ISO A good , inexpensive contractor in NYC

JDmommy

Tue, Dec 02 2014, 6:35 pm

Hi I don't know if this is still relevant but I used James from JBJ concrete renovations and I was VERY happy. Do not use an Albanian guy named Bill (aka Billy), whose wife works as a med tech at a frum doctor's office, he is a ganav (my job dragged out for about 7 months and then finally I got the courage to tell him we were not happy and when he saw me bringing others for estimates Boruch H he left but not before he damaged my property (he wanted the rest of the money even though we didn't tile or do floors or paint yet---chutzpah)! ***Be wary of the cheaply priced estimate, I got plenty of those!!!***. These guys do it all the time, it's called the low-ball. Once you take them you are STUCK in many ways just like I was. I had to borrow 30k more to finish the job he started because he did so many mistakes and some things I couldn't fix (the plywood that went over subfloor is crooked and not glued down so it squeaks, bathroom walls uneven) because I didn't have the time or money to rip out all of his mistakes.

And this guy (Bill) was not super cheap because I hired an electrician and plumber separately (BH). Point is don't be fooled and make a budget (listing tiles, moldings, doors, and how much you can spend). Expect to go out of budget (for instance one faucet didn't come with the rough in (the plumbing connection) so I had to pay extra, and the drain assembly for the bath tub, and a lot of little things that you won't even think of. It's like when you get your cc statement and you think "what, how can it be 1K?" And when you add $60 here and $130 there and $20 here it all ADDS UP and it is a lot of money.

So my advice is 1) plan a budget, listing all income sources and ways to pay off any incurred debt, and 2) get estimates form at least 3 recommended GC's. I must have interviewed almost 20 different ones because after I got burned with Bill, it took us nearly 4 months to hire someone (I was very very nervous to fall in again). And recommendations are good but seeing is believing. Hope this helps!