Remodeling questions, answered

No. HyreRemodel is an independent information site, and a platform being built to connect homeowners with remodeling contractors. We do not design, build, manage or inspect anything, and we do not supervise or warrant anyone who does. Your contract for the work is with the contractor you hire.

A person at HyreRemodel reads it and replies by email. Matching with remodeling contractors is still being built, so this is not an instant quote or a booking. No contractor gets your details unless you agree. How it works sets out the whole path, including what is not built yet.

No. The guides, calculators and research are free, with no email address needed. Sending the form costs nothing and commits you to nothing: not a contractor, not a design and not a start date.

Start from the problem, not the room. “More storage” can be a cabinet answer rather than an addition, and a dark kitchen can be a lighting answer. The remodeling services page is organized by what each project solves.

Compare the full cost of each on your own numbers, including selling costs. Since August 17, 2024, under the NAR settlement changes, buyer-agent pay is negotiated separately, so a fixed commission rate is an assumption, not a rule. The remodel vs move calculator works from your figures.

It depends on how much the structure changes and how much independent oversight you want. A separate designer buys competing bids and an advocate; design-build buys speed and one point of accountability. Design-build or an architect gives a decision test, not a recommendation.

Then lead paint rules apply. Paid work that disturbs more than 6 sq ft of paint per room inside, or 20 sq ft outside, or replaces a window, needs an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm under 40 CFR Part 745, Subpart E. Ask to see the certificate.

Older houses can also hold asbestos: have suspect materials tested before demolition.

Not from an average: HyreRemodel publishes none. What moves the number is plumbing, structure, electrical service and what demolition finds, more than the tile. What decides a remodeling budget sets out the drivers, and the calculators show their sources and run on your numbers.

Enough to absorb what the walls reveal without stopping the job, and more for an older house nobody has opened up. Hold it outside the contract, treat it as unavailable until something is found, and agree in writing what happens to whatever is left.

Give all three companies the same drawings, allowances and expected exclusions, then compare line by line, not total against total. Ask about every gap. The quote comparison worksheet is built for this.

The scope, the drawings it was priced from, allowances as amounts, written exclusions, dates, payments tied to finished stages, a change-order rule, insurance, permits, lien waivers, the warranty and dispute terms. Remodeling contracts covers the clauses that matter when things go wrong.

If you signed at your home or away from the seller’s place of business, the FTC Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel a sale of $25 or more. Your state can add its own rights. Remodeling contracts has the details and exceptions.

Some of it can. Zonda’s 2025 Cost vs Value report estimates how much of a project’s cost comes back at resale, but those figures are surveyed real-estate professionals’ estimates, not observed sales. The remodeling ROI calculator works from your own figures.

Your building department decides. In the 2021 IRC, the model code most places adopt and amend, structural work, additions, and new or altered electrical, plumbing, gas and mechanical work need one, while finish work such as painting, tiling, cabinets and countertops does not. Permits and approvals explains the rest.

The contractor doing the work. Whoever pulls the permit answers to the building department for the work passing inspection. If a contractor asks you to pull it in your name, ask why, and put who pulls it in the contract.

Search the license number on the issuing board’s own site, not a number on a card. Our license lookup directory lists the official pages. Some states, Texas among them, issue no state residential general-contractor license; see states without contractor licensing.

General liability, for damage to your house and injury to others, and workers’ compensation, for the contractor’s employees. Ask the insurer or broker to send the certificates to you directly, and check the dates cover the whole job. Contractor insurance requirements explains where bonds fit.

No. We publish no ratings, reviews or rankings, matching is not live yet, and no contractor is signed up or checked. How contractors will be checked lists the checks we plan before any introduction. Choosing a contractor sets out the checks you can run now.

We expect remodeling contractors to pay us for introducing homeowners to them. You are never charged. That is not live yet, and it does not decide what we publish: there is no paid placement and no ranking of contractors. See our editorial policy.

Yes. Email us and we will delete it. We do not sell personal information. The privacy policy sets out what we collect, who sees it and how long we keep it.

The HyreRemodel Research Desk. There are no author personas or claimed years of experience on this site. Each page names the code, agency, statute or survey it relies on, with the date we checked it, and should be judged on those.

Report one and we check it against the source. Code, safety and licensing claims are sourced to federal agencies, model codes and state boards, with retrieval dates. Where we could not verify something, the page says so. The editorial policy explains how to report a correction.