Ask the Builder: Please Stop Hoping Your Contractor Is Doing the Job Right

Doing a bit of research before your contractors start working will increase your chances of getting the job done right significantly.

This concrete mason is doing an excellent job of placing and finishing the patio at my son’s house. No extra water was added to the concrete at the jobsite. Tim Carter/Tribune Content Agency/TNS

This column is all about misplaced hope. You can lose thousands of dollars, or even tens of thousands of dollars, if you make this mistake.

I do at least five short telephone consultations with homeowners each week. The common denominator in almost all of the calls is that the homeowner trusted that the contractor was going to do the job the right way.