WTF is wrong with contractors?

[Darayavaus]

Maybe I should feel lucky no contractor will return a call for my small amount of work.

Electrical: nope, not interested in hanging 2 fans, several new ceiling cuts, potentially more work in the form of a new panel for a mini-split since mine was built with ZERO spares.

General "Handy man" - nope...nobody will call back about multiple door replacement - freaking frames are so messed up from contractor house, the gaps just let air in at will. With winter coming I'd like to get that fixed.

But, hey, if you're not planning on spending 10K these folks do not want your business.

if you were in PA, I could set you up with quality people for all those projects.

In the 3 houses I've restored, I've had to pay to separate the wheat from the chaff. like I said, you often go through 5 turds before you find the conscientious expert.

And like this thread shows, listen to what they say and read between the lines. beware of the guy who gets defensive and argumentative trying to justify bad work - he's the same guy who will do a shit job when it comes to your project and then mouth off to you afterwards.

 

[Trigger Monkey]

We can talk about labor shortages and the lack of good help until the cows come up but architects and the upper management is a shit show at these construction firms too. They hire these people with four year degrees and what not to run these projects that have little experience actually putting something together, with their hands. These guys are so inexperienced it seems like they don't even know they're fucked and won't come to terms with the fact they probably won't hit their substantial completion dates. Instead, they just beat up all the subs to go faster, get more people, and remind them "you have a contractual obligation".

I have a hell job right now that's supposed to be substantially complete in eight weeks but as of last week, not one room on the four floors of this job is what could be construed as "complete", the HVAC isn't working yet, neither is the elevator, and two whole floors don't have drywall yet. Every time we start installing our casework we have to stop because we've caught up to the painters and drywall people. I get calls and emails almost every day though with "friendly reminders" that we need to put protection on our cabinets per our contractual obligation or we'll be responsible for replacing damaged cabinets. I'm about to tell the PM the contract can fuck right off, I'm burning through so many man hours and material costs with this protection bullshit it'd be cheaper for me to just leave it and replace anything broken.

 

[n2ishun]

if you were in PA, I could set you up with quality people for all those projects.

In the 3 houses I've restored, I've had to pay to separate the wheat from the chaff. like I said, you often go through 5 turds before you find the conscientious expert.

And like this thread shows, listen to what they say and read between the lines. beware of the guy who gets defensive and argumentative trying to justify bad work - he's the same guy who will do a shit job when it comes to your project and then mouth off to you afterwards.

Unless of course said sayer came in all mouth and ill intent at which point the gloves will come off and stay off.

 

[valsport]

We can talk about labor shortages and the lack of good help until the cows come up but architects and the upper management is a shit show at these construction firms too. They hire these people with four year degrees and what not to run these projects that have little experience actually putting something together, with their hands. These guys are so inexperienced it seems like they don't even know they're fucked and won't come to terms with the fact they probably won't hit their substantial completion dates. Instead, they just beat up all the subs to go faster, get more people, and remind them "you have a contractual obligation".

I have a hell job right now that's supposed to be substantially complete in eight weeks but as of last week, not one room on the four floors of this job is what could be construed as "complete", the HVAC isn't working yet, neither is the elevator, and two whole floors don't have drywall yet. Every time we start installing our casework we have to stop because we've caught up to the painters and drywall people. I get calls and emails almost every day though with "friendly reminders" that we need to put protection on our cabinets per our contractual obligation or we'll be responsible for replacing damaged cabinets. I'm about to tell the PM the contract can fuck right off, I'm burning through so many man hours and material costs with this protection bullshit it'd be cheaper for me to just leave it and replace anything broken.

We must be working the same jobs.

 

[vinniedelpino]

Virtually anyone can pay ~$150 to set up an LLC and market themselves as a professional. Low barriers to entry create these problems. It's one of the unfortunate downsides of free market capitalism.

The prevailing idea that "it's just business" makes the problem that much worse. For whatever reason it's OK to fuck people over in the name of turning a profit. I never understood that.

Any man worth his salt takes pride in his work and keeps his word. Good men are few and far between nowdays.

Caveat emptor.

 

[300zx_tt]

I really don't do it that way. I work in deposit plus straight percentage and my clients all see everything 100%. My houses right now are running from 210- $250.00/sq.ft heated and cooled but they also typically have 300-500 foot water lines and 2-3k sq.ft. of covered outdoor space.

I also have some that are more but they are legit high end builds.

Gotcha, the house I just bid is a 2200sqft raised Chalet vacation home. Came in just under $200/sqft. Pretty straight forward though, simple build, utilities are close, should be able to frame it out in 2 weeks just me and my old man.

I’m a much smaller operation than you for sure, but as a younger guy in the industry I can clearly see where I want to go and what type of company I want to run.

I had a drywall sub I used 5ish years ago that 2 coated the closets and left them rougher than I wanted, especially on the wall with the door. When I called him back about it he gave me a line about it being close enough. So when I sent him his check I shorted him $500 and wrote “close enough” in the memo line. He called me all pissed off and told me to keep my money, he wouldn’t work for me again which worked out because I wouldn’t have hired him again.

My grandfather used to say, “character is what you do when nobody is looking.” So I sanded and redid the closets until they were as close to perfect as I could get them. I did another $160k worth of work to that guys house and I got 2 referrals that I landed without another bid on the table. One was a $55k cedar deck. The homeowner said my deck work looked better than the trim in his house.

 

[Jgunner]

Getting smaller stuff done by a pro has become impossible. Seriously, if you find someone who will do small jobs, they are not a pro. Pro's don't do that because it's just not profitable to do it. The only times I do anything other than build custom homes drawn for my clients, is when it's a client that I've built for. Once I build for someone, there generally just won't deal with anyone else no matter what it is or what it cost so I tend to do stuff for them that I wouldn't otherwise do, outside if that absolutely not.

I find the opposite to be true. Big jobs don’t always profit as much as a few small jobs. I would rather go do work for 3 clients in a day than be on one job for 3 days.