Fire This Contractor?
Just wanted an advice. We have been using this contractor for the past 3 weeks to renovate our house. Before we signed the contract he was very nice and seem eager to do things extra things. Now after a week or so..we noticed he did a total 180 on us. Couple of things that bothered…
Just wanted an advice. We have been using this contractor for the past 3 weeks to renovate our house. Before we signed the contract he was very nice and seem eager to do things extra things. Now after a week or so..we noticed he did a total 180 on us. Couple of things that bothered me was that even though he promised me the day of that he was not going to install the new hardwood floors (let it accumulate), he did it anyway for one of the bedroom. His excuse was that 2 of his workers ran out of things to do. Second was that he said he was going to get concrete from a truck to finish our basement (800sq ft) but we then found out hes doing it manually..claiming that its better quality and his workers had nothing to do. Well the tip of the iceberg came yesterday when he showed me a couple of tiles. Originally he said they were going to be $1.30-$1.50 each.. now hes telling me its no more than $1. What would you do in my situation? I know some of you might say why we didn’t fire him sooner than later. The positive is that he is meeting our deadline for the completion of work. Many people say whatever time frame you tell the contractor..multiple that by 2..
Dam Fool
Sounds like the guy just spoke too soon. And pretty much all parties lack experience. The wood is not from Prospect Park.
If I ran my business the way the contractors I have worked with ran theirs I would be out of business fast. So I agree with you that this whole ‘bait and switch’ attitude is really annoying and worrying. It reminds me of my (bad) experience with my contractor – I felt like I was being pushed all the time to see what he could get away with, the more little things I let slide the more bigger things started to slide. And the contractor ‘doing you a favor’ is BS. I don’t buy that for a moment. In fact it would make me question the real value of everything else we had bid prices on.
Don’t let him away with anything else, you have to be a pain in his ass every time he pulls more of this ‘say one thing / do another’. If you don’t stand up for yourself now your contractor is going to do things the way he wants to do them, not the way you want him to do them.
Yes, I know nothing about installing flooring, but Bruce addressed a question that came to my mind right away: doesn’t it matter where the wood has been sitting prior to your house? If it’s down the street in the same climate, then why would it have to acclimate again? Sounds like some of these rules are too simplistic and rigid. (Don’t mean to be commenting on your situation here; just a general statement about some rules that for people outside the industry can be confusing.)
Also tangential, but important to ME: Not helpful to correct OP’s misspelling. That’s just a cheap shot.
About hardwood flooring acclimating…
Printed instructions are assuming new construction in large lots drop shipped from the”sticks”. If this flooring came from a local vendor, it has already warmed or cooled from it’s factory of origin.
We used to get pallets in from Tennessee in the winter that had been sitting outside and were frozen through and through. They would have to sit in a heated space for a week before the center would thaw. This is primarily what the warnings are about, NOT your situation.
I would be greatly interested in the installation quality. Are they discarding bad boards (and every lot has some) or is it being installed willy nilly. Are they opening a bunch of bundles and mixing them? Are all the bundles from the same lot?
Other issues than the time they sat on your job are far more important. How about do you like the way it looks? It’s not to late to change your mind, now’s the time to love it or leave it.
To ease your mind have someone who knows construction (not all architects do) do a walk through casually while his guys are working. I can tell in 5 minutes if they are “challenged” or experienced. What you don’t want is a laborer doing finish carpentry.
Good Luck
bruce
I found this on TOH: It would appear that moisture content is the biggest concern– not so much acclimation, per se. Also, the type of wood seems to be a factor. Tom Silva interviews a flooring specialist in this piece, and the installer also recommends a gap on the borders to allow for expansion.
“As for your selection of Brazilian cherry, Hunt says it’s a very hard and durable wood, but not as stable as more common hardwoods. Let it acclimate in your house until its moisture content reaches 6 to 8 percent. Also check the moisture content of the subfloor; it should be in the 8 to 10 percent range when the flooring goes down. Finally, your installer should leave a ‘-inch gap around the perimeter of the room for the boards to expand and contract with seasonal changes in humidity. That’s good flooring practice regardless of the species being used.” Tom Silva interviewing Hunt for TOH
I have had a lot of experience with contractors. It may be nothing, but I would say “trust your gut.” If you think the guy is starting to take advantage of you, then he probably is. I forget which poster it was that said “it starts with the little things,” but I agree. On the one hand, be fair. No large job of any kind goes exactly as planned, but if something doesn’t feel right, don’t ignore it. There have been great pysch. studies about how people react when they get taken advantage of or manipulated. Our first basic reaction usually is that we get a bad feeling in our stomachs. It’s not a joke–it’s intuition communicating to your conscious mind the only way it knows how–by making you feel physically ill. Stay firm, keep asking questions, and stop the whole process if you have to, until you get a point where it feels right again.
Also: I have always been under the impression that wood floors have to sit in a room for several days before being installed. The reason I’ve been told makes sense. Wood expands and contracts quite a bit depending on the humidity and temperature. If you want a great example, come to my house during the winter, then come back during the summer. One season every door in the house sticks, then in the next season, they all close perfectly. That means that if you install all of the flooring while it’s contracted, and then it expands when it begins to acclimate IT WILL BUCKLE. I have seen this happen with parquet flooring.
But don’t take my word for it. Check out the THIS OLD HOUSE website (an independent opinion). Ask around. Get every written guarantee you can manage out of this guy, and NEVER NEVER NEVER pay most or all of the money until that last nail is nailed. Once there’s just a couple of thousand left in a big job like that, many–not ALL–but many contractors lose interest. They’ve already been paid. My final advice, act like a human being. Be fair, and think results more than process. But also, think like a lawyer. Think about what evidence you will need to convince a judge if things don’t go right. If this guy says putting the floors down in “X” number of days is ok, ask to get that in writing. Do it like a human being– you still have to work with this guy, so honesty goes a long way. For example, you can say– ” I trust your expert judgment, but I am concerned as it says on THIS OLD HOUSE “xyx”. Since I am uncomfortable, it would go a long way towards making me feel better if I could get that in writing.” If he is a scrupulous contractor, he will not mind guaranteeing his work. Take pictures along the way. If details change and they if are not “material changes”, the court usually won’t care, so if after some research you think you are getting cheap quality tiles after you shook on a deal for more expensive ones– put it in writing between both of you (both sign) that you insist on XYZ tile before they go down, otherwise a court may look at the change and say it’s not a big deal. IF IT IS A BIG DEAL TO YOU, then that has to be expressed up front and clearly, or a court will probably side with the contractor.
I say these things with the hopes and sincere expectations that everything will go well. It probably will. Nevertheless, hope for the best, and plan for the worst.
good luck
i agree with most people thank your lucky stars he isn’t charging you more. other wise just talk to him about the tiles.
contractors in nyc generally sucks.
I like slopefarm’s approach.
But no one here is concerned about contractor not letting the wood acclimate? That would be my only concern, but otherwise, he doesn’t sound that bad.