I'm so frustrated right now. We have had good connections to contractors that have excellent reviews from people we know. But we can't seem to get anything done.

First last summer it was our backyard landscape project. We are talking a 50K plus job. Delay after delay after plan problems. Then he was going to start in December and snow hit. We gave up.

So we decided to move forward with finishing our basement. This was second on our list but moved up to first. Paid deposit and had schedule set for next week start. He had a delay and said it would be another week. Then today he emails that he just got an insurance job and the people have no where to live because a car went into their house. So he doesn't know if he can get ours done. WTF, you have a signed contract and 10K deposit. You should not have taken the insurance job. I think he's getting fired too. So annoying.

That, and the cost, is one reason I do as much of my own work as I can. It may take me forever and a day to get 'er done, but it gets done, done the way I want, and at a fraction of the cost.

E.g.: The Garage Remediation Project. Long story short: Poor construction resulted in a garage that was near to collapsing. Highly-recommended contractor quoted $8-$9k. Maybe more, if the roof had been damaged in the process. Sure, it's taking me months to get it fixed, but it'll end up costing me less than a quarter of the low end of that quote and I'm not exposed to "contractor hell."

There are things I won't touch because they're well beyond my expertise or ability. E.g.: Major tree work. We hire that. The new roof on the house. Contracted-out.

Family room... *sigh* I guess that's going to be contracted-out. Was going to do it myself, but we don't want it out-of-commission, the house torn up for God-knows-how-long, as I "get around to it." We're talking essentially gutting a 13x22 room. Maybe even the ceiling.

I am not looking forward to that

Rule number 1 when hiring a contractor: Do your homework to make sure they are a reputable firm that is licienced and insured.

Rule number 2: Do not pay any money up front. Pay for materials when they are delivered and in your possession.

Rule number 3: Do not pay them in full until the job is done and you are satisfied with the work. If the Contractor is using Subs, get a lien waiver stating the sub has been paid in full for the work completed.

As much as it pains me to say, contractors suck. When I was one I had a lot of respect for them. Now as an Owners Rep, they all suck. (Well, that’s not totally true. There are some good ones but few and far between). Nobody knows how to hit a budget or a schedule anymore.

That said, now is a tough time to build. Every market we are in is slammed with work. Nobody needs work and the contractors and subs are taking advantage of that.

Good luck getting thru your projects.

Contractors and carpenters have more work coming their way than they can deal with.

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:
Contractors and carpenters have more work coming their way than they can deal with.

I agree. BUT, if you bid and then take a job and schedule it and take a $10k deposit, you should be there when you are supposed to. I get that one job might run a few days behind, and might have to delay a few days or week, BUT, you don't take a new job if you committed to starting a job you already booked. WTH is wrong with people, do ethics not exist anymore?

The Registrar of Contractors might be interested in hearing about a contractor that does that.

A good # of people are in contracting/self employed world as it offers less confining work lifestyle and their skill set/maturity level makes them unattractive for a well paying jobs as a company employee.

I've hired a few with my small business as well as in real estate i've owned.

What above poster said is true. I go into these jobs with the mindset that I'm going to have to finish job if contractor has a meltdown.

So that means I will buy raw materials in my name as the only thing that looks remotely like a deposit.

That way I helped leverage someone else getting job done rather than me. Try and keep materials under lock and key so they can't lift them if they go low life on you.

I could tell you about the guy that just did our master bath but I won't. Too wordy

even if you are swamped, why not just say I'm not taking new business right now and be done?

I’m curious about the folks who don’t put at least 1/2 down to get the job started. In my area, no contractor will take you seriously without 1/2 down. Then they put you on the schedule. Shit, at this point, if they’re 3 weeks late finishing a job, I’m delighted. I’ve had soo many contractors treat me as a second class citizen, leaving my job to go do something else and not return for over a week or longer...leaving shit in my home: their tools, their clothing, etc.. in my freaking kitchen where I fix meals for my family. And no, the job wasn’t in or on the kitchen.
It’s super frustrating. And these are multi thousand dollar jobs, not millions, but tens of thousands. I thought it was just me. I’ve got 2 jobs happening this year. Hopefully they will be done on schedule. Hopefully.

quote:

Originally posted by Hangtime:
A good # of people are in contracting/self employed world as it offers less confining work lifestyle and their skill set/maturity level makes them unattractive for a well paying jobs as a company employee.

I've hired a few with my small business as well as in real estate i've owned.

What above poster said is true. I go into these jobs with the mindset that I'm going to have to finish job if contractor has a meltdown.

So that means I will buy raw materials in my name as the only thing that looks remotely like a deposit.

That way I helped leverage someone else getting job done rather than me. Try and keep materials under lock and key so they can't lift them if they go low life on you.

I could tell you about the guy that just did our master bath but I won't. Too wordy

Self Employed usually pays 3x more than a company would pay someone in that field. So let that sink in a moment, as the good ones are making 3x more than the company job they left behind and are always busy. BUT, the ones that can't hack it at a company also are the self employed ones, and make enough to scrape by and the rest of the time are at the bar or who knows.

