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Challenges and ideas beyond the phone book

A question that is asked frequently is where to find a good contractor. It can be really hard to get a good answer, especially if you are needing some work done soon and don't want to spend a few weeks researching everyone you can find. Sometimes neighbors and friends have good recommendations (or at least stories to keep you away from certain vendors).

Parts supply stores may know a lot of contractors, but the supply store usually will not want to recommend any service provider that is not an in-house resource. The supply store is in an awkward position here: a negative recommendation may be from an inaccurate report and hurt another of their customers, and a positive recommendation reflects badly on the parts store if the job doesn't turn out right. For this reason, many smaller parts stores will let contractors drop off business cards or flyers, but will not make a recommendation one way or another.

Angie's List

Angie's List is another resource you may find useful. They have been around since 1995 providing a member-supported review of local vendors. They have now grown to cover much of the United States. Their focus is on providing testimony from actual jobs completed (both good and bad) from their members on a wide range of services. Businesses listed on the site appear there because members have provided reviews, not because the businesses have paid to be there. Angie's List provides toll-free numbers to contact their various local chapters with questions their site did not answer for you.

If you want to find out what they have in your area, when you open the link below, there is a "Browse limited information" link at the bottom center of the page. From that link, you can tell if they if they have reviews of service providers in your area.

Other Resources

If you know of other services that readers of this site might find useful, feel free to send an email to the address on the 'Contact' link at the top of this page. (We are definitely interested in information for our non-US readers as well.)