I learned something the easy way today. I could have been burned, but got lucky. Thought I would pass it on. The steps leading from my kitchen to my basement were falling apart. I called 5 contractors. Two of them never called back. The first one gave me an estimate of $2400. Two guys working 2 days. This guy spent an hour at my house, in order to come up with the correct way to do the job. The price seemed a bit high, but he seemed honest, and took the time to make his evaluation. The second guy comes out, takes 5 minutes looking at the problem, says "2 hours at $95 and hour, plus material. $200 total". I was so stunned that I forgot about the pending 3rd estimate. The $200 guy comes out today and fixes the steps in 90 minutes. He stays another 20 minutes and cleans my gutters (front and back) and includes that in the price. $190 total. The job is finished and done correctly. Sometimes you just get lucky. I hope this helps someone in the future.
I am glad you lucked out. But you need to also be sure that the repairs will hold up and were done to code. But chances are they will be fine. The first guy was probably sizing you up to see what you could afford.
