GN - Did you see that 10 trusses need to be replaced? The roof is coming off I think.

I am lost here as the RIGHT way to approach an addition is to hire the architect to do an initial design for bidding. You provide the contractors with the designs so they have a very clear understanding of what you want done. Then select the contractor and then hire architect to provide plans including mechanicals etc. Then the contractor submits for permits. WHY WHY WHY do you think a contractor should do the design work??

Even if you are just fixing your roof you should have a structural engineer review and possibly draw up the requirements.

When the tree fell on my house year before last, the insurance adjuster had me get bids for the repairs (roof, siding, gutters, and porch post & slab). He would not give me a figure that they were willing to pay. One of the contractors told me that they were all pretty much aware of what insurance would pay, based on past experience, and sure enough the bids were all within a hundred or so dollars of each other.

There was one company that refused to give me a bid unless I committed to hire them. I thanked him for stopping by but we wouldn't be working together.

Just as Susan thought of doing, I decided to have some other changes made, although not as extensive or as complicated as a second story - while the siding & roof were being replaced. The contractor quoted those parts separately, taking into account that the siding/roof components were being taken care of by the insurance company. He seemed to be familiar with doing such a thing, and it all went smoothly (except for the issues with the concrete sub and his apparently hired off the street crew)

ETA: the insurance company paid the contractor directly; I had no contact with the funds. So it seems that practices vary either with the insurance company, or region, or both.

Insurance will pay to get your house back to the way it was, not to add a bathroom, etc. You only get what you had (a bit newer probably, than what you had, since its new and not old). Once you get things back to normal, then if you want to change things, you get estimates on your own to do what you want, and you pay on your own. If you have a mortgage on the house, the mortgage company will want all the repairs done to protect their interest. Most checks from insurance are made out to both the homeowner and the mortgage company. If you do not have a mortgage, then of course, the check will be made out to you as the home owner.

Wow that was a lot of damage. Hoping everyone is safe and that it was only the house. Everyone has given you some great advice. I would say when you hire someone to work on your house be it a renovation (and or insurance repair) keep in mind it is a partnership. You want to feel comfortable with the person in your home and working with you every day. Imagine them living with you. If you are having difficulty with the person before you pay them, that is a red flag. Make sure it is someone you trust to work on your home. Even if it means you pay a little more to get the service and quality you want. I have a link that helped me make my choice in which contractor to use... Good luck on your home repairs and I hope it works out for your budget to add a bathroom etc.

10 tests for you and your contractor

I don't see any trusses I doubt this house would have trusses...looks like conventional framing and all I could see some debris on the roof it doesn't look like there is to much damage and even the ridge looks straight. By the look on the inside it looks like a few rafters took a good hit and that is the minimal damage you see on the inside probably from the ceiling joists when shock occurred.

Hard to tell from this picture but it looks like Suzanne got very lucky and the main tree trunk rolled off her house if not missed all together and only branches hit the roof... If it was a direct hit by a tree like that, most likely it would crushed the roof and caused some damage to the main house as well.

Many variables with insurance coverage and payments. Does your policy include payment for upgrades to current codes? Does your policy include replacement cost or depreciated cost? These are usually riders to standard policies.

deb s:

Your approach couldn't be more wrong. Architects and engineers are subs on jobs like these. If you have a vacant lot and want someone to draw your vision within budget your approach would be more suitable.

On a job like this, you want a contractor who has done this type of thing many times previously. He knows the local codes, inspectors, what's allowed, what isn't, but most importantly, what's the most cost effective solution. Engineers and architects just don't have their finger on the ever-changing pulse of the local building community as he does.

I've seen time and again where engineers give the mathematically correct but impractical answer.

When your heart beats funny, you don't go to a cardiologist first, you go to your GP. She may tell you to stop drinking caffeine or she may make a referral to a cardiologist. Same thing here.

when ... someone says they are getting 3 bids we get out of the sand box and go play some where else.

Wow. I get along pretty well with most people, but if a contractor told me that, my response would be "Thanks. We're done here. You can leave now.."

As I said before, it's great to hear that you already have all the work you can handle. It'll be interesting to see how closely you hold to that policy when the economy cools down, and you have lots more spare time to sit at home and watch your bank balance decline..

DavidR:

If I can' sell you my value, I don't deserve your work. No bidding for me. I'm plenty busy because I'm good at sales.

Much better to hear "Thanks. We're done here. You can leave now.." BEFORE I invest 12 hours into you.

