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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/19/2008 9:36:57 PM

marieToo

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From: Jersey
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aileen1968

You blew them didn't you? You slut.

I'm such a good little bitch like that.

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/19/2008 10:01:03 PM

Owner59

Posts: 17033
Joined: 3/14/2006
From: Dirty Jersey
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There`s also crappy customers too.

I`ve had to take seven people to small claims over the years(never been sued myself).

On two different occasions, I had the wife come on to me.After both rejections,the job went south and I ended up taking them to court(both times the sap/cuckold husband stood up for the wife).

I`ve also been screwed out of a total of 8-9 thousand dollars,over the years.Two hundred here,$350 there.

Though I know there are many shysters out there, it goes both ways.

At this point,my customer list is big enough that I`m pretty busy.I also don`t take on a customer without a referral or references from people I know.I do new bathrooms and kithens.

I never work for complete strangers.

< Message edited by Owner59 -- 3/19/2008 10:08:06 PM >

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/19/2008 11:04:00 PM

petdave

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quote:

ORIGINAL: sweetnurseBBW

No its not a myth. People need to research people they hire. Alot of people have pride in their work. Again another generalized statement that is unfounded and not an absolute. Walk in my shoes an hour as a cardiac intensive care nurse and see how well you can do it. It is easy to make inflammatory statements on the internet.

Yes my post was snarky and it was meant to be. I hate to see people generalize and put down a whole group of people when not all are like that.

Then where are you in all the "let's bitch about malesubs" threads? i been holding down the fort all by mydamnself

Minor technical point- your post was snippy, not snarky. My comment above? Dat be snarky.

Me, i hate to see people ripped off. All too often, that person is me

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/20/2008 2:44:44 AM

Termyn8or

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You won't hate me. Some of the people who work for me might not like me so much though. I am tough to work for.

Any major remodeling job, there are stages of payment. This is done, whatever, you owe us this much. When the next steps are done there is another check. No money is taken up front except for about a hundred bucks earnest money. You can even pay the vendors yourself, if you can be available for delivery. If my people pick it up you pay our invoice. There is cost involved and quite honestly you atre paying it. In the end you really do pay everything.

We would rather really have most materials delivered and you can just pay them direct. What we charge is labor. While there are some cases when we must do that, like hand picking lumber for finishiung work or something, there is no choice. It also has to be stained before it is cut (I am assuming new trim here, I would never paint it, I would have it natural). Of course if it is to be painted we don't have to go through all that.

And prices, well there is a clause for some overruns, but not alot. A big job would be about five or six labor payments. Get the money from your insurance or bank, but don't give it to us yet, you pay for materials on delivery, and you pay for labor upon completion, to your satisfaction. If I run by the seat of my pants so to speak and they want to be sure, OK, you can still have it at that price, but it will hold up the job because you can't drywall until the electrical and plumbing are inspected. Not meant as a deterrent, it is to some people who know they have violations elsewhere on the property.

I am not afraid of any inspection of my work. Well there have been a couple of thing I've done on TVs that we still pay people to cross their fingers about, but when it comes to a house, That's different. You Casa. This is not bullshit, it is your single lagest investment usually.

Any way, a good camera, if the tile is unsatisfactory due to the installation, they actually would owe you new tile. The vanity is crooked ? I would like to hear their explanation of that. The only reason I could see is if they glued it down or if one of the mounting studs or whatever could not be installed because of a floor joist.

But in that case the contractor is supposed to deal with it, not do the job wrong and hope nobody notices.

Wanna know what the best advertising of your company is ? Your work. When a customer has a couple of your business cards, and people come over, there is no replacement for that. "Who did what ? come here". Dude gets up follows him to th kitchen and your customer hands him a business card and says "These guys are good..........in fact they built this kitchen".

That is the difference between success and failure, and back to the OT, bad work can make a good advertising budget work against you. Say your commercial comes up on TV, and say the room is populated with more than one person. Well if you screwed any of them people, they might just pipe up and tell them all.

You should get a partial refund on both labor and materials if the tile job is unsatisfactory, you can't use it again. There should be nothing wrong with the fixtures, they might just need to be installed right.

