We all get this amazing idea when looking to hire a carpenter or interior designer. We look around in the apartment where we have bought our flat and hire anyone who seems alright. This is a great and easy way to hire a carpenter. Its definitely got its advantages.

The biggest advantage to giving work to a carpenter working in the same apartment is that he is right there. You see him coming everyday and working. You speak with him and he makes great promises. But, are you qualified to evaluate what he is doing while the work is still unfinished? Or even when the work is finished?

Let us give you some pointers to check before taking a decision to hire a carpenter who is already working in the same apartment.

1. Speak with the owner of the flat. If possible, speak with 2-3 of them. Please keep in mind that many times, carpenters tie up with the owners to take help in getting more work and give a reverse commission to them. Hence beware a bit if the owner is only praising all the things and circumventing issues. An honest feedback will always point out issues. We have never seen any interior designer or even an architect who got a 100% positive review without having paid for it.
2. Check the progress after the framework has been completed and the carpenter starts working on the doors. That is when time usually comes to a standstill. That is when progress needs to be evaluated and quality of final output can be checked to some extent.
3. Make sure that the carpenter is not promoting things like laminate strips on shutter edges instead of edge banding. Hardware needs to come with proper invoices to make sure that they are from the brand mentioned. Boxes can be replaced easily. Fevicol is being opened by removing the seal in front of you and they didn’t open it in advance. Check the consistency of the fevicol to see if water was added. These are small ways of skimping.
4. Is the contractor in charge on the site, the same person who is working as well? Stay away if that is the case. This is a simple way to know that the person does not have more people. Its only a 1-2 people operation. While that’s not a problem but understand that such a small team will not be able to work on multiple projects at the same time. They will do one of two things: Either delay and mess up all the projects or outsource the labor contract to someone else who you do not know. Obviously they will tell you that these people are working for them only.

While it's easier to hire a carpenter from the same place, it is so because the process of evaluating interior designers was long and cumbersome. We have now made it a lot easier through our simple comparison engine. Please check it out here before hiring someone.