Tyler TX Facebook

Follow Donny on Twitter

Username:
Password:
  Remember Me   Forgot password?  Register
0-9  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  

Find or Refer a Contractor in Tyler

Affordable but quality craftmanship in home remodeling repairs in the Tyler TX area

January 26th, 2011


Over the last 2 years I have had several different home remodeling companies over to our Tyler TX home. During this time of being a general contractor of sorts for my own home I have seen a lot of problems that happen by not questioning contractors and getting enough bids from different companies.

I hope that this article can help you in making an informed decision when hiring a home remodeling company to fix up your Tyler Texas home.

The number one headache I have at this point is the issue I have been dealing with of a bad paint job in my sons room.

I failed to ask the painters I hired if they would be using quality paint rather than closet paint.

You see there are different qualities of paint and the lower the quality the cheaper the cost.

Although you may pay a painting company a certain price and may have even haggled them down quite a bit they can make up for it in what quality of paint they purchase.

I have even been told that cheap closet paint was used in many of the mansions built at the Cascades. I have no idea if this is true but so what, what could be the worst case scenario?

I personally have experienced what problems creep up with low quality paint. The problem I have had is that within only a few short weeks whenever my son has scraped a hotwheel car against the wall or even a book the paint would peel off.

Keep in mind the paint has had plenty of time to dry but nonetheless the paint peels off if there is even the slightest harsh brush against it.

This paint peeling problem is number one issue that occurs when a low quality paint job is done on an interior home paint job.

Be sure to ask the painters you hire exactly what type of paint they plan on purchasing for the job and why. Also ask them if the paint is considered a low quality paint or high quality.

Don’t let a painter convince you that low quality is just as good and if youwant go ahead and call Sherman Williams paint store and talk the choice of paint over with a sales man.

A Sherman Williams paint sales guy will usually no more than many grunt level painters who haven’t even picked up a single book on the subject of professional painting.

Unfortunately in many cases a general contractor must know more about each aspect of the construction of a house than the individual niche experts putting the house together.

For each new project you plan for your Tyler TX home go ahead and watch a few short youtube instructional videos and you will find you will have plenty of good interview questions to ask your local Tyler Texas home contractor.

Real Estate Home Prices Up 4th Straight Month

November 24th, 2009

In Tyler TX we really have a unique situation compared to the rest of the country. We have seen the 4th straight month with rising home prices although the prices have not risen that dramatically. At least Tyler real estate is seeing a shift up instead of prices continuously going down like we have seen in cities like Detroit. One major issue is that a large majority of home owners owe more on their homes than what they are worth. We really want to get to the point where people have enough equity in their homes that if things got bad they could sell their homes without the need to foreclose on their house.

Everyone is familiar with those home flipping shows where people buy really bad rotting houses and fix them up for resell. Most people have gotten out of the home flipping business and many of these businesses are now remodelling houses in Tyler TX. A good way to build equity in your Tyler home is to have your kitchen or bathroom remodelled. We have had our kitchen remodelled and have plans in the works to get our bathrooms redone. When choosing a home remodelling company we looked around at several construction companies that could do the job. What we discovered was that a licensed home builder costs a lot more than a builder that is insured and bonded. You really only need a licensed by the state home builder if you plan on getting a home remodeling loan for $10,000 or above. Most home remodeling companies can have you pay $10,000 to one construction crew member and $10,000 to another if you were approaching $20,000 and still avoid the bank requirement for a licensed builder. This will save you a lot of money as an insured but not licensed builder will usually cost you a lot less for your remodeling project.

It all depends on which home remodeling company you pick as some may say all the right things, take your money, and than never return. You want to choose a company that has a history of doing quality work more than just a few times. Builders are notorious for opening up, taking money, and leaving half way through a project. One of the biggest scams has to do with construction companies running off with peoples money. They usually cannot even be charged with a crime if they did any work at all as they can claim that they completed part of the job and were only paid for part of the construction job.

The home remodeling company we used to increase equity in our Tyler house is R and R Home Creations. They can be reached at 1-903-574-0375. Josh Rucker is the owner and they specialize in kitchen and bathroom tile and back splash although can also do other things such as drywall, texturing, and painting. When picking a home remodeling company you want to hire someone based on their specialty. We have been very pleased with Josh Rucker and his crew. They have put together a tile job behind our wood burning furnace that is designed very well and is very sturdy. For instance, our stove weighs close to 1,000 pounds but they set the stove on bricks while at the same time making it appear the stove is sitting on ceramic tile. You cannot even tell that is what they did but it helps make the point that they have achieved a learning curve on tile work that only years of experience could teach someone.