As for anything coming up between the tiles, you did not say if it was ceramic or just the linoleum type tiles. Most of the latter are self stick and should not be used with glue. Yet contractors do it, in fact they did it to me in 1995 and I am unhappy to this day about it. Some things they did really well, others, how long do you got ?

If it is ceramic and is not grouted yet that is normal. On floors it is gouged out, sometimes ground out, on wall tiles it is usually more like peeled off. The tile installer has to make sure the tile is clean, and that grout-wells, for lack of a better term, exist. The grout needs somewhere to go and it can't be clogged up with Mastik (glue) or mortar. Or anything for that matter.

Y'know I am a slob. I try not to be when not at home, but as a slob I need to know my limitations. I am not a slob when it comes to this kind of stuff. That room is damnear a cleanroom before you grout. Swept, vacuumed, scraped out more, swept and vacuumed again. Then you grout.

I'll be back.

T

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/20/2008 5:34:10 AM

mhawk

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that's why my Lord is doing the work that needs to be done to the house Himself this spring.He's a licensed HVAC engineer.we are going to be taking several months to re vamp the entire house with new heating and air conditioning this year and even adding in a sprinkler system for all 4 floors in case of fire since He can do that without any hassle.have to consdering the house is almost 100 years old have to maintain it well.

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/20/2008 6:07:08 AM

aviinterra

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First, most of those things you could have done yourself, even the terrifing plumbing. Home Depot or Lowes will show you how to do everything, from patching up a hole to complex electrical wiring.
Second, unless it was specified in the contract, it is YOUR responsibility to check with local codes and laws for permits. If you had, and you got your permit, my guess you would not have been able to afford this remodel. Permits, inspections, master plumber, master electriction, an architects ok on your plans, etc. adds thousands to your overall costs. Hence, this is why 80% of remodels are done without permits. And to top it all off, at the end of your tax year, your home is now worth more and taxed more.
Third, it is YOUR responsibility to look after your home and your workers ( because that is what a contractor is, your worker for a time being ) and to do the homework yourself so that you can spot problems before they get tiled up, etc. You should have done your own little inspection at the milestones of the project ( like checked the plumbing before the walls came up, checked the walls before the tiles, etc. ) It sounds like a hassle, but this way you are protecting yourself, your money and your investement.
Forth, not paying the original balance will just get a mechanic's lien on your property until the argument is settled in court. And yes, you will pay the fines,etc. The contractor will not be liable for much other than to redo his mistakes- and those will only be the ones that pose a code violation or danger, nothing asthetic is taken into account.
Sorry to sound so harsh, but this is a simple life lesson of being responsible and keeping tabs on what happens in your home. Not all contractors are bad, and some are very good but things might still not come out right in the end due to technical stuff you might not even think about ( such as electrical wires pushing on sheetrock, etc. ) My advice, spare yourself the agony of all of this and talk to the guy, get him to throw in some freebies and fix all his mistakes. If he agrees, then all is well, if not, then I would mention the fact of going to court. Usually that is a motivator in itself. As for the permits, give yourself a break and forget about that, it's about $500 a day times how many days the job took just for not filing for one where a live.

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/20/2008 6:07:51 AM

pahunkboy

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one of my neighbors is a total bitch. but awesome at advice. so- i bury any hacket with her. I decided not to re-do my ktichen. the more i see the more i think- it is better to get a palce already done. i personally would not have done the bathroom. i figure i what room i spend the most time in.

my heart goes out to you on this. the guy i had working here- his heart was in the right place...but i did not have the stomche for it.

happy spring time.

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/20/2008 11:32:30 AM

LaTigresse

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I am so very glad my dad was a building contractor and I grew up around it.

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My twisted, self deprecating, sense of humour, finds alot to laugh about, in your lack of one!

Just because you are well educated, articulate, and can use big, fancy words, properly........does not mean you are right!

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/21/2008 10:04:39 AM

Termyn8or

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A bit of a tangent, but definitely related.

Just how do you tell if someone can and will do a good job. This applies to everything, but moreso to this subject than any other, at least among what comes to mind.

