There are benefits to hiring a larger “remodeling company” and there are benefits to hiring an individual who is a remodeler. The real question is; which is best for you.
Many times the first consideration is the difference in price. Clearly the individual will win that argument nearly every time so let’s identify and look at the other differences that should be considered.
Availability:
Individuals work alone or with a helper. They generally are not available during daytimes (while working on projects) to make appointments, make or receive phone calls or other forms of communications. If you are the kind of customer that wants a quicker more attentive response to your needs and questions, you may wish to work with a larger company who has dedicated employees that answer your call and help almost immediately.
Duration:
Individuals that are contractors perform most of the project tasks themselves and thus the project may take longer. If the project that you have in mind needs to be completed for you to use yet this season or before a deadline of some sort, you may wish to hire a larger company that will be able to perform multiple tasks at the same time by using many people and focus on managing the project well.
Details:
If you are a person that likes to see everything in writing, you may be a candidate for a larger company that employs administration to keep up on all the paperwork. Small and individual contractors generally do not have time to facilitate paperwork due to them working on the actual project itself.
Crisis Control:
If anything goes wrong in the life of the individual contractor then his customers simply have to wait for his repair, recovery or whatever obstacle to be eliminated. Larger companies have back up personnel for generally all positions and can recover a setback much quicker.
As these are only a few of the differences between the large and small remodelers the key difference can really be summed up in one word–“risk”. Ultimately a customer is assuming more risk for the savings that they stand to gain by hiring the smaller/cheaper remodeler.