🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Mar23.202043.19379@almserv.uucp> alufml@fnma.COM  
(Francois-Michel Lang) writes:
> Sometime this spring I want to have a couple things done to my house:
> (1) install triple-track storm windows (we currently have the old
>     wood-frame storm windows)
> (2) re-finish some floors.
> 
> If anyone has any recommendations (pro or con) about contractors for
> this sort of job, I'd be interested in hearing them. Many thanks!
> 

   My girlfriend's parents had their windows replaced last year at a cost  
of about $270 per window.  One guy did it, and it took him about two days  
to do the job. (About ten windows were replaced.)  He replaced the old  
windows the builder has installed twenty years earlier with double pane  
vinyl frame windows.  

   Another friend had the hardwood floors in his house sanded and  
refinished for about $1800.  Form the looks of it, I'd say the amount of  
refinished floor space was about 1200 square feet.  

   The window replacement cost strikes me as being on the low side.  This  
may be due to the fact that they live in Charles County, MD where labor is  
a little cheaper, and it's easier to find someone who'll do the job at a  
reasonable price.  The cost of the floor refinishing sound reasonable,  
too. 

   Do yourself a favor... a BIG favor.  Get several estimates for the job  
from several contractors willing to perform the same work using the same  
materials.  And don't pay them all the money up-front; that way the  
contractor has incentive to get the job right, do it in a timely fashion,  
and return to correct any of his mistakes.   Complete the payment when the  
job is done, and your happy with the result.   

   Don't do what some of the bubble headed yuppy baby-boomers in my  
neighborhood do, and that is pay any price to the first Bozo they find in  
the yellow pages. 

Dave Drumheller