We write all of our blogs to help guide you through the bathroom remodeling process, regardless of which company you hire for your bathroom project. When choosing a bathroom remodeling company, knowing what questions to ask can save you thousands of dollars in repairs down the road.
As you may have guessed, a salesperson’s job is to make sales. That means a salesperson spends their time learning how to sell a specific product. They keep their job by making sales, sometimes by any means necessary. This can cause a lot of problems when it comes time for the product to be installed because the salesperson may have made promises that are physically impossible to achieve.
Let’s face it, you wouldn’t expect a make-up artist to replace the transmission in your vehicle so how can you expect a salesperson to know how to properly install your bathroom.
The Salesperson’s Approach
Many bathroom remodeling companies have their own sales team. When you schedule an appointment for a bathroom evaluation, they will send a member of their sales team out to evaluate your bathroom project. The salesperson will do their best to sell you the product their company installs.
A great number of salespeople have never done any construction before, so they are not very experienced when it comes to actually renovating a bathroom. Often, a salesperson does not eat if they don’t make sales.
After the sale is complete, the company will order the parts necessary for your bathroom project.
The biggest problem with the salesperson approach is when it comes time to install your new bathroom. Since the salesperson may not have a clue about construction, the measurements for the new shower or bathtub can be severely inaccurate. That means the new bathroom parts could be the completely wrong size, resulting in the parts needing to be reordered.
Let us say the salesperson guaranteed the construction start date would be January 1st. The construction crew arrives on January 1st to begin construction. After removing the old parts of the bathroom, they discover the new parts are the wrong size and now they have to reorder the parts.
This means you may as well be starting from square one because your wait time for the bathroom part has been completely reset. Plus, your bathroom could be unusable until the new bathroom parts can be installed.
While the salesperson may have given an accurate start date, their inexperience in construction has resulted in an unsatisfactory customer experience. The best case for this scenario is the bathroom parts were the wrong size. The worst-case scenario can be as bad having to hire another company to finish the bathroom project. These kinds of issues can leave you with an unusable bathroom for months and can cost thousands more dollars.
The Bathroom Remodeler’s Approach
When you contact a bathroom remodeling company who doesn’t have salespeople, the person who gives you an estimate for your bathroom project is an experienced bathroom remodeler. They will look at your bathroom and see what kind of renovations can be done. Because they have built many bathrooms from scratch, they are familiar with how your house was built, what materials they will find behind your walls, where the load-bearing walls are, etc.
After hearing how you would like your bathroom updated, the bathroom remodeler will be able to give you an idea of the pricing for the various materials needed for your bathroom project.
For example, if you are wanting to remove a closet in your bathroom and install a spacious walk-in shower, the bathroom remodeler will be able to tell you if the closet has a load-bearing wall. Often, load-bearing walls are a lot more difficult to move and sometimes can damage the structural integrity of your house if they are moved.
An experienced bathroom remodeler will also know the size and extent of projects they are equipped to handle. If a project is too big for their installation crew, the bathroom remodeler can refer you to another bathroom expert who has the equipment to handle the scale of your bathroom renovation project. This means the right crew with the right equipment will be working on your project from day one.
The best bathroom remodeling companies are also licensed, bonded, and insured. This means you can rest easier knowing their installation crew has gone through extensive training and certification so your bathroom will be installed correctly. If a shower or bathtub is installed by someone who is not licensed, bonded, and insured, the manufacturer usually won’t honor their warranty. This could cost you thousands of dollars more than the original cost of your bathroom project.
Questions to Ask Bathroom Remodeling Companies
Prior to contacting a prospective bathroom remodeling company, check out their website and reviews. Are they licensed, bonded, and insured? Do they supply the services you are looking for in your area?
See how the company has treated their past clients. It is common to have a few unhappy clients, as it is impossible to make everyone happy. Look carefully at the reasons why the client was unhappy with their experience. Did the client make unreasonable expectations of the bathroom remodeling company? Has the client made other negative reviews of other companies with similar issues? Did the bathroom remodeling company completely drop the ball and deserve the negative review?
Now look at the positive reviews. How detailed are the reviews? If there are several reviews that are incredibly detailed about the client’s experience, this means the clients took the time to write the review. This also will give you a detailed account of what your experience with the bathroom remodeling company will be like.
If you are happy with what you have discovered so far, now it’s time to schedule an appointment for an estimate. Here are six questions to ask when booking your appointment:
- Does your company have a sales team?
This will let you know if the person coming to give you an estimate will be experienced enough to give you an accurate quote.
- Do you subcontract out your bathroom projects or does the company have their own crew?
A company that subcontracts out their work means there is limited to no quality control on the installation crew. This means you could have pretty much anyone installing your bathroom.
- Who will be coming out to my house for the appointment and what is his/her construction experience?
How the scheduler answers this question will help paint a picture of what your customer service will be like with this company.
- What kind of materials does your company install?
If you are looking for a tile bathroom and the company only installs acrylic, this might not be the company for you. Scheduling an appointment with a bathroom remodeler who installs more than one material can give you more options to choose from.
- Also, what size projects does your company handle?
Let’s say you want to have your bathroom completely stripped down to the studs and rebuilt with all new materials. It’s best to make sure the company can handle the scale of your project.
- How long does it usually take for construction to start?
Most licensed, bonded, and insured bathroom remodeling companies are booked out several months. The primary reason for the delay is due to company backlog. The type of materials you choose for your bathroom can affect the construction wait time as well.
Another reason can be because of the amount of clients who are waiting to have their bathroom installed. Since an experienced bathroom remodeler is familiar with how long it will take to get the parts you want and how long it will take the installation crew to install your new bathroom, they can give a more accurate construction start date.
The Appointment
You have successfully taken the first step to making your dream bathroom a reality. During your first appointment with the bathroom remodeling company, this is the time to ask all your questions about your bathroom project. Having a notebook or laptop for taking notes can be very helpful during your appointment. Any design ideas or photos of bathrooms you like will help the bathroom remodeler get a sense of what you are hoping to accomplish.
Asking about the company’s warranty will give you a better idea of what to expect from your new bathroom. The type of material you choose for your new bathroom will affect the amount of daily maintenance it requires. Although many bathroom materials are quite easy to keep clean, they don’t clean themselves. Improper maintenance of your new shower or bathtub can void the manufacturer warranty.
Remember, you are going to be using your bathroom way more often than the bathroom remodeler so what you like is important. If you don’t express your wants and needs of your new bathroom with the bathroom remodeler, they cannot build it for you.
Building Your Dream Bathroom
No two bathrooms are the same!
As an experienced bath remodeler, JDS Bath understands the value in listening to customer concerns. Although no two projects are the same, we have a general process that we typically follow to take you from dream to reality:
1. Give us a call
2. Presentation of options
3. Estimate
4. Answering any of your questions
5. Approval
6. Construction
7. Quality assurance checks
16408 Route 1, South Chesterfield, VA 23834 | 804-451-9673