The person who quotes your job runs your job

The company's specialty is wood rot repair: the soft trim, spongy decks and water-damaged framing that Pacific Northwest weather manufactures reliably. It is honest work in a specific sense. Rot cannot be quoted from a photo, it is almost always bigger than it looks, and how a contractor handles that uncertainty tells you everything about them.

Our answer is to separate what we can confirm from what we will only know once it is open, price both in writing, and never do the second part without your approval. That habit, formed on rot jobs, now runs through every kitchen, bathroom, deck and framing project we take on. Fifty-plus remodels in, it has not failed us.