It's so hard to find a reliable contractor...

[shardian]

In my experience, a good way to find a reliable contractor is to know a very experienced real estate agent.  They usually have a favorite contractor or two for just about everything (after already weeding out tons of them for you) since their clients need them so frequently.

I'll be a naysayer on this advice. Real Estate Agents know contractors who work quick and dirty to get the job done to get the house sold. That does not mean they know 'good' contractors.

Case in point, when I bought my house, an inspection showed that half of the roof was way overdue for new shingles. I wanted to get it done myself and get a credit. My agent advised me against this, because there could be underlying issues. Anyways, the seller fixed the roof via their agents recommendation. Needless to say, the work was ---smurfy--- and I had ridge shingles falling off my roof in no time. The offending realtor is also a neighbor of mine. Needless to say, by the time the situation was sorted out and fixed we had words and are no longer on speaking terms.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

All of our Knob n' Tube wiring needs to go.

Man!  Think of all the hard drive space you'll recover when you get rid of all the Knobs n' Tubes.

Took a minute...

 

Same here.   

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I'm currently looking into getting estimates for a complete rewiring of our house. All of our Knob n' Tube wiring needs to go. I want to do the job myself, but me and the wife both agree that the liability isn't worth it.

After that....
I have to replace all our windows.
Then I have to redo all the wood floors.
Then I have to repaint the walls.
Then I have to redo the siding.
Then I have to redo the garage roof.
Then I have to redo the house roof.

Then I have to escape from the mental institution that I'll be placed in after all this work.

Ummmm....how much did you pay for your house again?

Heh. Doesn't really matter anymore, because most everyone's homes are now worth less than what they paid.   

[shardian]

Heh. Doesn't really matter anymore, because most everyone's homes are now worth less than what they paid.   

Mine is worth about 50% more than I paid for it initially. 

Motivated sellers rule!

[ChadTower]

Yeah, ours is still worth more than what we paid.  Not as much as it was a couple of years ago but still probably 50k more than we paid for it.

[myntik1]

I think I gave this reply to someone else who had trouble finding a good contractor here before - always request RECENT pics of work they've done.  You don't care if they were top notch 10 years ago before they hit the bottle non-stop, I want the quality of the job you did last week.

Another tip I've learned is that those who are good at their craft know math inside and out.  They can take the measurements and give you a rough estimate on the spot.  They may have to go back home or to the office to tweak the numbers based on current prices, but they can do the math in their head.  If a guy needs days and weeks to give you a ballpark estimate he is not legitimate.  But that's just my .02.

[ChadTower]

Or the guy I called yesterday who gave me a full estimate over the phone without even coming to look at the job.  Yeah, that sounds like a good candidate.