You can sit there with plans and all that, talk to the 'salesperson' who is glib and comes off as a real professional. And then have a bunch of yahoos come and fubar the job.

We had a fire in 95, we handled it right. Watched them like a hawk. A couple of years later a buddy had a similar experience and wanted me around when the guy came to do the estimate. The first words out of the guys mouth almost were "Get ready for the worst time of your life, there are so many inconveniences, it is a real pain". I kinda like that guy.

Getting your house worked on is a real PITA. Although I liked that guy's talk, he never walked the walk, upon further inspection it turned out the house needed to be demolished, but really, when a guy gets up front like that I think maybe he knows what he is doing.

But knowing what you are doing is not the same as having the diligence and work ethic to do the best job possible. When I work on a house it is different than working on the shed or fixing some junk. This is a person's largest physical asset in most cases.

This really big job we had, and it was big, even though there was some roughage we would most likely get the call. A error was made and I was not running the job, I did the wiring and relocated some heating vents. The owner said that he is witholding $800 for something that got damaged. He told me, not the guy running the job. In the end that is exactly what he did. The guy who ran the job claims that he should not have been held responsible for the damage but even though I worked for him, I do not agree.

The place got gutted so it could be rewired and insulated. Folks, don't get blown in insulation until your wiring is up to snuff ! Problem was the crew lost an integral piece to a fireplace insert rendering it useless.

I am objective about these things. If this was an endtable that was not removed I would say fuck off, but this was a fireplace insert, it is attached and therefor our job to remove before making a construction zone out of the place. Hmmm, literally. As such we were responsible. I did quite a few things that have been called spectacular on that job. Because of me, the guy has a kitchen like you would see on TV, and I mean on a cooking show. Actually we joked about it with the owner "Yep, we can put a camera right there" pointing to the corner.

We were done with the cabinetry almost and were assembling the island which was to have a Jen Air cooktop on it.We had the cabinets placed and I moved them. I moved them so they were at an angle. It was near quitting time but we usually waited for the guy to get home from work. He walks in the door and we point it out "Whaddya think of that ?". He loved it.

Not much later it was decided that it should be an exact 45 degree angle so I trigged it out. I am surprised at how many people do not have a clue how to do that. Later it was decided that the tile would also be layed at a 45 degree angle.

Minor mistakes were made but that is almost inevitable on a job of this scope. He had no problems with our work, just that $800 fireplace insert. All in all not so bad.

But how do you tell if someone is going to do a good job ?

T

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/21/2008 10:13:54 AM

faerytattoodgirl

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i hate maintenance workers as well as construction workers..they keep staring at my ass and chest when i walk by them....im hoping this year my tattoo's will turn them off...

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/21/2008 11:05:53 AM

PlayfulOne

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Never hire someone who is "sending" people to do the work. Hire people who are the ones who are actually going to be doing the work.

We charge somehting in the neighborhood of $4000 for a 5 by 8 hallway bath. (You supply the tile, fixtures, and such.) That covers labor and basic building materials (sheetrock, duorock, screws, thin set, mud, etc...) Generally, unless their are problems, it takes a week to 10 days. If we are doing something with a couple of niches, two different size tiles with a border in the middle, that takes longer than just straight wall tile. We generally don't do basic bathrooms or kitchens and 90% of our work comes from past customers with the rest coming from referals from the guys we know at Home Depot.

Don't hire people unless you've seen their past work.

Some people can do it themselves. A far larger number wind up way over their heads and either pay more to have it fixed or just have something that is never "right".

K

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RE: Why I Hate Construction People - A Rant - 3/21/2008 1:33:16 PM

DesFIP

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Maybe you ought to mention your location. Those of us who know good contractors could refer you.

The Man has done bathrooms ranging from about 5K to 25K, depending on how much plumbing, wiring etc needed to be moved and depending on the cost of the materials used. Obviously, cheap 2$ tile costs less than Carrera marble. And even in marble or granite, prices range greatly.

In general, you do better asking friends for references to people they've had do work who they stay friends with afterwards. Because if they still like the people afterwards, you know they were aboveboard.

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