People ask questions . How do I find a good licensed general contractor? Who to trust?
1. Make sure their license, bond and insurance are all up to date, this can be done at www.lni.wa.gov.
2. Ask people you work with or your friends that may have used a licensed general contractor in the past. Ask what they liked or disliked about the contractor they referred.
3. I would suggest using a licensed general contractor to do some smaller project to see how you work with him (her) and how he (she) perform.
4. Most licensed general contractors will meet with new clients 2 or 3 times at no cost (depends on size of project ). Make sure you have a list of question for each contractor to answer. 
Sample of some questions might be:
A. Do you charge for driving time?
B. How long will the project take?
C. How much do you mark-up materials?
D. Does this project require a permit?
E. Do you use subcontractors?
F. Have you done a project like this before?
G. How can you save me money compared to the next general contractor?
5. Have drawings for the contractor to look at, even if it is a hand drawing on a napkin. The reason for this is, each person see something else in their mind when somebody is describing something. This simple drawing gets everybody on the same page in the beginning. When you have direct questions and drawings for each general contractor, then you can compare answers .
6. Ask them for referrals and where you might look to see some of the work they have done in the past that would relate to your project.
7. Ask the person you meet with, if they are going to be on-site each day, if not, then find out who this person is. You might want to meet this person too.
8. Take your time deciding things, don’t let a general contractor push you into something. A good contractor should show you the different ways to do something or different materials to get the desired end result.
9. Ask the contractor how many jobs or project he (she) will be doing besides yours.
For me it is no more then 3 and most often I do one project at a time. I find that any more then this is not productive. I tend to have projects overlap each other, but very seldom have more then one going on.
10. A good licensed general contractor should offer to write a proposal or bid, depending on their style of doing business. They should also offer a description of the work to be performed, payment terms, some kind of specifications, items or materials included, time of performance.
I hope you will find this information helpful. I will keep posting more ideas and news.
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