Much better to hear "Thanks. We're done here. You can leave now.." BEFORE I invest 12 hours into you.

Sure. I'm fine with that. Neither of us wastes time that way.

never pay for anything that you didn't agree to prior to the work being done. state that up front to anyone who comes to you and stick to your guns on that.

Time spent bidding is part of doing business, the contractor on his own choose to put in that time, not you.

Anyone who seems unusual at the outset with their requests or issues will be the same way all the way through a job. Don't hire that unless you want more of the same. If it seems like BS, it probably is!

One thing I think plays into this is the "HGTV" effect. Consumers see these amazing transformations at a very low cost and done in weeks. The reality is vastly different. We see if constantly with pricing they see on television and the actual cost. The confusion this creates is incredible. I agree with all of the pros above that you cannot get a 2nd floor addition for anything under $100k. If you find someone willing to come in below that I would be highly skeptical. Good luck with the insurance and repair work on the damage.

"when ...someone says they are getting 3 bids we get out of the sand box and go play some where else."

I'm a bit shocked at that^^ attitude. Frankly, I have been ripped off by incompetent tradesmen so many times that I now make sure I learn how to do everything myself before I would trust ANY contractor to even bid the work. I hate that the industry has become this tainted with incompetents and scammers, but it is simply a fact. You folks that think you should be above anyone's magnifying glass, well, I guess you have plenty of work from people that don't care about throwing good dollars after bad. I suppose that that's one way to get on well - just don't do work for anyone that has to be concerned about costs. :-/

I think the point is that the "three bids" thing only tells you who's the cheapest, not who's the best. Both times we built, we relied on the reputation of the builders we used.

I agree that there are a lot of problems in the industry, but perhaps if more people spent more time comparing the qualifications and work of the people they're hiring rather than how much they charge, it would be a step in the right direction.

When we did our first major reno...I had completely unrealistic numbers. It took getting three estimates to make it clear that we would have to up our budget to get what we want. Even with this current project...our contractor came in way higher than we anticipated, so even though I love him, we had a budget to hit, so I had to see what the other options were. Turned out we were able to meet in the middle, and we are both happy to be working together again.
We have spent over almost 200k with our contractor’s firm over the last 10 years, he would have missed out on all of that business if he wasn’t willing to compete with bids. That might not be a huge loss to some, but I can tell you, if it were my business I would take the chance and make a bid.

Getting multiple bids is the only way to compare the Kind of service you are trying to get! Just because someone says they are getting multiple bids is NO reason to assume that they are looking for the cheapest one. I want to meet, discuss, and yes get SOME idea of cost, before I make a decision on who will be doing the work.

Its absurd to think that a homeowner can make this decision without doing this basic process.

Having worked through an insurance co to build a house, I can say that the insurance adjuster's estimate is most likely to underestimate the scope of the job. I would think they might adjust more than $15k.

I was also in the situation of being a novice, and having no idea what realistic costs were (although I knew WAY better than to think that reality TV was real -- having lived in SoCal, I could tell that the numbers on some of those buy & flip shows are just being pulled out of a hat)

But having dealt with roofers, handymen, window replacement, and other usual house maintenance, I was familiar with the practice of some to have higher estimates for the single woman, or to bid much higher if they didn't really want to take on the job (instead of just saying so), or to claim that this or that extra work was needed when it wasn't, and so on.

So I did get referrals, checked references, , and called several (not just 3) to discuss the job and pricing. I ended up with a contractor whose crew wasn't completely perfect, but gave value for the price and gave me a satisfactory completed project within my budget -- and close to 10K less than several had quoted.

Suzanne, was this damage from the storm on the 22nd? I seem to recall you’re by the Chesapeake bay.

Suzanne-

omg,omg, omg

The most important thing is that you and your family were not hurt.

So even when all the rest of this construction and repair stuff is making you crazy, just keep saying to yourself thank goodness no one got hurt!!

^^Absolutely!

"Getting multiple bids is the only way to compare the Kind of service you are trying to get!"

Relying on bids alone tells you zero about the quality of service you're going to get. Knowing whether the guy has appropriate trade qualifications (apprenticeship, red seal certificate, Master Builders licence etc) and a record of doing quality work is far more important in my book.

All of that you are saying - that goes along with getting the bids!! Of COURSE you do that research first! That is just the FIRST part of it. But I'd never hire ANYONE on just a reputation - been there done that!!

