HOME IMPROVEMENT Education needs an overhaul

Contractors take the blame, but it's not all their fault.
By DAVID BRADLEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The home improvement business just got whacked upside the head by a 2x4.
The reason? Home improvement sits atop the heap when it comes to consumer complaints. Not even auto repairs, pyramid schemes or telemarketers proved more irksome to consumers in a national survey by the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America.
No doubt this dubious distinction shivers the timbers of carpenters, plumbers, contractors and everyone else who legitimately makes a living with tools. And their customers clearly feel victimized.
Much at stake
Both sides of the issue have much at stake in the results. Survey sponsors point to findings as the basis to encourage regulatory action to stem complaints. Home-improvers may feel the image-wrecking crew is a small number of shoddy here-today-gone-tomorrow contractors.
Of course, the improvement and remodeling industry needs to clean house of fast-buck artists while it overhauls the errant public perception that the only entree to the business is a pickup truck and cell phone.
Yet as with many problems, much of the answer to this crisis of confidence lies in education, both for practitioners and customers alike.
Realistic scenario
For one, the industry must guide homeowners through a realistic home-improvement scenario where customer expectations and sensitive issues like budget, time frame and conflict resolution are dealt with up front. Quality workmanship is still king, but surprisingly it often plays second fiddle to the louder noise made when contractors don't show up on time or communicate poorly. But consumers aren't scot-free from blame, either.
Too often they fixate on one thing -- low price. Homeowners seldom take the time to supply potential bidders complete specs for the job so they truly have a feel for accurate bids. They often lack the discipline to steer clear of cost-inflating change orders -- then they wonder why their project budget went through the roof. If they don't order special materials well in advance, the work schedule can be thrown off kilter. And who gets the blame? The contractor.
In defense of consumers, no one schools them how to communicate with contractors. Perhaps the major magazines that largely inspire those who would undertake projects with spiffy color photos eventually will wake up and smell the sawdust. Someone needs to bring consumers up to speed in a hurry. How well consumers manage the project -- from informed interviews to winnow good contractors from also-rans to rock-solid budgets to ongoing two-way communication -- has much to do with homeowner satisfaction with a job well done.
Rome wasn't completed in a day. Most home-improvement projects aren't either. How well the contractors and consumers overhaul the project-management process will go a long way toward determining if the home-improvement business surrenders its No. 1 complaint status to others. Like attorneys, for example.