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Need some Home Contractor recommendations (siding, handyman)


K D

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I'm in need of some help at my rental house in Buffalo and wanted to see if anyone could recommend some contractors that won't try and rip me off!

 

I got some quotes on vinyl siding and it was absolutely outrageous. I'm not spending 1/4th the cost of the house just on siding. I would be interested in buying the materials at MIRIS or LENCO and then paying someone the labor to install it. If it's only 1 or 2 guys I'm fine with them doing it in sections if they can't finish it all at once. I don't live there so I don't mind.

 

I'm also looking for a general contractor/handyman that can help out with the things I can't figure out or don't have the time to fix. Anyone know an honest guy that knows his stuff that either does this for a job or is just looking to make some extra cash under the table?

 

Looking for the TBD hookup. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks :)

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Do you want to maximize your return?

I'm doing vinyl siding to make the house maintenance free so I can keep it for 20+ years and not have to worry about painting it every 5. The current wood siding is in bad shape and not worth painting imo. If I wanted to maximize my return id paint or do nothing but unfortunately that's not really an option. What I did was bought the house with cash and I'm going to side it and hopefully it will appraise for more and when I take out the mortgage I'll get my money back

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Ok good. Then I suggest you close this thread and ask people you trust. :D

Haha I wish I knew someone! I bought this place thinking I would do everything myself but I just don't have the time unfortunately. I wish I had someone I could trust that I knew wasn't trying to rip me off. Oh well, it was worth a shot!

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Not much help here I can give. But what is old siding like. It's not asbestos is it?

It's wood, just not in the best shape. To paint it I feel like there would be a lot of extra work to get it looking good again so I thought if I could get vinyl siding over the top for cheap enough it would be worth the up front investment

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Good luck to you. My neighbor just ran into both extremes with two jobs he had done on his house. The first was putting in a screen porch. The work was very quick and looks great. On top of all of that, the price was surprisingly low. Part of that was because my neighbor had to paint it himself prior to the screens being put in, but it was totally worth it. The contractor actually stopped by unannounced a couple times just to check in and see how the painting process was going. The wife and I plan on getting ours screened as well, so we already know who we will get for the work.

 

Right after that was done, he had another contractor put some crown molding in his house. The workers showed up 5 hours late and then only took measurements. They then came back the next day late again (sunday of memorial day weekend) and where there until like 10PM. My neighbor missed out on the neighborhood cookout thanks to all of this. They then said they would come back this past saturday to cover the nail marks and paint them. Again, the two workers showed up hours late. And instead of actually doing anything, they argued the whole time, right in front of my neighbors, about how to break up the payment between the two of them. They wound up not doing any work at all. One guy came back by himself yesterday to finish and was again there until after sundown.

 

 

Long story short, keep doing what you're trying here and do your homework. It's not worth the hassle of finding that second guy from above.

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I tried homeadvisor last week and nobody responded

Good luck to you. My neighbor just ran into both extremes with two jobs he had done on his house. The first was putting in a screen porch. The work was very quick and looks great. On top of all of that, the price was surprisingly low. Part of that was because my neighbor had to paint it himself prior to the screens being put in, but it was totally worth it. The contractor actually stopped by unannounced a couple times just to check in and see how the painting process was going. The wife and I plan on getting ours screened as well, so we already know who we will get for the work.

 

Right after that was done, he had another contractor put some crown molding in his house. The workers showed up 5 hours late and then only took measurements. They then came back the next day late again (sunday of memorial day weekend) and where there until like 10PM. My neighbor missed out on the neighborhood cookout thanks to all of this. They then said they would come back this past saturday to cover the nail marks and paint them. Again, the two workers showed up hours late. And instead of actually doing anything, they argued the whole time, right in front of my neighbors, about how to break up the payment between the two of them. They wound up not doing any work at all. One guy came back by himself yesterday to finish and was again there until after sundown.

 

 

Long story short, keep doing what you're trying here and do your homework. It's not worth the hassle of finding that second guy from above.

I feel for your friend. I've been there as well. My first house was a fixer upper and I did a lot of it myself but I needed some help with some of the bigger things and I had some younger guys that would show up late or not at all and then disappear for a few weeks and then show up out of nowhere. We were living in shambles for a long time because of this. Very annoying. That's why I was asking on here if anyone knows somebody personally that does this kind of work. People are very shady/unreliable/greedy these days. Nobody is willing to put in an honest days work and do right by their customers

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Putting up vinyl siding isn't really hard, just labor intensive. I did it by myself on our former house, but it was a ranch. I had no experience and it was pre-YouTube, so just read up on it. You need to determine if you just want to cover the wood, or also first wrap the house in Tyvek for insulation.