@jmm You get more than a bid out of the experience -- you get to see how each contractor thinks about the project, interacts with you, suggests different solutions, and so forth. That can tell you a LOT about which one would be the right fit for your project. It's not all about the paper bid.

I guess I operate differently, maybe because I've lived for about 15 years in smaller towns, where word of mouth matters. If I were to find a Joseph Corlett-type contractor, I would simply get an estimate from him, and if it was within my budget, I'd go with it. I wouldn't shop around for bids from guys I didn't know and who might not have his skill set. I do in fact have a couple of tradesmen/companies that I would and do automatically go to for anything I want done in their areas of expertise and I certainly don't ask for other bids in those cases.

But my point really was, the "three bid" system seems to be a be-all and end-all for a lot of people who do not in fact check credentials of the bidders, and they get into a lot of trouble that way. If people were really doing the checks they should be doing, the shonky guys would be drummed out of the industry.

If getting three bids is so great, why don't parents do it when their kids are sick?

Joseph - ridiculous comparison. You are no longer trying to help, but you and some others are chest-thumping and rather belittling. Please stop.

"I guess I operate differently, maybe because I've lived for about 15 years in smaller towns, where word of mouth matters. If I were to find a Joseph Corlett-type contractor, "

I've had a contractor that had great word-of-mouth and was a near-disaster. So no, I will not EVER just go by that.

" If people were really doing the checks they should be doing, the shonky guys would be drummed out of the industry. "

If ONLY!! But they don't. So there are a TON of shysters out there.

Joe that is absurd and you know it.

Chessie - how reliable word of mouth is depends on who's doing the talking. ;)

I very much agree with Chessie. We talked to 4 contractors for our very large extremely expensive project... all were referred to us. Of the 4 we only managed to get bids from 3 of them. We did not go with the lowest. We went with the contractor who gave us the most detailed bid in a timely responsible fashion and made us feel comfortable and excited about the upcoming project.. It was important to get a chance to interact with them and see how they worked. We would up having a really great experience. I don't know how you can be expected to blindly hire contractors without any interaction.

Btw, if anyone talked down to me or argued with me in the like that guy did with the OP, it would be the last time we talked. As a woman, it was extra important that I interacted with the contractors and designers a lot during the interviewing/bidding process since I my husband was not that involved. The one contractor kept talking to my husband not me... even when it was clear that I was the one who was answering all his questions (they gave us an FU price, so maybe they didn't like the fact that it was me and not my husband with all the answers... I wouldn't have hired them regardless).

@Jmm, couldn't agree with you more and even if you not from a small town, most reputable contractors work in a close vicinity to their home base.

As an example, I been doing remodeling in a 10-12 mile area covering 5 adjoining towns since I'm in business and I don't take any jobs beyond that. There about 5-6 reputable contractors who work the same towns for as long as I have, we all know each other and have a good relationship and help each other out when needed and we all have impeccable reputations.

The funny thing is, all this time we never got calls for the same job. They get recommendations from their clients and I get recommendations from my clients. Sometimes we end up with dumpsters on the adjoining driveways.

@Robin, the contractor you selected most likely he is working your area for a very long time and others are not so much being local and the lowest estimate most likely was an attempt to get a foot in the door with hopes to make it up along the way... because when it comes to a " very large extremely expensive projects" as you say, I cannot imagine someone coming in with a low and not so much detailed proposal, that should be a red flag right away.

Some jumping on Joe for no reason if you think about it.

He is a reputable contractor in his area like most Pro's here his work probably involves local municipalities and his workmanship comes highly recommended by his previous clients, so when someone calls him based on the recommendation 98% of the time he will be doing that job, same as it would be in my case.

When he gets a bunch of calls he has an idea which call to answer and which to brush it off because in our industry there are lots of "tire-kickers"... it's people who going to question you about everything and act as they are serious to set up a deal but in reality they have no intentions of doing that, some you wont hear back from them as the time to do something approaches or at the last minute they decide not to do anything... Frankly put they're "the biggest time wasters for any type of business".

After many years in business Pro's learn how to weed them out and after a certain period of time you basically come to a point where you can afford to chose who you want to work for and who you pass by. Period.

So there is no need to judge Joe and the way he does his business, unless you in the business yourself.

You have to understand that when you a homeowner and you have a fair size remodeling done or a few of them during the course of your home-ownership, you will meet 5-8 contractors during your entire ownership of your home.

