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Originally Posted by ken0042
As I said he does lean towards the side of the homeowner, and a lot of what he does is overkill, but its a good place to start to see what you are getting yourself into.
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Holmes is good at what he does but he really does scare the beejebus out of homeowners. There are bad contractors out there but they're not all bad. I remember Holmes was at the Red Deer Home Show one year and he asked the crowd whether anybody was a contractor? I raised my hand and he said, "You must hate me?" and I replied, "On the contrary, you make my job, working for a professional roofing company, easier by warning people about cheaper contractors." It's true. Sometimes it's really not worth going with the cheaper option.
As for the addition question. We added on to our home in Red Deer about seven years ago. We added on a 600 sq. ft. addition. The process went quite well. We had to get a relaxation from the city as our lot is non-conforming. We hired a contractor that I knew very well, through work. Hiring a contractor that you don't know can be worrying. I would say go with a reputable company, ask for references and about insurance protection etc. (I.E. liability insurances, WCB things like that.) Any reputable company would have them.
We also looked into a second story addition and are still interested in that. We had a structural engineer inspect the existing structure to confirm whether our existing house could take the weight etc. and got a written report from him. That was quite a few years back now and it cost about $300 to $400 IIRC.
There are some hoops to go through for sure but ultimately it's completely worth it. We have enjoyed an addition for many years now and have forgotten about the tough times getting the thing built!
Good luck.