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..
PS. if you do fire him you will reget it.
Do you like the tiles? If yes then relax and let him make a little money for being a good shopper.As for trust did he tell you about the price difference? Would you have known? As for the concrete if this is a floor slab and he used a pre-mix without too much water it will be fine, if it was structural it would be a big deal but transit mixed is much better and usually cheaper. If the wood came from a humid warehouse in Georgia you might have a problem, if it is narrow strip oak it should be OK. It seems like he’s doing his best to keep on schedule and some compromises are to be expected.
So- you’re not losing anything. Why make mountains out of molehills? Trust me, you’ll have mountains to make mountain out of at some point, but this isn’t it.
I’ve heard about letting the floors sit.
OK, here’s what I would do. Have a sit down with the contractor and the architect. Trust is important and you are always going to know the least about anything and you need to be able to trust the contractor going forward. Let the architect push the contractor in a friendly way on the quality issues. Lay it out there that you need to know that if the contractor alters from agreed plans on an issue affecting quality, you need to be able to trust, and you want it run through the architect first. Perhaps you want to get a guarantee on the work now, not at the end, in case the contractor leaves early and you end up with warped floors. Architect can then advise you privately whether contractor is basically ok or if you have a real problem. Where you should end up is that teh contractor ahs some flexibility, but anything significant must go through the architect. Lurking in the background is the threat that architect will advise you to hold back an installment for something not done right. Don’t do this with too heavy a hand, but contractor will get the message. I’d also let him pocket the tile savings with the understanding that you are going to expect some give on changes and little extras going forward.
I guess I failed to mention that in the contract all the renovation work already has a price for it. e.g., Finishing the basement is $20K, and the tile price was not in the contract..he just verbally told me. So regardless if the tile is $1 or $1.50…end result is the same cost for the basement finishing.
So the bottom line is- is he charging you more? Is the work good? You’re paying less per tile and you’re complaining? You need to step back and look at the big picture because if you fire this guy over such foolishness, your next contractor could give you serious agita- adding more money to the quote, sitting around for hours because his men “have nothing to do” and don’t care enough to find something to do. Maybe you’re just inexperienced but think how totally ridiculous it sounds to complain that the tile you want is actually going to cost less than the contractor thought. Give the man a kiss, not a kick.
Wood is going to shift summer/winter regardless. If it sat for 3 days in high humidity you’d exacerbate the problem. I’d address each of these issues separately. He seems to have told you about the tile price – so maybe he’s taking the difference off the final bill? Ask him about it. I can’t comment on the cement but I do agree that paid labor is usually expensive & better to have them doing something.
Maybe the OP has a point about the hardwood floors accumulation issue which I totally cannot understand, but I’d hate to work him.
“new hardwood accumulate for 3-5 days before installing them”—I think it is acclimate not accumulate.