You might have some bad experiences with them, some experiences might be some-what good, and some will be excellent... It's not costing you anything when you meeting contractors except a few minutes of your time and they come to see you which is perfectly fine.

When you in the business, you get on the average 10-15 calls a month (not counting from recommendations by previous customers and I don't advertise anywhere, never did), every free estimate you provide in good faith, on the average it will cost you min $50 minimum depending on the project size not to mention the time you invest.

If you in business long enough and you "weed" through incoming calls, you will go out and see 2-3 customers out of 10-15 and you will land a few if you lucky. Calls which come from a recommendation, you hear 2 sentences "you came highly recommended" and "when can you start"

That said, if you don't know how weed your calls you will end up running around like a chicken with no head, giving out advise and lose money every day, and land nothing... most Pro's did plenty of that when starting out and at certain point you get the picture...but we only human and at times we also miss a red flag or two depending on the time of day :-).

Good luck to all!

This is why a huge majority of Pros charge for a detailed bid. Lookie Loos wanting free work that they haven’t bothered to do or have done. There is no free lunch. Especially if there is zero initial design work laying out scope and materials. You’re asking for a LOT of free work. Tom Reber bid style works. You get ballpark for free, on the phone to weed out tire kickers and looney tunes budgets. https://thecontractorfight.com/about/

You call, and want a job done, and send some pics, and get a 100-150K range ballpark. The next step is to pay to narrow that down to 137K with a real bid. Or to move on to a too hungry someone who will lie to you and tell you 75K with a bunch of made up numbers that have no relation to anything you actually want.

Read Sophies post below. In this busy climate, getting a good contractor means being a good customer.

They are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. That’s exactly what talking to a contractor SHOULD be. It’s a job interview for BOTH. You look at past work, & the company culture. You look at prices for past work, and their company reputation for compensation. You decide if you’d be a personal fit for work style. It’s not about who will take the IT director job for 50K less than all the other companies are paying. Surprisingly, most companies understand that they are going to get very very low quality employees if they try to control the bottom line through low compensation. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5332686/10-tests-for-you-and-your-contractor-s-first-meeting

You all are missing the point that this was more than she was able to handle on her own - she admitted it. I would bet a lot of people would be in her same position. She wasn’t expecting her house to get smashed. She likely had no time to plan out how she would approach this - she needed help in a hurry.

I really don’t think the belittling of people who are not “Pros” is necessary. Beyond giving clear, helpful advice, I don’t think others care about how you run your business - this not about “you.”

GreenDesigns that was a helpful link. I was not directing my post at you.

@Cindy, I don't think anyone is belittling her, there been only a few explanations why the company who's proposal was submitted to the insurance company and who worked out all the details and got it aproved had a reason to be upset.

The main reason for the post was " Contractor upset that he has time into the estimate" but it became clear his proposal was accepted, submitted and got aproved.

Not to mention it sounded more like the OP tried to get the 2nd story addition included in the same claim (seen someone try that not on one occasion.i,e could you include extras, could you cover deductibles, etc) but only one contractor said the repair and addition would be separated and handled only the insurance claim.

Also I never seen anyone sending 3-4 proposals to insurance company, they're not the ones to make a decision which one to chose (of course it would be the lowest one).

That said, it seems like some trying to play-down Joe's comments because the way he handles his business and walks away when he feels its a waste of time... Just saying.

The post isn’t about Joe and his business philosophy, or how successful (or unsuccessful) any of the pros are. Just stop.

The link by GreenDesign was helpful and it’s unfortunate that was not posted earlier.

When our basement flooded last summer my insurance adjuster told me to get three bids, why I don't know because they already had in mind the company they'd be paying to do the work (it was one of the companies they told me to get a bid from). The guys there every day doing much of the work were awesome, can't say enough good things about them. The GC/project manager assigned to us was...not. When the water heater he'd just hooked back up earlier in the afternoon turned into a literal geyser, he didn't even answer his phone until the workers called him a couple times from our house while they worked to remove the small lake in the basement and had another guy bring over a few more of those huge fans. Understandably I was freaking the heck out, and at least the workers were willing to come over to the house (by this time it was close to 6pm and they had probably been on the drive home when I called them completely hysterical!)...The GC/project manager left us without a water heater all weekend, but at least the crew got the place dry and cleaned up.

I guess I should also be grateful that we have homeowners insurance and that they covered the initial water problem and the subsequent repairs/restoration/reno work.

