When you want to do a project for your home and you realize
you may need to hire someone to help you or to do the whole project, be sure
you check out their qualifications on the Construction Contractors Board, or
CCB website and make sure they are licensed and insured contractors.
In this economy, we all have resorted to cutting costs.
There are many “Do-it-yourselfers” that are offering to help with odd jobs for
money. Beware if you are having someone like this work on your property. In our
industry, we are seeing the impact of these decisions for our customers. In one
instance, an electrical problem was “fixed” by a handyman instead of an
electrician. The wires were crossed to the water heater and it shorted out. The
customer now had to replace the water heater. Another customer hired a person
to work on the roof. No permit was taken out. The inspector caught the
unauthorized work, so a fine was issued. And the roof leaked, causing damage to
the carpet and drywall. Again, the amount of money saved was much less than the
cost to repair the damage caused by shoddy, unlicensed work that was not
inspected.
The CCB website, www.oregon.gov/ccb
, where contractors are registered, both licensed and unlicensed. It is an
excellent resource for checking on a contractor you have considered working
with. They will let you know what licenses the contractor holds and how many
complaints, if any, have been lodged against the contractor. It also shows whether
the contractor has liability insurance, and workers compensation insurance.
Hiring a contractor with insurance protects you in the event of a worker being
injured on your property (falling or cutting themselves) and it protects you in
the event something is damaged during the process of the work being done (for
instance a tree trimmer accidently dropping a limb on a car).
At Servco, we get permits when required. We welcome the
inspectors to come to our job sites. We strive to develop a good working
relationship with the inspectors in our area. We discuss changes to codes, how
they will affect our work and when they are going to be implemented. This helps
us to make sure that those changes are not a surprise to us or to our
customers. We are also licensed, bonded and insured. This protects both our
customers and us.
