Find the right contractor for your home improvement project: there are steps to protect yourself when you are hiring a contractor to work in your home.

• Author: Eshleman, Chris

The stereotypical horror stories might stick in homeowners' minds as they begin thinking about home improvement projects.

You're planning on making your master bedroom bigger. A referral from a friend leads to a contractor who is young but reliable and "full of energy." Plus, he's only going to charge you half as much as the other contractor offering an estimate. It sounds like a great deal, but a week later, even though the job looks finished, he's opening walls to fix a leak.

"I should have gotten a plumber to help me with this," he says, before asking you for more money for materials. A week after that, he's still not finished.

Or, you find a roofing contractor in the phone book to handle your reshingling project. Things go smoothly until one of the workers injures himself. After the job is finished, you receive notice from an attorney representing the worker, who is seeking damages from you because the contractor didn't carry the correct insurance.

Some of the pitfalls of finding the right contractor are familiar, while some are extraordinary. All, however, are unwanted, and there are some simple steps you can take to make sure you get quality service while insuring yourself against possible snares.

SEARCH FOR REFERRALS

The first step in finding a contractor for a home improvement project is to gather names. For this, friends, relatives and neighbors make for better references than a phone book. Most people will be surprised to find that many of their friends or neighbors have hired help for a number of projects, large and small.

Gathering names might not lead you straight to the right contractor for a particular project, but it can give you some information of phone numbers for roofers, carpet installers or trim carpenters. None of these might be the right person to manage a home addition, for example, but if they come with high regards from previous clients-your friends or neighbors-then they might be your connection for finding a good general contractor.

Remember, even though it's important to find the specialist for your special project, limiting your search to names from that field might take some time. You can make things easier on yourself by starting with a reputable name in the business-if you know a friend who had a great contractor do their remodeling, ask that contractor if he knows any reputable roofers for your project.

GET THREE ESTIMATES

Once you've gotten a few names, ask for estimates. Many consumer Web sites will say...