Dealing with a crappy contractor.

[Cyle]

Stucco is a bad trade to find for some reason. On my house they were the same way, they wanted like 30% after the scaffold and Tyvek was up (this was before the changes to how it's done), but asked for it after half the house was like that and I told them to pound sand, get some work done if you want money or pack up and leave. I did give in a bit and gave a fair bit of small draws as work was done, like I would go there as they were finishing for the day and pay them. Turns out it was still a bad idea, I found out after an employee asked me when I was going to pay them because they weren't getting paid, by that point I only owed them a few grand. Turns out the owners were keeping all the money, didn't pay employees much if anything, some employees even paid for minor material. It was a shitshow. I also had the RCMP show up because they wanted the owner for beating his wife, ironically the owner had showed up just days ago with a bad shiner, I think she beat his a$$, she looked like the type to not take chit from anyone. I had employees, the guy, his wife everyone showing up for months wanting money and a crappy stucco job with not enough left to fix it properly. Did I mention the name on the contract the owner signed with me was a fake name too? Fawk I hate sketchy people.

 

[lilduke]

That's the way any decent company is run, if you can't afford to carry the cost of the job you shouldn't be doing it.

Kinda depends on the project. On multi million contracts you want to get paid on progress typically. On some guys house different story.

Residential construction is a joke

 

[lilduke]

For every shady contractor there is 10 shady home owners that will look for any excuse not to pay a bill lol

 

[Cyle]

Kinda depends on the project. On multi million contracts you want to get paid on progress typically. On some guys house different story.

Residential construction is a joke

Yes of course on larger stuff. Always bill monthly or after decent progress on anything large.

I'd rather do residential then commercial, more money for less headaches and risk. Most GC's don't know their head from their a$$, pay when they feel like it, want something for nothing, and think they are the most important person there is and you will drop whatever you are doing for them. I haven't done a single commercial job in over a year and am very happy about that.

 

[Cyle]

For every shady contractor there is 10 shady home owners that will look for any excuse not to pay a bill lol

Wouldn't say near that. I generally run into 1 bad customer a year who doesn't want to pay.

 

[lilduke]

Yes of course on larger stuff. Always bill monthly or after decent progress on anything large.

I'd rather do residential then commercial, more money for less headaches and risk. Most GC's don't know their head from their a$$, pay when they feel like it, want something for nothing, and think they are the most important person there is and you will drop whatever you are doing for them. I haven't done a single commercial job in over a year and am very happy about that.

We are the opposite. Won't touch residential unless we know you.

 

[tejay]

Stucco is a bad trade to find for some reason. On my house they were the same way, they wanted like 30% after the scaffold and Tyvek was up (this was before the changes to how it's done), but asked for it after half the house was like that and I told them to pound sand, get some work done if you want money or pack up and leave. I did give in a bit and gave a fair bit of small draws as work was done, like I would go there as they were finishing for the day and pay them. Turns out it was still a bad idea, I found out after an employee asked me when I was going to pay them because they weren't getting paid, by that point I only owed them a few grand. Turns out the owners were keeping all the money, didn't pay employees much if anything, some employees even paid for minor material. It was a shitshow. I also had the RCMP show up because they wanted the owner for beating his wife, ironically the owner had showed up just days ago with a bad shiner, I think she beat his a$$, she looked like the type to not take chit from anyone. I had employees, the guy, his wife everyone showing up for months wanting money and a crappy stucco job with not enough left to fix it properly. Did I mention the name on the contract the owner signed with me was a fake name too? Fawk I hate sketchy people.

Wow that sounds like exactly what happened to my brother. Contractor on the pipe in his truck at 8 am . Employees not paid . Change the business name . Unpaid bills while not paying his guys . Now some of the acrylic is peeling . Gong show

 

[snoflake]

Definitely need a clear contract with pricing, terms, change order instructions. Scope creep, and things changing need to be addressed almost daily. Every client wants to make on the fly changes as things progress, (not that it's a bad thing) but the changes cost money and that needs to be handled correctly. Nobody wants a surprise at the end of the project, and nobody should have extra cost piled on after it's been quoted and accepted. It's not abnormal to have progressive billing for materials other items. A guy doesn't want to order a ton of pink siding, then have the client back out, so I think there are times when things demand a deposit. Labor isn't one of them.

 

[lilduke]

If you have 50 guys working, you might want to get paid for labour more than once a year. Lol I get that doesnt apply to smaller residential jobs

 

[Cableguy]

where is the project at
I know a couple good stucco guys

 

[freeflorider]

where is the project at
I know a couple good stucco guys

I’m in Castlegar. I see lots in Kelowna Vernon area.

 

[Travco28]

What nobody has mentioned is , When you hire the cheapest contractor you can find you cant expect a good quality job. As an exterior contractor I still find it amazing how most home owners look at price, price and only price . Then cry when they get a sh** job or get screwed .
And yes there are a tonne of As*****les around on both sides of the fence. Same goes for most builders , they hire the cheapest they can find and hope like hell it will turn out. Then the poor home owner has to deal with the crappy quality down the road.
And it seams to be getting worse not better .