When our house burned down the insurance adjuster did not ask us to get three bids to rebuild it. I'm not sure that's standard practice. We have filed several other claims over the years on our residence as well as rentals. I don't ever recall being asked to get three bids. This is in CA.

SuzyQ I also never heard of that and this in NJ.

The adjuster comes out and send the homeowner a written breakdown of what insurance will cover. Homeowner gets a few estimates, picks one and sends it to the insurance company... Insurance company adjuster contacts the contractor and they discuss the estimate, sometimes they just approve the proposal.

Sending them 3 proposals to chose one makes no sense.

No, you're the one that has added no value to the thread. Why pick on a useful contributor?

Joseph Corlett, LLC - When your kid is sick you take them to the pediatrician who has been taking care of your kid since birth. There is a relationship built on trust.

If you have done work for me in the past and were honest and fair, didn't come in with one price and jerk me around 1/2 way through the process, you will have earned my trust and I will hire you again.

If I have not worked with you and you are unwilling to give me a written estimate that I can compare with 2 or 3 other professionals I have nothing on which to judge your competence or worth. When you provide the bid and explain to me what you are going to do to earn my business I can judge that against the other bids.

If there are differences in the bids I can make phone calls, ask questions, search the internet, post the information on houzz and get good, honest, unbiased information. If you have tried to sell me a bag of goods I will know it, if you tried to low-ball the bid and aren't in the same ballpark as the other bids I am going to question why you can do it for so much less than the next guy.

When people just hire someone without educating themselves thoroughly and post their disasters on Houzz they are beaten up by the pros for hiring the first person they came across or not getting the right information before the job started, for not getting the right professional.

Make a choice, either it is buyer beware and we need to arm ourselves with as much information as we can gather and sift through the thousands of unscrupulous pros or the Pros should act as professionals and we should expect professional results and be advised by the other pros not to pay for sub par work. This never happens - if you hire someone and they do something wrong we are told pay him and hire someone else to do the job right and understand that this is a lesson learned.

You guys can't have it both ways and at this point most of us who are not pros can't trust that just because someone says they are a pro that they will do even the minimal necessary to do the job right and not try to rip us off at every corner.

I can't afford to have my home repaired and then have to hire someone else to come clean up the mess the first guy left. I can't afford to pay out more than a job is worth. I am responsible for spending my money in the most responsible way possible and that is not by blinding trusting that you will do a good job.

Suzanne Parker ,

IMO you should get several bids for the repair work and for the combined renovation and repair work. The insurance company should pay out the amount that it will cost to repair your home, but it does not make much sense to repair a wall and then do a renovation that is going to have that repaired wall cut open or moved.

It is not about getting the lowest bid, it is about interviewing the contractors and educating yourself at the same time. Check them out thoroughly, try to get bids from people recommended by friends, neighbors, co-workers. Trust your gut. If the contractor is acting like a bully before he gets your money, don't expect him to turn into a Teddy Bear when he has your money. If anything feels off run, don't walk, run away as fast as your can.

When you have 3 bids that feel good, post the differences on Houzz and ask for advice. There are some really good people on this forum who will help you make a good decision.

The adjuster worked with us and the company that performed the work mostly by phone. We're in Nebraska. We didn't have to vacate the premises while the basement went through water mitigation/remediation (to remove what was obviously damaged while keeping say, the drywall from sucking up the water any further up the walls), nor during the work restoring everything back to the condition it was in before, some things were new like the water heater part and the vanity in the basement bathroom. With the labor shortage and the severe weather/storms in the Southeast, we were just glad that we got it fixed relatively quickly and that the damage wasn't total.

Jen H,

" When you have 3 bids that feel good, post the differences on Houzz and ask for advice. There are some really good people on this forum who will help you make a good decision. "

If you have 3 bids that feel good and you cannot make a decision, how you figure anyone can help someone make a decision online, without knowing anything about these contractors, not knowing anything about pricing in the region, and have 100 "really good people" suggesting who to go with that they like ... How you expect the OP make a decision after 100 diffrent opinions, I think they will be more confused and lost. This just doesn't make any sense and I mean that in a logical way.

Something you said in your previous post

" When your kid is sick you take them to the pediatrician who has been taking care of your kid since birth. There is a relationship built on trust. "

Sooner or later the kid will have to see a different doctor, or you might move to a different town 30 miles away, or a different state...

