Rules
Part of What does a genuinely useful accessible home case study contain
Which questions actually test a contractor's past accessible projects
Questions that test a contractor's past projects: which one is closest to yours, what changed after handover, and why a finished home beats any photograph.
Every firm shows its best work. That is fair, and almost useless for judging whether the firm can do yours.
To get real information from a portfolio, ask about projects most like your situation and what happened after the photographer left, questions easy to ask and hard to answer with marketing.
What to take away
- Ask which past project was closest to yours, and why. The reasoning matters more than the answer.
- Ask what changed in the first year. Every real project has a list.
- Visit a finished home if you can, with a tape measure. Photographs hide slope, width and every reach.
- References about access work are worth ten references about kitchens.
Questions about the portfolio
- Which of these was closest to my situation, and what was different?
- What did the client need to do that the room had to support?
- What did you have to change after they moved back in?
- Which decision on that job would you make differently now?
- What did that project cost, in which year, and what was excluded?
- May I speak to that client, or visit if they are willing?
- Who set the bar and control positions on that job, and was the user there?
Ask those questions in order. Listen for detail, not enthusiasm. A firm that has done this work remembers each project's constraint: a joist that could not be cut, a door that had to swing a certain way, a client who could only transfer left.
A firm that has not will describe finishes, because finishes are what it noticed.
Go and look
Investigators do not rely on what organizations say about themselves. The Justice Department runs a fair housing testing program because sending someone to see what happens yields better evidence than any policy statement.
The homeowner version is smaller and just as effective: stand in a finished bathroom, open the door, sit on the seat, reach the control. Ten minutes there tells you more than a whole portfolio.
Take the tape measure and check the clear opening with the door at ninety degrees, the seat height, the bar height, and the space beside the toilet.
If the finished room's numbers match the firm's quote, that is the strongest evidence you will get. If they do not, you learned something important before signing anything.
What happens when it goes wrong
For public buildings, a formal route exists when access falls short, including the mediation process in the federal overview of resolving ADA complaints through mediation. A private home has no such route. Your only remedy is the contract, so the specification must carry the dimensions, and references and site visits do much of the work.
Pair these questions with the practical arrangements in hiring questions about working in an occupied home, and read any portfolio using how to read an accessible home case study.
