Home Renovation Part 5: Suppliers and Subcontractors

The general contractor will hire the painter, plumber, electrician, and A/C person for you. You do not have to deal with them directly.

The general contractor will recommend other suppliers or subcontractors, like the glass person, a stone yard, bath & kitchen accessories shop, tile shop, paint & wallpaper shop, carpet shop, and other trades people.

I recommend that you will work with the recommended suppliers, even if their prices may be higher than what you may find in the Internet. There are several reasons to pick the recommended suppliers:

• The contractor has a working relationship with the recommended suppliers, and he/she was happy with the quality of their work.
• The recommended suppliers will pass the contractor's discount to you. If in doubt, ask for it.
• The contractor and recommended suppliers can communicate directly with each other, so you do not have to coordinate them yourself.
• The recommended suppliers will try to keep you happy, because they do not want to jeopardize their relationship with the general contractor. Many thing may get wrong, and you want the supplier to correct them quickly without any argument. For example, it is likely that you will get cracked or wrong tiles, a defective carpet, or the plumber will install the wrong shower valve.
• The recommended suppliers will exchange defective merchandise readily.
• If you have an argument with the supplier, or the supplier did not provide the service in a satisfactory way, you can ask the general contractor to help you.
• If you have an allowance for something in your contract, it is easiest to use it with one of the recommended suppliers.
• You do not have to look for suppliers on your own.

It does not hurt at all to find competing quotations on the Internet to drive down the cost of the recommended suppliers a little.

The general contractor will ask you to purchase certain items on your own. I recommend the following suppliers in central New Jersey:

• Appliances: get information and quotations from AJ Madison (http://www.ajmadison.com/). Either order from them or order from a local appliances store. Stay away from big merchants like Sears and Home Depot. Their prices are not as good, and their technicians are not of the highest quality.
• Lighting fixtures: Visit Capitol Lighting (http://www.1800lighting.com/). They have several stores in NJ and Florida. Their on-line store is extensive, and the service is good. You may return uninstalled fixtures without restocking fee.
• Kitchen and bath plumbing supplies: Visit one of the Bath Connection (http://www.thebathconnection.com/) stores in central New Jersey.
• Shelving system: The Container Store offers a full line of Elfa shelving components with free in-store design. The designer was knowledgable, and the resulting system can accomodate growing kids easily by relocating components.