 

[freeflorider]

This is well over a million dollar build so looking for the cheapest guy is far from my mind. I have a motto, you show up and do your job and I pay you. im paying everyone by the hour that’s why Im smoking mad this jack off took advantage of the situation. He didn’t get far though. I’m not to worried every dog has his day.

 

[Travco28]

I understand . You put good faith into a guy and he f**** you . I think there should be a webpage put up for reporting guys like him. So they cant change company names and keep screwing people .

 

[rknight111]

I like what Greg distributors does. They post pictures of owners and bounced cheques or people that ripped them off

 

[freeflorider]

I understand . You put good faith into a guy and he f**** you . I think there should be a webpage put up for reporting guys like him. So they cant change company names and keep screwing people .

Someone said earlier, Social media. This is one way to put a dent in his sales.

 

[Cyle]

What nobody has mentioned is , When you hire the cheapest contractor you can find you cant expect a good quality job. As an exterior contractor I still find it amazing how most home owners look at price, price and only price . Then cry when they get a sh** job or get screwed .
And yes there are a tonne of As*****les around on both sides of the fence. Same goes for most builders , they hire the cheapest they can find and hope like hell it will turn out. Then the poor home owner has to deal with the crappy quality down the road.
And it seams to be getting worse not better .

Cheapest doesn't always mean the worst, nor does most expensive mean the best. You need to compare how close the prices are, and try to get an idea of what it takes to do the job and material cost. Sometimes you'll find good companies are the cheapest because they are good at what they are do and are in and out and organized and make as much if not more on the job then others who charge more. If you get 3 quotes say $18k, $21k, and $23k the $18k could do the best job of them all and doesn't mean it's too cheap, if someone is $15k then either the high or low prices one of them is wrong because it shouldn't vary that much. Also sometimes if people are really busy they start quoting insanely high, if someone is a bit slow they will go low on a few jobs to keep guys busy, it's not always a reflection of their work.

Builders are one area they generally just want the cheapest and don't care about much else especially the bigger one's which is why I don't work for them. But I have a few smaller one's who price isn't the biggest thing, some see value in quality and some see value in using the same reliable trades over and over to make things smoother, and if you build a good relationship it has a lot of perks for both sides, but there's a lot of people who don't realize that.

 

[Bnorth]

Cheapest doesn't always mean the worst, nor does most expensive mean the best. You need to compare how close the prices are, and try to get an idea of what it takes to do the job and material cost. Sometimes you'll find good companies are the cheapest because they are good at what they are do and are in and out and organized and make as much if not more on the job then others who charge more. If you get 3 quotes say $18k, $21k, and $23k the $18k could do the best job of them all and doesn't mean it's too cheap, if someone is $15k then either the high or low prices one of them is wrong because it shouldn't vary that much. Also sometimes if people are really busy they start quoting insanely high, if someone is a bit slow they will go low on a few jobs to keep guys busy, it's not always a reflection of their work.

Builders are one area they generally just want the cheapest and don't care about much else especially the bigger one's which is why I don't work for them. But I have a few smaller one's who price isn't the biggest thing, some see value in quality and some see value in using the same reliable trades over and over to make things smoother, and if you build a good relationship it has a lot of perks for both sides, but there's a lot of people who don't realize that.

Just dealt with this for a roofing job. Cheapest was the local big roofing contractor and other than being a bit of a wait for them to get started it was a really good experience as far as getting it quoted, answering questions, turning the job around quickly once it was started, good workmanship and decent clean up after.
Most trades are flat out around here so unless you have a quote by April you are usually either getting ignored or getting an FU price.

 

[maxwell]

sucks but usually the busiest guy is the best, and not necessarily the most expensive either. Just takes time to get them

 

[maxwell]

Cheapest doesn't always mean the worst, nor does most expensive mean the best. You need to compare how close the prices are, and try to get an idea of what it takes to do the job and material cost. Sometimes you'll find good companies are the cheapest because they are good at what they are do and are in and out and organized and make as much if not more on the job then others who charge more. If you get 3 quotes say $18k, $21k, and $23k the $18k could do the best job of them all and doesn't mean it's too cheap, if someone is $15k then either the high or low prices one of them is wrong because it shouldn't vary that much. Also sometimes if people are really busy they start quoting insanely high, if someone is a bit slow they will go low on a few jobs to keep guys busy, it's not always a reflection of their work.

Builders are one area they generally just want the cheapest and don't care about much else especially the bigger one's which is why I don't work for them. But I have a few smaller one's who price isn't the biggest thing, some see value in quality and some see value in using the same reliable trades over and over to make things smoother, and if you build a good relationship it has a lot of perks for both sides, but there's a lot of people who don't realize that.

you must have really good rates since you dont even put brakes in your trucks or trailers