Three questions to ask a bathroom contractor before a deposit

You have two or three quotes on the kitchen table for the master shower, one of them ours, and somebody wants a deposit by Friday. The numbers are close enough that the number alone won't decide it. Your sister in Loveland signed with the lowest bid four years ago and had a torn-up bathroom until Thanksgiving. The questions to ask a bathroom contractor before a check leaves the house are the three she didn't.

Three questions do most of the work. They are the ones where the answers come out different from one company to the next, and where a vague answer tells you as much as a clear one. Ask each company on the table, Bulldog included, and write the answers on the back of its quote.

Question 1: who is in your bathroom on install day

Ask it in those words: "Are the people doing the work your employees, or a crew you hire by the job?" Then: "Is the person measuring today the person who installs?"

Plenty of remodelers sell the job with one person and sub it out to whoever is free that week. That is legal and it can go fine. It also means the crew in your hallway has not seen your bathroom before, works from someone else's notes, and answers to a different company than the one on your contract. If something comes up at 10 in the morning, the person who can decide isn't in the house.

Our answer: Bulldog installs with its own crews, and the crew that measures your shower is the crew that comes back to build it. Our installers are background-checked. The job has one company's name on it from the first visit to the last.

Then ask about "licensed and insured," because in Ohio those words mean less than most people think. The state licenses plumbing, electrical and HVAC contractors through the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board; there is no Ohio license for a bathroom remodeler as such. A company that says "licensed" should tell you which license and who holds it. For "insured," ask for a certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers' compensation. In Ohio, workers' comp runs through the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation, and an employer with coverage can print a certificate of coverage to hand you. A contractor without it leaves you, the homeowner, exposed if a worker is hurt on your floor.

Bulldog is licensed and insured, and your design consultant can show you the paperwork at the estimate.

Question 2: what the written quote covers once the wall is open

The number on a flyer is a starting point. The number that matters is the one a company writes down after someone has measured your shower, and the second question is about what that number includes.

Start with the obvious list and make them say it out loud: demo and haul-away, the new base, the walls, the valve (the part inside the wall that mixes hot and cold; the handle you see is the trim), the door, the shower head. Then ask the question your sister didn't: "Once the old tub is out and you can see the subfloor and the pipes, what happens to this number?"

In a 1960s ranch in Anderson Township or a 1990s two-story in West Chester, our crews often find a damp patch of subfloor by the drain, dark drywall behind the bottom rows of tile, or a supply line older than the valve. Some of that the crew handles as part of the job and some of it comes back to you as a change order, and the difference between contractors is whether they tell you which before you sign. Ask each company to write down how it treats what the crew finds behind the wall. If the answer is "we'll see when we get there," you have your answer.

Two things belong in the contract no matter who you hire. The Ohio Attorney General's advice on hiring a contractor is to get everything in writing, including a line that changes need your written approval, and that the contract should not require a large down payment. And if you sign in your own living room, the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel a sale of $25 or more for a full refund. The seller has to hand you two copies of a cancellation form and a dated contract with the company's name and address on it. The Attorney General's office says not to do business with a contractor who doesn't provide that form, and we agree.

Our answer: a design consultant measures your tub or shower area and leaves you a written quote. The quote is for the wet area, the tub or shower and its walls, gutted to the studs and rebuilt in a day. If your job includes the floor, the vanity or a layout change, the consultant tells you at the estimate that it runs longer. Ask the consultant where subfloor, plumbing and anything behind the tile sit in that quote, and have them show you the line. We wrote up what the crew does with what it finds, hour by hour, if you want the full day.

Question 3: who you call in year five

All three quotes on your table probably say "lifetime warranty." Ask three things about it: whose warranty is it, what does it cover, and who picks up the phone.

Whose warranty matters because a manufacturer's warranty on the wall panels and an installer's warranty on the work are two different documents. If the panel is fine and the caulk line at the base opens up in year three, the manufacturer will point you to the installer. If the installer was a sub, the company you paid may point you to the sub. The Attorney General's office warns about contractors who change company names and leave their old work behind them, so a warranty is only as good as the company still answering its phone. Ask how long the company has been in business under the name on your contract.

Our answer: Bulldog has been doing kitchens and bathrooms in Cincinnati since 1993, 33 years in Cincinnati bathrooms. The lifetime warranty covers the product and the workmanship for as long as you own the home, and the crew registers it before they leave on install day. If something isn't right in year five, you call (513) 657-3750 and the same company that built it comes out. The line on our website is "If something isn't right, we make it right," and it is the line your project coordinator works by.

Comparing three bathroom contractor bids

Put the three quotes side by side with the answers written on the back. The lowest number with "we'll see when we get there" behind it is a different thing from a higher number with the subfloor already in it.

If you are 71 and live alone in Hyde Park, the first question is the one to weigh. One crew you have already met, in and out in a day, is a different week from a rotating cast of subs. If you are in West Chester with a listing planned for spring, the second question protects your timeline; a change order mid-job is what turns a one-day shower into a three-week one.

Ask the three questions at your Bulldog estimate too. The consultant measures, goes through colors and patterns with you (most of our customers land on the marble or travertine looks), and leaves a written quote. With promotional financing, qualified buyers get the shower area gutted to the studs and rebuilt, base, walls, fixtures and the lifetime warranty, for as low as $150 a month, or 12 months no interest on approved credit. Get the shower now and pay later; the financing page has the current terms.

Call (513) 657-3750 or send us your address and a good time. The estimate is free, the quote is written, and you can take all three business days to think it over.

One-day shower replacement in Cincinnati puts the whole job in one place: what it covers, what it doesn't, and how to judge a bid.