As a business owner, it’s essential that you keep up with your building’s maintenance. This includes both inside and outside maintenance issues such as with your HVAC unit, the building’s structure, plumbing and electric, and even your business’ parking lot.
The parking lot for your business might not seem like a huge issue to worry about, but it’s just as essential as all your other maintenance checks. When employees and customers come to your place of business, you need to provide them with a safe and functional place to park their cars.
Work with a professional paving company to ensure the work is done correctly. With so many paving companies in the area, how will you know who to work with? There are a few questions that you should ask before hiring a paving company.
Continue reading below to discover the top questions to ask!
1. Do You Have the Proper License and Insurance?
Just like if you were looking for a contractor who has the proper HVAC certification if you’re heating and air conditioning doesn’t work properly, all paving companies and contractors should have proper licenses and insurance. It might take a few extra steps to determine if a company has the proper license needed to do the work they’re doing, but it’s worth your effort. Working with a company that has the proper license means that you can have peace of mind in knowing that you’re working with a legitimate company.
Insurance is another important aspect. If a company that you hire doesn’t have insurance and someone were to be hurt on the job, they could come after you as the business owner since it happened on your property. Prevent this from happening by asking to see proof of both insurance and licenses.
2. How Many Years of Experience do You Have?
You most likely wouldn’t go to a hair salon or barbershop and expect a top-notch haircut from someone who just started working there and has little experience. As with any other services that you hire, you’ll want to work with a paving company that has years of experience.
The more years of experience that a company has, the more prepared they are to deal with any problems or surprises that might arise. And because the company you choose has years of experience, the work will be exceptional!
3. Do You Have Referrals to Show?
If a company is reputable, then they will have a few good referrals to show you. Throughout the years of their experience, they’ll have worked with several clients, who hopefully enjoyed the outcome. Before hiring a company, be sure to ask them for at least 3 referrals from past clients.
Once you have these referrals, be sure to take the time to sit down and contact all of them. Ask them what they like best about the services and work the company provided. Then, ask them what things they might not have liked about the job.
This information is vital to determine what type of work you can expect from them.
4. Do You Work with Commercial or Residental?
Some paving companies only work with commercial businesses while others only do residential jobs. Ask the company if they work with commercial, residential, or both before diving too deep into your research. If the company only does residential work, then you know right away that you’ll have to find a different company to work with.
Find a company that has experience with commercial jobs. Commercial paving jobs are much different than residential ones as they will have a heavier traffic flow and special types of markings such as handicap parking and more.
5. What’s the Estimated Price for the Work?
Price is always an important factor when hiring any type of service. Be sure to ask the paving company beforehand for an estimate on the work. Do keep in mind that in most cases, the pavers will need to come out and look at the property before giving an estimate.
The size of the project and the condition of the parking lot will all be factored into the cost. Don’t begin a project before knowing an estimated cost for it first.
6. Do You Have Past Jobs to Show?
A paving company that’s been in business for a while will have plenty of past jobs in their file. Ask the company if they can show you pictures of jobs that they’ve done in the past. Looking at before and after pictures is another great way to see what you should expect from them.
What’s the company’s quality like? What kind of design do they use? These are all things that you can learn from looking at their past work.
7. What’s the Project’s Estimated Timeframe?
Another important factor is the amount of time the project is expected to take. The time of the year, the weather, or even how busy a company is at the time can all affect how long the job will take. Because your time is important, you should ask the company how long you can expect the project to take them.
You can also consider asking them to show you a breakdown of the project. This might include what all needs to be done and the order that it’ll be completed in.
8. Are There Hidden Fees or Challenges with the Project?
Some projects are more challenging than others. Before the paving company, you choose to work with starts your project, be sure to ask if there are any hidden fees or possible challenges that might come about.
A reputable paving company will be transparent with you about all fees associated with your project.
Choosing the Right Paving Company Is Simple!
Although you might have felt that choosing the right paving company was difficult in the beginning, we hope that you now feel like finding the right one is simple using these questions!
And when you’re ready to start your own paving project, be sure to contact us to see how we can help today!
