[invalidptr]

This doesn't apply to small residential contractors. I've had nothing but bad experiences hiring contractors. They rarely do the work themselves and instead hire subcontractors who don't understand the requirements and care very little about the outcome. I've had better experiences with companies who are large enough to care about their reputation, or contractors i know personally.

[oxag3n]

I wish I knew that one month ago. Hired a small local company to fix something in my house, great reviews in yelp/facebook/google, license+insurance. The guy came for the estimate and everything felt smooth. Two other guys came for the actual job, no company, no license, I couldn't even communicate with them until I opened voice translator. They did a terrible job and made the situation worse than before.