Home improvement squabbles frequently top consumer complaint lists because of poor or shoddy workmanship no one catches before it's too late.

As a homeowner, keep in mind, you are the boss during construction in your home and your job isn't to stay out of the way, but to act as a hands-on site manager responsible for quality assurance.

Homeowner spending on home improvements increased some 7.3 percent in 2003 and a fourth quarter burst indicates 2004 could shape up with even more growth beginning this spring, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

When the work is happening at your home, you must oversee and record the work in progress, step-by-step.

Begin by scrutinizing the blueprints for detail.

Best drawn up by a licensed architect, blueprints map out the work to be done.

"High quality blueprints contain an accurate site plan showing the placement of the new building on the existing real estate," says Cincinnati's Tim Carter, of AskTheBuilder.com.

Drawn to scale, good blueprints include floor plans for each level of living space, where applicable, all windows and doors, the direction they open, cabinets, fixtures, utility connections and built-in furniture.

The blueprints should also come with detailed exterior elevations as well as present and finished topography or grading profiles. The best plans also have extensively labeled cross sections depicting structural members, says Carter.

"Electrical plans should never be drawn on the main floor plans. They should have their own page," Carter said.

Next, to make sure your job is "built to spec" be sure those blueprints come with specifications.

Specifications are written guidelines that tell how a product should be used or how an aspect of the job should be completed, say, how a specific wall board should be placed behind ceramic tiles in a bath room.

"Without specifications, the contractor can do what he or she wants, not what you want. This is what gives the homeowner tremendous protection," said Carter.

"In the event of an error by your contractor, specifications will be an invaluable aid in identifying the error," Carter said.

As the contractors get to work, pull out the digital camera or video recorder and document the work in progress. Visual records are an invaluable tool should a problem arise and you need evidence.

Visual records can also help provide clues for future problems. For example, if the drywall installers cover an electrical outlet, your photo of the walls just prior to dry walling will locate the hidden outlet.

"Take lots and lots of pictures during construction," said Judy van Soldt, a San Francisco, CA-based architect.

Also hire a licensed professional to occasionally inspect the work in progress.

"To me, the bottom line is for the consumer to have someone knowledgeable overseeing a project, such as an architect or independent building inspector. I never recommend that anyone put on a roof without having an independent roofing inspector examine the existing roof first," says Owen Whetzel, a hands-on home improvement and remodeling advice writer in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"The vast majority of people are unwilling to spend the money, because they can't see the value, until the job has gone wrong," he added.

Finally, as work nears completion, tell-tale red flags can help you spot problems before it's too late.

"When you were supervising the construction you should have been out there walking around with a level to make sure things are plumb and the rooms are square," said van Soldt.

She also said to look for obvious signs of poor workmanship, such as voids on the surface of concrete, floor, ceiling and roof joists with a negative camber, bowing down instead of up, windows with a lot of caulk to make up for them being out of plumb and tape and mud at the joints to conceal screws and nails.

Published: March 5, 2004

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.