Well we finally have some good news. The contractor worked out a schedule with his subs that will keep us on track. I told him I was pissed and said he understands. His insurance job was already planned but it took until now for the insurance company to approve everything. In any case at least we have a plan going forward. It will be a little late but it will be done.

Also excited that we have a wood worker guy working on the bar top. He just found some spalted maple that is long enough and thick enough to make our bar top. It's gonna have an epoxy river in it. Can't wait to get this project done.

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:
Contractors and carpenters have more work coming their way than they can deal with.

If they'd finish one first instead of starting them all at one time, no one would complain.

When I was younger I used to think all these people with their own business had their stuff together. After having to hire people through the years I realized that most of them cannot keep a job or work for someone else so they start their own business.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1s1k,

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
When I was younger I used to think all these people with their own business had there stuff together. After having to hire people through the years I realized that most of them cannot keep a job or work for someone else so they start their own business.

A *competent* small business owner can easily handle a million dollars in business per year and clear $250K easy. Most will grow that business and sustain somewhere between 1 and 10 million without too much trouble. The real money isn't working for individual clients, though, so they quickly get out of doing project work for homeowners.

Most of the "small business" one man shops do well enough, I'm sure. The ones I've had more experience with (friends, family) are mostly all double-dipping on taxes, not declaring all of their income, writing off tons of personal items as business expenses, misrepresenting expenses to clients to try and increase margins, and other shady practices that open them up to all kinds of risk. And usually - if they're not saddled with divorce/child support/alimony, credit card debt, auto loans for vehicles they don't have anymore, court costs, or other all-too-common financial issues they all seem to have - they can still clear over $100K missing deadlines, blowing off work, losing customers. But most of their profit gets spent immediately and exorbitantly, and not in ways to improve their business or increase skills/profits.

I had a roommate whose ex-husband was a flooring guy. She handled the finances and said in a good year they would make $250k. Racecars, boats, RVs, houses, electronics, divorce, new wife with expensive taste, a fire in the shop, and 3 years later he was getting repossessed on almost everything he owned, driving a shit truck he owed a ton on, customers coming after him, sold whatever he could, etc etc.

You write time limits and completion dates into the contract. On really big ones, I do like the feds do and pay in 10 percent increments. Standards for the percentage can be written in, too. A lawyer in my are charges about 200 bucks for writing up the contract.

Yeah all of us contractors are nothing but thieves!!! we never call back, make millions and millions of dollars, never pay taxes, have boats and motor homes go on vacations all over the world cant hold a regular job, never complete anything on time rip the customers off. does that about cover it ??

Would you like me to start in on you bunch of worthless lying home owners, who think you are perfect ??

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:

You write time limits and completion dates into the contract.

I had my roof replaced a couple of years ago.

I told them to pick a date that they were positive that they could complete the work by, and then write $100.00 / day reduction in my cost, for each day after that, into the contract.

They wrote the contract that way. Roof was actually a few days late, but I did not hold them to it, as they were hustling to get it one.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
Yeah all of us contractors are nothing but thieves!!! we never call back, make millions and millions of dollars, never pay taxes, have boats and motor homes go on vacations all over the world cant hold a regular job, never complete anything on time rip the customers off. does that about cover it ??

Given every experience I've had? Yes, 100%. You forgot the part about being grossly in debt despite making millions.

(that was joke)

But in all seriousness, I've met some really great people that did fantastic work. But that's been rare.

I can't get my current carpet guy to call me back. Thankfully no money has changed hands. Time to go shopping for another deadbeat to waste my time.

Edit: My roof guy 3 years ago was fantastic. On time, never rescheduled, didn't fuck anything up. Dropped off the face of the earth about a month later, phone disconnected.

quote:

Originally posted by Rustpot:

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
Yeah all of us contractors are nothing but thieves!!! we never call back, make millions and millions of dollars, never pay taxes, have boats and motor homes go on vacations all over the world cant hold a regular job, never complete anything on time rip the customers off. does that about cover it ??

Given every experience I've had? Yes, 100%. You forgot the part about being grossly in debt despite making millions.

(that was joke)

But in all seriousness, I've met some really great people that did fantastic work. But that's been rare.

I can't get my current carpet guy to call me back. Thankfully no money has changed hands. Time to go shopping for another deadbeat to waste my time.

Edit: My roof guy 3 years ago was fantastic. On time, never rescheduled, didn't fuck anything up. Dropped off the face of the earth about a month later, phone disconnected.

you just described the race to the bottom, and that's why you experience that, like most customers who are always looking for the cheapest bid and bitching because they didnt get the best product or service. Now your going to tell me you accepted the middle of the road or the highest bid right? I call bullshit!!

Call bullshit all you like. Most contractors are crooks. Don’t like it, tough. I’ve had my share of drunken painters, speed freak carpenters, and no-show roofers. Small contracts get jobbed out to Lowe’s, bigger ones as i described. If that makes you butt hurt, too bad. Go get a real job.