Help a liberal remodel.
January 14, 2012 12:16 PM Subscribe
I need to find a general contractor near San Jose, CA that uses only union workers and will do a smallish residential project. I can get a list of them from various union websites, but there are virtually no Yelp or Angieslist reviews for these guys. How can I find someone good?
The union requirement is non-negotiable.
The union requirement is non-negotiable.
Response by poster: Because even a bad contractor could have some good references. At least with yelp et al they can't easily censor the bad references.
posted by jewzilla at 2:07 PM on January 14, 2012
posted by jewzilla at 2:07 PM on January 14, 2012
I'd start with the contractor list & then screen that list for union membership. Filter the list from sites like the BBB*, neighborhood list serve queries & plain old word of mouth recommendations from people you trust.
Once you have the vetted list down to about 3, interview them yourself. Whichever one you communicate best with is the one to go with.
Not all contractors are bad. And while it is true that with the sluggish economy, some will do/say what it takes to get the project. By the same token, a good contractor also screens their potential clients. High maintenance, micro managerial tendencies, or inability to build trust are all red flares that send good contractors out the door quickly.
*BBB is a better source for reputational info than Angie's List (or even CraigsList) b/c it's a non profit that has been around a long time. Angie's List is primarily for Angie's List: the paid membership requirement knocks a lot of legitimate reviews (good & bad) out from the get-go.
posted by yoga at 3:30 PM on January 14, 2012
Once you have the vetted list down to about 3, interview them yourself. Whichever one you communicate best with is the one to go with.
Not all contractors are bad. And while it is true that with the sluggish economy, some will do/say what it takes to get the project. By the same token, a good contractor also screens their potential clients. High maintenance, micro managerial tendencies, or inability to build trust are all red flares that send good contractors out the door quickly.
*BBB is a better source for reputational info than Angie's List (or even CraigsList) b/c it's a non profit that has been around a long time. Angie's List is primarily for Angie's List: the paid membership requirement knocks a lot of legitimate reviews (good & bad) out from the get-go.
posted by yoga at 3:30 PM on January 14, 2012
Have them come do quotes on the job. If you feel good about one, then check references to confirm. In my experience with contractors, you can tell when one is not being honest.
posted by COD at 3:33 PM on January 14, 2012
posted by COD at 3:33 PM on January 14, 2012
Unionized contractors work almost exclusively on big, heavily inspected jobs. Quality should not be an issue. If you have some kind of political requirement for union labor, you should have some people who can get you over to the building trades union hall. For better or worse unionized contractors are a kind of partnership between labor and management and the union hall can set you up with someone who can do the job even if it smaller than usual, as a favor to whoever is calling the shots making this project union to begin with... But expect to pay a lot.
posted by MattD at 4:39 PM on January 14, 2012
posted by MattD at 4:39 PM on January 14, 2012
Unionized contractors work almost exclusively on big, heavily inspected jobs.
I'm afraid this is likely to be true. Union workers, as you know, tend to get paid a lot better than their non-union counterparts. A general contractor working on a job large enough to use all union workers is probably angling at projects in the seven-figure range and up. You really need to get to that scale before you start attracting clients that are big enough to have union requirements of their own or simply clients that have projects large enough to be able to absorb the increased cost of union labor. Using union employees for a "smallish residential project" is probably so costly that it's simply not competitive.
So you may find that a developer uses union labor to build an entire subdivision, but I don't really hear about homeowners using union labor to do a kitchen or something like that. If all you're really concerned about is making sure your workers are adequately paid, you can do that yourself, but attracting organized labor for individual remodeling projects may not be doable.
posted by valkyryn at 6:41 AM on January 16, 2012
I'm afraid this is likely to be true. Union workers, as you know, tend to get paid a lot better than their non-union counterparts. A general contractor working on a job large enough to use all union workers is probably angling at projects in the seven-figure range and up. You really need to get to that scale before you start attracting clients that are big enough to have union requirements of their own or simply clients that have projects large enough to be able to absorb the increased cost of union labor. Using union employees for a "smallish residential project" is probably so costly that it's simply not competitive.
So you may find that a developer uses union labor to build an entire subdivision, but I don't really hear about homeowners using union labor to do a kitchen or something like that. If all you're really concerned about is making sure your workers are adequately paid, you can do that yourself, but attracting organized labor for individual remodeling projects may not be doable.
posted by valkyryn at 6:41 AM on January 16, 2012
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posted by dfriedman at 1:36 PM on January 14, 2012