Five questions to ask before you hire an installer

Installation work is easy to underprice and hard to evaluate before it is finished. These are the questions that tell you what you are actually buying.

Are you insured, and for what? Insurance is not a yes or no question. Ask what it covers and whether it covers work on your type of property. A residential-only policy does not help a commercial landlord.

Is the quote for the whole scope? A number that covers only the easy half is not a lower price, it is a deferred one. Ask specifically what happens if the wall turns out to be masonry, or the framing is not where it should be, or the item is damaged out of the box.

Who is actually showing up? Some companies quote with an estimator and dispatch whoever is free. It is fair to ask whether the person doing the work has done this specific kind of job before.

What happens if something goes wrong after you leave? A workmanship standard only means something if there is a stated way to get someone back out. Ask how that works and how quickly.

How do you handle changes in scope? Honest answer: sometimes the job changes once a wall is open or an item is unboxed. What you want is a company that stops, tells you, and reprices before doing extra work, not one that either eats it silently or adds it to the invoice at the end.

If the answers are vague on all five, the price is not the number you were quoted. It is the number plus whatever comes later.