How to Choose the Right Construction Company for Your Home Renovation

Choose a construction company the way a bank would: check the paper first, the track record second, and how well you get on third. In New York City much of the paper is public and can be checked in minutes. The ten checks below are in that order.

Check the paper

• The license. In New York City a contractor must have a Home Improvement Contractor license to do work that costs more than $200, and you can check its status by calling 311 or online (DCWP). Plumbers and electricians hold their own city licenses, which the Department of Buildings lets you look up along with any disciplinary record (NYC Buildings).
• Insurance. Ask for certificates of insurance. In a co-op or condo the building will ask for them anyway, with the building and its managing agent named on them.
• A written estimate. A home improvement contractor must give you one if you ask. Get more than one, and compare what each includes, not only the total.
• The contract. State law requires a home improvement contract to be in writing and signed by both sides. It must give the contractor’s name, address and license number, approximate start and completion dates, a description of the work and materials, and a schedule for any progress payments. You may cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing (General Business Law 771). Before you sign, the contractor must also tell you in writing which permits the work needs.
• The payment terms. The city’s consumer agency advises paying no more than 25 percent of the contract total upfront, and never paying in cash or without a contract. Later payments should follow completed stages of work.

Check the track record

• Experience with your kind of job. A kitchen in a co-op, a brownstone gut renovation and an office are different trades in practice. Ask what the company has done that resembles yours, in a building like yours.
• Reviews and references. Read reviews for detail, not for stars. Then speak to past clients. Did the job finish when promised? What went wrong, and how was it handled?
• Finished work. Photographs are a start. A completed project or a showroom you can walk through tells you more about fit and finish.

Check how you will work together

• Communication. Find out who your contact will be, how often you will hear from them, and how a change is priced and approved. The answer you want is a named person and written change orders.
• Your own judgment. A renovation can keep you and your builder in a working relationship for as long as six months. Choose a company you can talk to plainly, and trust the unease you feel if you cannot.

Red flags

• A large payment asked for upfront, or a request for cash.
• No license number, no written contract, or a contract with no dates.
• A promise that no permit is needed for work the city lists as filed work, such as rerouting gas pipes or moving a load-bearing wall.
• Pressure to sign today.
• No fixed business address in the city.
• A history of complaints that were never resolved.

Why the license matters

Hiring a licensed contractor also gives you a remedy. The city keeps a Trust Fund from which a consumer may be repaid when a licensed home improvement contractor does not complete the contracted job or owes the consumer money. The fund is there for dealings with licensed contractors.

Check us the same way

We would ask you to put us through the same list. Golden I Construction was established in New York City in 2005, and repeat assignments make up about 60 percent of our work in a year. Golden I Construction Inc holds Home Improvement Contractor license number 2019617-DCA, which you can look up as the first check describes, and we are insured. Our jobs start with a meeting about pricing, demolition, design and scheduling, and changes are reported in an itemized report that includes every change order you approved. The kinds of projects we take on are described under home renovation in NYC, how a job is run is on the design and build page, common questions are on the FAQs page, and you can reach us through the contact page. If you are also deciding whether you need a designer, see do I need an interior designer.

Questions people ask