Hello Everyone & Happy New Year!
My husband & I bought an old house (1938) about a year ago & have all kinds of ideas about projects & improvements. Unfortunately, we are not terribly handy & are having a hard time finding good woodworkers, painters, handymen, electricians – you name it. We have had some bad experiences, & I’m wandering if this is the correct forum – or if anyone knows of a forum – to find meticulous & dependable professionals in the Los Angeles area.
Thank you!
Replies
I can relate, just finished last Aug getting the family home fixed and sold. LA refers to a very large area and you will find that many contractors do not like to leave there area because of traffic etc. What part of LA are you talking about? While I did the wood work myself we contracted for many other services. Ours was a 1946 2 bedroom one bath that we went over from the curb to the garage door.
I would suggest you also post your request on the Breaktime forum. You should get some replies from some pretty well qualified people there.
Thanks! I am specifically in the Sherman Oaks/ Valley area.
Our place was in Venice. Those guys we used on the west side where not to inclined to go into the valley. and we had no luck even getting a call returned no less a bid from anyone in the valley. Word of mouth is your best bet, start asking friends and neighbors who they trust and just make sure they have a contractors licence.
Hi Simone:I live in Northridge and have found several excellent contractors in the area. If you're looking for a plumber, there's Richard Laughlin, a real pro and great to work with. If you need framing or carpentry, I can recommend Grant Spangler, of Spangler Construction, Greg Smith at Turn it On, Electric and for heating and AC, try Steve Trist at Steve's Service Company. Be advised that the good contractors are busy and you'll need to talk to them to check their schedules.
If you need other contractors I have several more that I can recommend and give you their numbers.
Warmest,
Rancher
Try looking on http://www.craigslist.com. Up here (San Jose) many small contractors run ads there and you should find a pretty good selection.
Another potential source would be a real estate agent. They often have a "stable" of contractors/handymen who take care of the fixes needed to close a sale.
Last but not least, ask the neighbors. They may have some recommendations - either pro or con - lol.
Professional, meticulous & dependable you won't find on Craig List, Yellow pages, door flyers or from phone salesmen. Just watch what your neighbors do, shame on you if you don't know or speak to them. Being unhandy make you ripe for ripping off. Start trying to do some things yourself. If your a lawyer, people wont work for you and none of your friends are handy.
You're funny & I thank you for the tips. I too had the same thought about Craigs List & flyers. We are in the process of meeting our neighbors since we just moved in, & are asking all of friends for references as well. It just seemed like this forum was the perfect place to get some recommendations.
Sincerely,
Not-a-Lawyer in Los Angeles
I beg to differ with your comment about Craigslist, Sungod. Some of us are very "professional, meticulous & dependable". I ran CL ads for the first 3-4 months after I started my business and got several good jobs out of it. Yes, I had to deal with lots of tire kickers, but there were enough good customers to get going and their referrals have been great.
Two customers backed out on me in early January so I ran another CL ad. Yesterday, I booked a cabinet job that will probably exceed $12K by the time we're finished.
Dave Once you've gain a good reputation, you will not need CraigList. Its the same with all the other good tradesmen. A great tradesman has a long waiting list of people who have to wait for them. In the LA areas the biggest ripoff artist Mike Diamond, George Brazil, Sears Home Improvement, the all advertize heavily.
Well, my reputation is probably fine (well, there was the one guy last year - lol) but I think ads can still be useful. Like I said in the earlier post, I found myself short of work right after the holidays when two customers changed their minds. I ran another CL ad (the first in about a year) and got several hits - one turning into the biggest single job I've ever gotten. I'll probably run a CL ad a few times a year just as insurance to keep the pipeline full.
I doubt if any advertising venue is immune from the hacks and jerks. Customers have to satisfy themselves about the contractors reliability and honesty no matter where they find them.
What most customers don't realize is that I'm screening them too. If someone sends an email or leaves a phone message asking "How much for an entertainment center?", I'll respond but it's almost certain that we aren't going to do any business - lol.
Edited 2/1/2006 7:25 pm by Dave45
I wish we had the same problem out here. There's really far less traffic here, (Toronto) Than L.a. from what I remember. Of course it's one of the fastest growing areas in North America right now and our road systems have some catching up to do. That said I'll cover 60 km in 45 minutes most instances. If I have to cross the city those numbers drop drastically. I would love to specialize in my area of the city unfortunately I've got a reputation 35 -40 minutes away. I guess alot of people have that problem. I would would love to work in l.a. I heard it was really competetive in the customers favor as many illegals are hired for less in turn allowning contractors to price lower. Or are my sources wrong.
Nick -
I'm not in LA myself. I live in San Jose, CA - about 50 miles south of San Francisco and about 400 miles north of LA. My earlier posts were about my experiences using Craigslist to advertise my services - and why I think it's worthwhile.
Our traffic here is horrendous - possibly some of the worst in the USA. I usually find myself planning my work around the commute hours and telling customers that my prices reflect the amount of "windshield time" necessary to do their job. Some look elsewhere but others are willing to pay the price. I like to think that's because of my reputation - lol. I spent most of last summer working for two of my neighbors - one next door and the other across the street. Man, that was sweet! With gasoline costing almost $3.00/gallon, I'm literally walking to work every day.
I work alone, so I really don't have any experience with the illegal labor situation. I've heard that some of them are excellent workers and are as highly skilled as anyone you'll find. Others are apparently ready, willing and able to work but not really expert at anything. I'm sure that some are also deadbeats and boneheads but that's true with US citizens too - lol.
if some one was to be taking advantage of the illegals and paying them far less, than say a unionized or not unionized citizen. Paying health insurance premiums ect. is costly and I was under the impression that lots of mexicans were being payed far less than the should be. Creating an un level playing field for people employing more expensive u.s. citizens. Thats what happened out here with our trade shortage. Anyone that could speak spanish hired on teams and teams of mexicans. They treat them like animals putting 7 or 8 men in a basement appartment, bring them lunch and fly them home in the winther.The contractors charge just a little less than I would, if need be far less. My guys cost me 25$ an hour, I talked with some of the mexican workers they were getting 8-10. it was really hard to compete. Now with our trade shortage stabilized it's not so hard to compete.
I was listening to a talk show the other day and the subject was illegals and their real impact on the economy. One thing the host said (that made a lot of sense to me) was that there really wasn't any hard data either way. There are lots of anecdotal stories, but no way to back them up.
One question that I found interesting was........... "If the illegals are causing union workers to be out of work, why aren't the unions screaming to high heaven?"
The host said (and I completely agree) that we almost certainly need do something but before we charge around passing a bunch of "feel good" laws, we need to get a much better understanding of the extent of the problem.
"Just watch what your neighbors do..."
That's funny - my neighbor considers himself 'handy' and has been systematically destroying his house for the 7 years we've lived here. I love people that say to ask friends and neighbors for references - what if nobody in your area has hired tradesmen? Or what if the only reference they can give is "Stay away from ____". Plus, businesses are fairly shortlived in construction, so if your neighbor had an addition put on 5 years ago there is a high likelihood that few or none of the people she did business with are still around.