When hiring a construction contractor to remodel your home we recommend following a few suggestions. It is ok if you get a building contractor to do a few extra things outside their specialty but when you go to far off what they are good at you end up with less quality work and spending the same you might have paid someone experienced in that line of work to do. We think it is a good idea to hire someone in the family or a friend to do expensive electrical work as hiring an electrician can really tack on a lot of extra cost to a remodeling project. Tile work is easy to do but once you get into more advanced design you are better off to let an experienced tile installer do the job.

Painting, drywall, and texturingis something that many professional contractors know how to do even if their specialty is something else. It is always good to price your painting and drywall work out witha few contractors until you find a good price. You always want to make sure they are good enough to not leave you high and dry as this could very easily happen if you are unfamiliar with the person. A website showing referals and jobs completed, yellowpageslisting, a newspaper ad, and other signs like these will give you knowledge if the business has been around awhile. Asking for a couple recent jobs that were completed along withthe peoples phone numbers can give you the confidence to go ahead with hiring a contractor. A Tyler TX building contractor that offers several choices and options for cabinets, drywall, painting, and so on will let you know if they are experienced in what they do. An experienced building contractor will have choices available for their niche building area because that is all they do. They will have likely done the same job in many different ways and will be able to offer more than one design and technique for completing a job. Someone that knows of only one way may not be the best choice unless their price is cheap and the job is something simple like painting a wall or framing something in.

Choosing a Home Remodeling Company in Tyler Texas

November 6th, 2009

Call Javier and Josh Rucker at R and R Home Creations – 1-903-348-7227
Tyler Home Remodeling Coupon

When picking a home remodeling company in Tyler Texas it is good to use a company that is insured and bonded. You can also choose a company that is licensed but you will usually pay a few thousand more dollars than if you were to go with a skilled contractor that still is insured and bonded but without the license. There are many home remodeling contractors in Tyler TX that have the insurance but don’t see the benefit in becoming licensed. In most cases choosing a licensed contractor just isn’t necessary unless taking out a very large home remodeling loan where the bank requires that the contractor be licensed.

Before Picture from Home Creations

Before Picture from R and R Home Creations

We had several Tyler home remodeling companies come by our house and give us quotes on things like a new roof, flooring, tiling, painting, door and window installations, custom showers. What we found is that quite a few of these Tyler Texas building contractors would quickly add on things that they could do even when they were really only good at one or two things. You can imagine when we had them do some of these additional tasks they would not be as good at the additional things as what we initially hired them for. This was not the case with a home remodeling contractor we found experienced in several different areas of home construction offering discount prices I just didn’t see elsewhere. Also the level of confidence I had with this construction company had to do with their ability to continually price their jobs right and their attention to detail.

Josh with R and R Home Creations remodeling has experience in turn key home remodeling where they will typically provide a turn key remodel for your major remodeling points in an old house. We found that Home Creations had a great deal of experience in installing flooring, refinishing flooring, drywall, tiling, kitchen and bathroom remodeling, back splash and tile installation, as well as texturing and painting. When buying new doors and windows they can also professionally install these items as well. Their expertise and low overhead allowed us to begin our home remodeling project at a much cheaper price tag than the typical project of this size. They had multiple before and after pictures to show us of turn key home remodeling projects they have completed for half the price I have been quoted by other home building and remodeling consultants.

After Picture by Home Creations

After Picture by R and R Home Creations

This Tyler Texas home remodeling company was very convenient to our budget as they worked with us in completing our project in phases. We wanted the cost savings that comes when hiring a company to do a large job but we needed the entire project to happen over the course of a year as we had the money to pay for it. Josh Rucker with Home Creations has experience in most aspects of a home remodel and when they are asked about a job outside their experience they have affordable people they use to complete such things as electrical and plumbing work.

Call Javier and Josh Rucker at R and R Home Creations – 1-903-348-7227

For specialised home remodeling such as custom cabinets for kitchens and bathrooms we recommend Cupboards Plus. Josh Rucker with R and R Home Creations can come in and do the back-splash using tile above the cabinets and countertops to finish up a kitchen remodel.