Contractor Issues

Steve, the point that I’m making is that 90% of customers hate their contractor at some point during the job. Also some men (including myself) have problems responding to an assertive woman. The architect vouched for this contractor’s ability to complete the job.
If money isn’t a problem fire his ass, but the cost of this job will balloon. It sounds to me that the contractor is ready willing and able to complete this job, but he’s pissed off that the job has increased in scope, and the engineer/architect are dragging their feet in getting the permit / go ahead to excavate the basement. I don’t know how this architect did not know that the basement would need to be excavated. Maybe the homeowner should stick with the original plan, leave the structural work alone.

This is terrible and really sorry you had to experience this! This is the exact type of scenario that gives contractors a bad name however, there are many good ones out there!

Shamrock, i don’t vouch for firing this person myself, it will be a mess.

Op, if what shamrock has said about scope changing because of the change order is true and this led to the insurance issue after the job was underway, the contractor has a grievance. But if the contractor came up with the number for that change order, the insurance should have been included in that number. He should have advised of this at it was happening – that he did not seem to be aware it might happen is still troubling in that it implies he has never taken jobs where he has had to purchase additional insurance.

Part of the reason i begin to think these contractors are incompetent is in 40 years, i have never had anyone call me or anyone on our team ignorant or anything like it on jobs we were running as employees of a building (and i am sure we have have given plenty of people plenty of reason to call us a lot of things; its just not does happen) nor has anyone on my team as a contractor ever said anything like this to a customer. As i said above, this is something that is looked for during the selection process and if it looks like a contractor has the propensity to get abusive, we cut them from the candidates.. if a member of the contractor’s team is abusive, he has to handle it. Its actually worse if someone on his team does it because it means they neither respect their boss nor the customer.

I had a contractor remove an employee from my house simply for asking me for a cigarette one time. No warning. Not only do i not smoke but we did not have any sort of repore. That he asked showed very bad judgement – he crossed a line. Calling customers “ignorant” crosses that line and it is not worth trying to teach these people what is wrong with it. It does not matter if the contractor is frustrated.

> @Shamrock
> Also some men (including myself) have problems responding to an assertive woman.
:/ maybe you should work on that one

Randolph: he gets a boat load of credit for admitting it. That’s a pretty big hurdle right there.

Sorry you’re going through this. I just wanted to counter Shamrock’s statements above that this kind of communication is normal. It is not. There is a fair amount of misogyny in the construction industry but the majority is casual and easily defended against but from your description this doesn’t sound like that. This sounds like someone who is just a garden-variety jerk, with a hefty dose of misogyny on top. Your architect vouched for this contractor and you are being mistreated. Your current architect needs to provide some suggestions for how to proceed (either with or without this contractor) and you should make sure you read your contract with them and the contractor carefully regarding non-performance, etc.
The last time I interacted with a contractor who behaved like this he ended up being indicted for procurement fraud against the US Air Force. He is currently in the federal penitentiary. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy… (i didn’t have anything to do with that, it just felt kinda good to see him get his just desserts)

Sorry you’re going through this. I just wanted to counter Shamrock’s statements above that this kind of communication is normal. It is not. There is a fair amount of misogyny in the construction industry but the majority is casual and easily defended against but from your description this doesn’t sound like that. This sounds like someone who is just a garden-variety jerk, with a hefty dose of misogyny on top. Your architect vouched for this contractor and you are being mistreated. Your current architect needs to provide some suggestions for how to proceed (either with or without this contractor) and you should make sure you read your contract with them and the contractor carefully regarding non-performance, etc.
The last time I interacted with a contractor who behaved like this he ended up being indicted for procurement fraud against the US Air Force. He is currently in the federal penitentiary. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy… (i didn’t have anything to do with that, it just felt kinda good to see him get his just desserts)

Maggie, thank you for echoing what i have been trying to say. I have been trying to tell people on this board that over the past decade i have watched people choose contractors under the assumption that certain behavior from us who work is acceptable as if we are simply rude, crass people. I spoke to someone yesterday who reinforced that it is the people the customers are selecting that is the issue. As soon as i can, i am going to talk to some contacts in heavy construction and see what they have to say about behavior towards customers and vice versa.

After forty years of working in this industry i have never seen or heard anything like this. Simply put, people are setting the bar low. Raise the bar: i do. I have interviewed scores of people for in-house positions, subs, contractors; if any one of them curses or looks at me funny as i ask them questions during an interview, they are cut from consideration.

Maggie, you mention that a contractor who behaved a certain way ended up under indictment. Read what i say above about having a contractor’s employ ee removed from my house with no warning for asking me for a cigarette: my reasoning was, if he crosses that line with me, what other lines will he cross? Will he cross the line from the bathroom they were renovating and walk into the master bedroom where he looks for jewelry? Slippery slope maybe. Tight ship, yes.

People have to choose contractors as if they will be sharing an office with them or working in the next cubicle. If you don’t want to work in a professional environment with them, do not hire
them. You will weed out half your problems right there.

@doorsby unfortunately contractors don’t always show their true colors until they’re on the job, and once there it is incredibly difficult to extricate yourself from the contractual relationship. it’s a crappy situation. The larger companies can send one team to bid and another team once they get the job but the typical homeowner or individual isn’t going to have the knowledge or ability to be able to call them on whatever BS may be going on at the jobsite. That’s where the architect has to step in. I have to add here though that this type of behavior isn’t limited to contractors, who do sometimes get a bad rap. Contractors do not have a monopoly on being jerks.

@doorsby unfortunately contractors don’t always show their true colors until they’re on the job, and once there it is incredibly difficult to extricate yourself from the contractual relationship. it’s a crappy situation. The larger companies can send one team to bid and another team once they get the job but the typical homeowner or individual isn’t going to have the knowledge or ability to be able to call them on whatever BS may be going on at the jobsite. That’s where the architect has to step in. I have to add here though that this type of behavior isn’t limited to contractors, who do sometimes get a bad rap. Contractors do not have a monopoly on being jerks.

We can debate some of this but i like your statement “this sounds like your garden variety jerk with a heap of mysogeny on top”. Where have we seen that before and how did we let that happen?

sorry to hear that. info.mattsch@gmail.com shoot me an email might be able to help

sorry to hear that. info.mattsch@gmail.com shoot me an email might be able to help