Rules
Part of Home organization for safer storage systems
What should you ask before paying someone for home organization help?
Questions to ask a home organization contractor before you pay: wall construction, anchoring, lead-safe certification, insurance, contracts and disposal.
Hiring help for storage work sits in an awkward gap. A home organization contractor is not always a licensed trade, but the job involves fixing heavy things to walls and moving material that may be older than the people moving it. These questions sort the serious operators from the rest.
What to take away
- Ask what the wall is made of before you ask what the shelf costs.
- Older homes bring lead and asbestos questions that change who may do the work.
- Disposal routes should be named in the quote, not assumed.
- Get the installed hardware written down.
- Ask for a license number, insurance and a bond before money changes hands.
- Get the payment schedule, deposit and cancellation terms in writing.
Questions about the structure
- What is behind this wall, and how did you determine that?
- Which fasteners will you use, and what are they rated for in this material?
- Will every tall unit be anchored before it is loaded?
- What happens if you find a stud where the drawing does not show one?
An installer who answers the first question with a shrug is quoting on appearance. Anchoring is not a preference, and the reasoning behind it is set out in the planning guide.
Questions about the age of the house
Storage work disturbs surfaces. In pre-1978 housing, the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule requires contractors who disturb painted surfaces to be certified and to follow specific work practices, and homeowners to receive information before renovation begins.
The trigger for interior work is more than six square feet of painted surface disturbed in a room, and the crew must be working for an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm. Ask to see that certification instead of taking the answer on trust, and expect the EPA's Renovate Right pamphlet before work starts. For the household-safety side of renovation, CPSC's home safety guides are a separate resource.
Asbestos runs the other way. The rules come from the EPA's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), and most states run an asbestos program on top of it, so that office is the one to call before anyone cuts into old material. Material in good condition is usually best left alone: CPSC's guidance on asbestos in the home notes that disturbing it can create a hazard where none existed.
If a plan involves drilling into old insulation, old floor tiles or old pipe wrap, the right answer is often to move the shelf rather than cut the material.
Useful questions here:
- Was this house built before 1978, and have you checked?
- Are you certified for work that disturbs painted surfaces?
- What will you do if you hit material you cannot identify?
Questions about what leaves the house
Every organization project generates outflow, and some of it cannot go in a bag. Ask which items the crew will take, which they will not, and where each stream goes. Paint, solvents, fuel containers, batteries and old electronics each have their own route, and the household hazardous waste program that accepts them may open only on set days.
A quote that says haul-away without naming a destination is a quote with a hole in it. The gap usually reappears on the last afternoon, when a crew discovers half a shelf of old cans and leaves them in the garage because nobody agreed in advance where they were going.
Questions about the handover
- What documentation do I gethardware list, photographs of open walls, warranty paperwork?
- Who is responsible if a unit needs re-anchoring in a year?
- Will you walk the exit routes with me before you leave?
Written answers cost nothing and settle arguments later. If price is the sticking point, the four-bucket approach in the budget piece makes it easier to compare two quotes that look nothing alike.
Questions about licenses, insurance and contracts
- Are you licensed for this work, and what is the license number? Ask which state board or local office issues it, then look it up in that board's register yourself.
- Can I see a certificate of insurance for general liability and workers' compensation, with your business named on it? Call the insurer to confirm the policy is current.
- Are you bonded, and how would a claim against the bond work?
- Will you give me a written contract with the scope of work, a payment schedule, a deposit amount and cancellation terms?
- Who pulls the permits, and who calls for the inspection?
- Can I speak with recent customers whose work was similar to mine?
Anything answered only in conversation is worth putting in the contract. A deposit that is not tied to a milestone, or a payment schedule that finishes before the walkthrough, suggests the paperwork is being used to close a sale rather than to describe a job.