You not gonna run around interviewing doctors to see who you can trust or feel comfortable with, while your kid (god forbid) runs a fever.

When you move to a new location you will look for a local reputable doctor, or someone who is highly recommended and you will make an appointment and you will place your trust in his/her hands.

That said, when you have a contractor who been doing work for you for years and you trust him, same as the doctor you already have a relationship built on trust and you don't need 3-5 estimates.

Not to mention a reputable contractor, a mechanic, or a doctor who provides service to a local community or in the vicinity for years if not generations, the chances him/her screwing someone are slim or none because they have the reputation in the community which is built on trust.

" If I have not worked with you and you are unwilling to give me a written estimate that I can compare with 2 or 3 other professionals I have nothing on which to judge your competence or worth."

This should be cut and dry and already been discussed and a point was made...

When that happens, it's obvious the contractor don't need you to judge him on his competence or worth, he knows perfectly well what he is capable of and most likely his reputation speaks for itself... There could be plenty of other reasons why they wouldn't do that, to name a few:

• they don't participate in bidding practices
• or they have plenty of work,
• or there is something they didn't like about your approach, or your demeanor, etc

It could be many other reasons...don't forget, not only the customer chooses who they hire, some contractors also look for red flags when it comes to customers and it is up to them who they want to work and which jobs they want to take on.

Why you think finding a good contractor nowadays its a task of it's own same as finding a good doctor who actually cares about you and not the appointment fee.

Good luck

"There is a relationship built on trust."

Thanks for making my point. If I can't earn your trust, I don't deserve your business. If my reputation has no value to you, I have nothing for you.

Just to clarify for those who haven't heard of such a practice:

My insurance adjuster did come to the house to see the damage. He did tell me to get several estimates from different contractors for the repairs and to forward them to him. He did NOT have a preferred contractor and he did NOT CHOOSE the contractor based on the estimates. The choice of contractor was left to me, the contract was signed by me, but the financials were handled by the adjuster and the contractor.

I've no idea why this was the process. I've no complaints about the coverage -- everything was taken care of.

Joseph Corlett,

The time to find a pediatrician (or your own GP) is not when you are sick. It is also not uncommon for parents to interview doctors before selecting one. I interviewed 3 when I moved from California to Pennsylvania before selecting one.

https://www.thebump.com/a/how-do-i-find-a-good-pediatrician

https://www.webmd.com/baby/shopping-for-a-pediatrician#1

Most people don't establish a relationship with a GC until they buy a fixer, have damage to their property or decide to update their home. You may only do this half a dozen times in a lifetime.

http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/homerepair_construction.html

I am renovating my home. Most jobs I can do myself, but I don't do any major electrical or plumbing work.

I had three plumbers bid for the work that I needed to have done over the next two years. One of the more urgent needs was to have the water from my dehumidifier in the basement auto drain so I wouldn't have to carry the bucket up stairs every day.

Plumber 1 was the lowest bid, $ 4k but he didn't have all of the repairs/fixes that I requested quoted in the bid and he told me that to run gas to my kitchen and laundry he would just run off the line that goes to my gas fireplace. (Heater and Flash water heater are both on the other side of the house, so the only line on the kitchen side of the house is the one to the fireplace.) Didn't price the auto drain of the dehumidifier.

Plumber 2 had was the highest bid. $3k higher than plumber 1, but included a new gas line from the main to the kitchen/laundry and had everything I requested listed on the bid. His bid also included $1000 to install a basement sink and pump so that the dehumidifier could drain into the sewer line.

Plumber 3 was the winner. Older gentleman, been in business for that past 40 years. Bid was $5k. He included all repairs requested on his quote, also said I needed a bigger line to the kitchen/laundry, but only had $40.00 to attach the dehumidifier to the pump that drains the condensation from the HVAC system.

The electrician I hired is someone who I have known for 40 years. He is a master electrician and quoted me $35.00 an hour (called it the friend and family discount rate). Figured I wouldn't get a better deal anywhere!

Plumber 3 was the winner. Older gentleman, been in business for that past 40 years.

I can't think of a time when I haven't been satisfied with work done by tradespeople who (1) were within about 10 years of retirement; and (2) had given up on dealing with younger assistants and decided to just work solo.

The best plumber I ever had was one like that. He even had a battery powered hand truck, so he could haul water heaters and other similar heavy items up and down steps without a helper. He's retired now, unfortunately.