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I got nothing, sorry. My neighbor behind me just got his siding done by two guys and they seemed to fly through the project. If I can get a hold of him, I'll see who he used. It looks well done.

 

We've had some terrible experiences at my business with contractors so I find it hard to trust anybody anymore.

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I tried homeadvisor last week and nobody responded

I feel for your friend. I've been there as well. My first house was a fixer upper and I did a lot of it myself but I needed some help with some of the bigger things and I had some younger guys that would show up late or not at all and then disappear for a few weeks and then show up out of nowhere. We were living in shambles for a long time because of this. Very annoying. That's why I was asking on here if anyone knows somebody personally that does this kind of work. People are very shady/unreliable/greedy these days. Nobody is willing to put in an honest days work and do right by their customers

 

My neighborhood is stuck in a crappy situation right now with a lot of work. We're new construction, so there's a lot of warranty related touch ups where we are stuck with the people the builder used. Those guys aren't interested in the warranty work since they make no money off of it. So they delay as long as possible. We had a column on our back patio that needed to be replaced. From start to finish, it took them 8 months to take care of that as they just abandoned it mid-work and then no showed for months. It took the lawyer threat to finally get that taken care of. My personal favorite is that when I do have the patio screened, that pillar will be replaced again.

 

My current ongoing experience is actually vinyl siding related. Some of the more energy efficient windows they use now can actually cause the siding to melt. The windows wind up reflecting a focused beam of light onto the siding it over time, it melts. So now I'm waiting on one contractor to replace my next door neighbor's windows and another to do my siding. They're ready to go on the siding, but they can't do that until the windows are gone. That company is probably the slowest one in the entire neighborhood.

 

I'm guessing that's probably not much of an issue up there, but it could be something to keep in mind with the vinyl siding.

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Putting up vinyl siding isn't really hard, just labor intensive. I did it by myself on our former house, but it was a ranch. I had no experience and it was pre-YouTube, so just read up on it. You need to determine if you just want to cover the wood, or also first wrap the house in Tyvek for insulation.

 

Thanks, I was thinking about doing it myself but I just don't have the time right now unfortunately. Maybe if I had someone who knew what they were doing to help I might try and tackle it. Plus I'm scared of heights and it's 2.5 stories tall!

 

I got nothing, sorry. My neighbor behind me just got his siding done by two guys and they seemed to fly through the project. If I can get a hold of him, I'll see who he used. It looks well done.

 

We've had some terrible experiences at my business with contractors so I find it hard to trust anybody anymore.

 

Thanks that would be awesome. Yes, I feel the same way. Seems as though you can't trust people these days. Everyone is out to take advantage of make a quick buck.

 

 

My neighborhood is stuck in a crappy situation right now with a lot of work. We're new construction, so there's a lot of warranty related touch ups where we are stuck with the people the builder used. Those guys aren't interested in the warranty work since they make no money off of it. So they delay as long as possible. We had a column on our back patio that needed to be replaced. From start to finish, it took them 8 months to take care of that as they just abandoned it mid-work and then no showed for months. It took the lawyer threat to finally get that taken care of. My personal favorite is that when I do have the patio screened, that pillar will be replaced again.

 

My current ongoing experience is actually vinyl siding related. Some of the more energy efficient windows they use now can actually cause the siding to melt. The windows wind up reflecting a focused beam of light onto the siding it over time, it melts. So now I'm waiting on one contractor to replace my next door neighbor's windows and another to do my siding. They're ready to go on the siding, but they can't do that until the windows are gone. That company is probably the slowest one in the entire neighborhood.

 

I'm guessing that's probably not much of an issue up there, but it could be something to keep in mind with the vinyl siding.

 

I think it's the entire industry. They go where the money is. If they aren't going to make as much on a job and another one comes along they go for that one instead. You can't rely on anyone these days, it's crazy!

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I got nothing, sorry. My neighbor behind me just got his siding done by two guys and they seemed to fly through the project. If I can get a hold of him, I'll see who he used. It looks well done.

 

We've had some terrible experiences at my business with contractors so I find it hard to trust anybody anymore.

 

I was driving by yesterday and it looks like they are also getting their windows done. Truck out front was a Stockmohr truck. I have no idea about costs or anything but the work they did on the siding was well done.

 

http://www.stockmohr.com/

Edited by Wooderson
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