Ask the Builder: How to Lose Lots of Your Money

The common denominator in every horrible encounter with contractors is misplaced trust.
Ask the Builder: How to Lose Lots of Your Money
This deck railing is not safe for small children. Would you know what to tell contractors to ensure the railing is safe? Tim Carter/Tribune Content Agency/TNS
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Each week, I extract homeowners just like you from horrible encounters with contractors. I do this via a short consultation phone or video call. The situations range from faulty roofing work and new cracked or spalling concrete to wet basements and shoddy tile work. The common denominator in every situation is misplaced trust. The homeowner trusted that the contractor would install this or that correctly. More often than not, they don’t.

Just days ago, I received the following email from a middle-aged woman who lives in the Pacific Northwest. She let me know immediately that her home improvement funds have been sucked dry. She’s now on her own and is using my DIY phone coaching services. The good news is that she’s figured out how to avoid nightmares in the future with an assist from me. Here’s what she wrote:

Tim Carter
Tim Carter
Author
Tim Carter is the founder of AsktheBuilder.com. He's an amateur radio operator and enjoys sending Morse code sitting at an actual telegrapher's desk. Carter lives in central New Hampshire with his wife, Kathy, and their dog, Willow. Subscribe to his FREE newsletter at AsktheBuilder.com. He now does livestreaming video M-F at 4 PM Eastern Time at youtube.com/askthebuilder. (C)2022 Tim Carter. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.