I have read many reports about contractor search sites. There are some very good reviews and then there are the complaints. The Calfinder reviews say mostly good things so I used it to get a bathroom contractor. Overall my only complaint was CalFinder’s lack of bilingual staff. I think they should try to have one Spanish speaker on staff as much as possible. My mother is the home owner so she wanted to talk with someone about the house herself, but their Spanish speaker was not there when she called.

Eventually she reached a bilingual person. We were given three contractors and their info to make appointments. All three companies wrote estimates very close in price. It was hard to decide on one over the others. I thought they were professional, asked how much she wanted to work on (bathroom needed to be gutted and redone) and they all said they could commit themselves to finishing the project in three weeks or less. not bad.

At the end of the appointments, we ended up signing an agreement with a contractor (Mike M.) that had two subcontractors, one of which spoke Spanish. I was told he would be the primary communicator with my mother, meaning I did not have to always be there.

Three guys for one bathroom is plenty. They came in the mornings and left around 5 or 6 when my mother came home. There was some noise but that’s a remodeling project. All in all, the men were clean and didn’t track their messes through the house. I would come over on lunch break a few times to check in, make sure they were on point...and they were meeting their checkpoints as agreed in the contract.

From my mother’s point of view, her review is also positive. She wants me to include that they were good and worked very fast. The bathroom looks nice now. You walk in and the first thing you notice is how big it feels. The floors are clean new tile, the old bathtub was removed and they put in a new shower with better overhead fan and glass doors. The lights they put in are nice too. She picked out the items, but Mike helped her by showing things based on what she wanted.

It was a good process because my mother is not the type to be hands off about her home. She wants to know what is going where and how much it will cost, how long it will last before it needs to be replaced… the men took care of her by giving her ideas but then letting her have the final say. I don’t have any complaints about their creativity or work ethic. She loves her bathroom and the work was finished per the budget.

Everybody knows that some contractors are scams. Calfinder sent us a team of good guys, so I would use them again. Just hope they can make things easier for us with a bilingual person on the phone.