Cleaning up after the storm

Underpinning is a process that is used in stabilizing a building that has weak or failing foundation. Before you engage underpinning contractor in your project, you have to find out a couple of issues. Given that one of the reasons for failing foundation is weak support either wooden or steel, you do not want to hire a contractor that will waste a lot of your money and deliver low quality work. At times you may be required to add a layer or a structure to the existing one and the last thing you would do is engage someone without finding more about their services.

Are You Licensed and Insured?

It is very wrong to assume that the contractor you are engaging is licensed and insured without finding out. It is very important to ask the contractor if they are licensed and insured. If you hire unlicensed underpinning contractor and they create so much damage to property then you may not be in a position to hold them legally accountable. It is important to counter-check with the regulation authorities whether the contractor you are engaging is licensed or not. Most of the quality underpinning contractors display their license information on the company profile or on their business cards. In fact, the best contractors to engage would be those that are state certified. Also, ask the contractor if they are insured as through insurance they can cover for any kind of damage that arise. In fact, for most of the insurers, they will only provide a policy if a contractor is licensed. Being licensed and insured makes the underpinning contractor be held accountable as they will only seek to engage in ethical and good business practices as required by the state. It is also important to check the specifics of insurance and ensure that it covers your location.

How Many Years of Experience?

Given the magnitude of the job involved, it is important to only engage individuals that are experienced in the field. Apart from just experience, also check if the staff that you are engaging are well trained and have gone through some important background checks in their career. Some of the common things that you may consider are whether the staff has uniforms during work, if they have protective gears and whether they have taken part in similar jobs as the one you want to assign them. At times, a company may have been in operation for a long period but also experienced a high staff turnover leaving the company with few experienced staff and more of amateurs.

With these kinds of questions, you can be sure of getting competent underpinning contractor for your project.