Now, this left me with no more sources for estimates and I was growing impatient but a friend of mine suggested to me a hotline that has been around for the last several years, it is the Connecticut Homeowner Hotline based in West Haven, Ct. and they have pre-screened, licensed, and fully insured contractors that provide any type of service needed by homeowners. My friend told me that she had them do a roof for her and several plumbing and electrical projects and they were marvelous and reasonable but not dirt cheap. This did not bother me hearing that they weren’t the least expensive as I believe, you get what you pay for and if you go with the lowest estimate the contractor may be using inferior quality supplies or they may be skipping a process, which in the long run might be a factor for something to go wrong.
They had one of the network contractors come to my home, the two gentlemen that came in were wonderful and I was at ease with both of them. They treated me with respect, listened to every word I said concerning my preferences, they offered suggestions, had samples and it was a very nice experience after going through what I had previously with the other contractors.
The woman that operates the network is a woman, who has had bad experiences with contractors and was tired of the rudeness, some doing inferior work and even some taking a down payment and then just leaving without finishing the job at all.. It wa her idea to screen the backgrounds of all the independent contractors that would be invited into the network and they would be time tested for reliability, customer consideration and workmanship. When I spoke to her she explained it was a difficult process of finding contractors that really have the wants and needs of the customer in mind and not just what they were getting out of it. She went on to say that after having as many as sixty contractors, she is down to about fifteen capable, honest, loyal, punctual, and skilled contractors that have stood that test time that was mentioned earlier.
