You have done it, you have found the house and place of your dreams, the house in which your children will grow up and in which you will create priceless memories, and the place where you will see your ideas flourish and where your business can finally start to grow, now only one thing is missing … reform. Very few people have good memories of the day they decided to carry out a renovation, most describe the months of work as an experience never to be repeated and comment that the results are far from what is desired, but all this can be avoided with the correct choice of the companies executing the reform.
If you have an architect, something mandatory in new construction, but optional in reform, then you should not worry about this issue. Architects can help and advise in the most objective and professional way with the choice of a construction company. What we always recommend doing is looking for several companies, at least three, and giving all the same plans and the same work items, in this way we can correctly compare between them. This work is usually carried out by the architect, if you have met an architect who says that he always works with the same construction company, be suspicious, it is advisable to always see several options.
Budget is probably the most obvious point to consider when comparing different companies. The budget is the tool that owners usually use to choose a contractor, usually the lowest price being the one that takes the work. But this is a very serious error for several reasons:
Not everyone is calculista the same. Unless you have an architect who has made plans and a quality report, each contractor will budget for very different reform. This means that the lowest budget does not have to be the cheapest, the reason that it is so low may be that the budgeted qualities are worse than those of its competitors.
Cheap is expensive. Everything has its fair price and in construction, it seems that we have forgotten about it since it is increasingly common to see ridiculous prices that do not correspond to the reality of a job well done. The painter who charges $ 3 per square meter and the one who charges $ 10 has nothing to do with each other, they will both paint the wall in the color you have indicated, but the quality of the finish and the execution of the same will differ greatly.
Estimates. It is not uncommon to find a price estimate in a construction company estimate, rather than a broken price. If you see that a price does not fit you because it is too low, it is likely that it is an estimate that aims to raise the budget once the work has begun. This is common to see in electricity items, with estimates of 10 outlets for a home that ends up having 80 or more.
If you cannot count on the advice of a professional to explain the budgets and you do not know anything about construction, then trust the most complete budget, the one that has the prices perfectly decomposed according to meters or units and that includes things that others have overlooked. It is also recommended that if you have several different budgets, you compare prices of the same item and if you see a noticeable difference between contractors, you ask them directly the reason for that price.