. Homeowners today are wary of who they can trust.

Home Improvement Complaints and Scams:

“With lower-rate mortgages tempting homeowners to trade up to a bigger house, or to refinance and expand or repair their existing home, we’re finding that construction and home improvement activity is way up, and with it is the number of complaints in those areas,” said Consumer Protection Commissioner Edwin R. Rodriguez. (Consumer Affairs, January 2006)

“Home improvement complaints rank as the top consumer complaint in Connecticut and elsewhere across the country,” Rodriguez said. “While home improvements themselves can be expensive, any problems that arise often cost consumers thousands more to fix. Unfortunately, there have been many cases where a homeowner is left with a huge problem and has no financial means of getting it repaired.” (Consumer Affairs, June 2006)

Basic scams usually do not occur with accredited companies, so make sure the company you use is licensed. “The law requires home improvement contractors to register and follow certain procedures for a reason, to protect homeowners,” Rodriguez said. “This includes complying with state laws that assure consumers a level of financial protection.” (Consumer Affairs, June 2006)

Be Wary of Certain Sales Tactic:

According to the National Consumer Law Center at consumerlaw.org, unscrupulous contractors mostly target senior citizens. Do not fall into the trap of the following sales tactics that take advantage of homeowners:

• “Bait and Switch” – offers low prices for installed items like windows and home siding, and then tells the homeowner the item is out of stock and can only be replaced with a high-priced substitute.

• Misrepresent the urgency of a needed repair.

• Claim the item is more expensive than advertised because it has to be “custom made” to fit the home.

• Misrepresent that the consumer is receiving a discount because the home is selected to model the repair when, in reality, the consumer is paying market price or more.

• Misrepresent the energy savings, health benefits and value added to the home.

• Misrepresent the terms on which financing is likely to be arranged.

Practices to Follow for Finding the Right Contractor:

If you hire a contractor with a license and a good reputation (such as the Home Remodelers Group®), you are guaranteed to avoid unfinished work, financial wrongdoing and fraud.

The National Consumer Law Center has a list of suggestions for homeowners looking for a home improvement company:

• Do not hire an unknown contractor that solicits business by knocking on your door. Deal with companies recommended by friends or reputable building supply stores.

• Before agreeing to hire any home improvement contractor, get a second estimate for the same work from another contractor.

• Get references for the contractor and speak to those references. Ask about satisfaction and any problems that arose.

• Look at other work performed by the same contractor.

• Many states require contractors to be licensed and/or bonded. Check with the state licensing body to see if the contractor you are considering is licensed.

• Get a written contract describing explicit specifications of the work, the price (including details of any financing or credit terms), the responsibility for cleaning up, and the hourly rate for any added work. Ask for guarantees and other promises to be made in writing.

• If the written documents are different from oral promises, do not sign them.

• A 3-day right-to-cancel applies to door-to-door sales and home improvement loans even after the papers have been signed.

• Do not allow a contractor to begin work until financial arrangements to pay for the work are complete.

• Do not agree to pay the final payment until the project is finished.

• Do not consolidate other debts with a home improvement loan.

• If problems with a contractor or home improvement lender arise, get help from a lawyer or housing counselor immediately.

Take Care of Your Home:

The Home Remodelers Group® has been in business since 1964 and there is a simple reason for our longevity. We take great pride in helping our customers beautify their homes, we enjoy our work and we want our customers to be happy with their homes. The Home Remodelers Goup® is licensed and insured so you can feel secure when working with us. Before you sign any contract, we provide a written estimate and detailed information on the scope of the project. You’ll know exactly what you are getting before we do anything. We do this to provide our customers with peace of mind. We have survived in this business because we focus on customer satisfaction, attention to customer service and offer quality products at a fair price.

Think of your home like a child that needs a doctor. You would take your child to a licensed and professional doctor, not someone that comes to your door. So make sure your home receives the care it deserves by hiring experienced and well-accredited home improvement professionals.

For more information visit http://www.homeremodelersgroup.com/?source=articles

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Federal Home Improvement Grants, how do they work, how do you apply?
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Home Repairs – Taking Care of Your Property!

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:03:50 +0000

Are you in need of some serious home repairs? Do you intend to hire a professional company to take care of all the problems in your home? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then perhaps you might be interested to keep on reading and find out more about the services offered by specialized companies in the field. Not only will they resolve all the problems but also provide further home maintenance to guarantee no additional complications.

The Internet is filled with companies that offer home repairs and similar services. With a little bit of research, one can find a team of specialists with years of experience in the field and request their assistance. Some of the home repairs are simple, such as replacing leaky faucets and taking care of the plumbing, others are a little bit more complicated, requiring the patching of holes (plastering, dry wall). These experts can also be called in case you need emergency home repairs, being ready to provide professional help whenever you need them.

In order to reduce the number of repairs that your home will undergo, it is for the best that you resort to a team of specialists and allow them to perform periodic maintenance. Thus, they will inspect your property and ensure that everything functions just fine, reducing problems that may appear in the future. As for home repairs, they can deal with both interior and exterior fixings. We are talking about stucco, plastering, diamond finishing and dry wall. The list of services, as you can see, is diverse, continuing with patching and various repairs.

The services offered by a company specialized in home repairs might also include the outdoors. Thus, you can expect to be provided assistance with roof repairs and replacements, creating patio enclosures and hurricane shutters. The experience accumulated throughout the years makes any repair job pleasant and easy to accomplish. They can take care of the roof, repairing and inspecting it on a regular basis. The experts in home repairs can help you with remodeling and renovations as well. Discuss with them about bathroom designs, choose kitchen cabinets and repair appliances. Home repairs often concentrate on designs, materials used, plus walls and floors repairing. Among the services offered, there is the repairing of kitchen faucets, bathroom toilet and blocked drain pipes.

Stucco is a material often used for home repairs, applied as thin layer on walls and ceilings. Having decorative purposes, one can notice how this high-quality material improves the appeal of other materials used in construction (concrete). Plastering also falls into the category of home repairs, just like using dry wall. The last offers the advantage of increased thermal resistance, acting at the same time as a good protection against fire.

People are not only interested in home repairs. They also need the assistance of a mold removal company, requesting the services of these specialists to remove fungus from their homes. A team of experts will arrive to the property in question and assess the problem, suggesting the causes of mold and elimination methods. It is important to understand that mold can cause powerful allergies, particularly in persons who are usually allergic. It has been proved that inhaling the spores of the mold can even lead to asthma and rhinitis. Thus, one can certainly need the help of a mold removal company.

Mold often grows on building materials, its developments being sustained by a constant source of water and/or humidity. If floor materials such as concrete have been recently applied and have not dried completely, there is a high chance for mold to appear. The mold removal company will take care to remove all the causes of the mold, such as leaky roofs and faucets, fixing all problems related to plumbing. They make samples in order to assess the severity of the situation. The clean up process is not complicated, involving both the elimination of the mold and of all the materials affected by the mold. The mold removal company will use several vacuums to get rid of the mold while wearing protective equipment.

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