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Stupid Pet Peeves

bigb said:
I hate the fact that assholes lump all contractors into the same category. He’s having a bad experience right now so we’re all a bunch of dishonest pricks that screw everybody over.


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You should hate the fact that contractors are assholes and give you all a bad name. Not the other way around.
 
Beer said:
First off, @bigb I'll apologize for the generalization. That is a fair complaint and I apologize. But, also I've never heard anyone ever having an on time on budget build, reno, project, etc .... pretty much anything that involves anyone in the construction industry is going to be hell.

1. Not sure how to answer this. This is an existing house being remodeled. So we had each part come in, walk through, we told them what we wanted, picked out what we wanted from their inventory. So for painting they measured every room. For carpet and wood flooring same. For light fixtures and outlets same. They knew exactly what we wanted and we had product picked out for them to use. Should have been no surprises.

We were short on flooring in the master bathroom. Right where the tub needed to go. So of course that flooring is out of stock, so the tub can't get put in. So the plumbers are now delayed. Once again, they came in and measured and knew exactly what was supposed to go where. But we do have about 8 boxed of unopened flooring that goes to other rooms left over, so that is great. Strike one against the construction industry.

2. General contractor or the most part but we are at the house making decisions when stuff comes up. There seems to be an ungodly amount of miscommunication or no communication between the GC, the workers, the guy that works under the GC. No one is ever on the same page. Strike 2 against the industry.

3. Not much is changing. If anything they tell us it would be easier and cheaper to do B instead of what we had wanted as A. And if it makes sense we ok it. But then the easier and cheaper option turns into longer and the same price or longer. Like putting in a janitor sink istead of a farm sink in my wifes flower studio. Was supposed to be more functional, which I'm sure it will be, but not cheaper, well not after repariing walls, moving plumbing, tile back splash etc ......Strike 3.

4. I pay invoices as soon as I review them and make sure they aren't full of bull ****. Which, guess what they always are. I'm never holding things up though. I want this done ASAP.

5. We've been doing this since June. Move in date was supposed to be mid July, then end of August, now end of Sept. All because if one group ****s up then everyone else is pushed back, and so on and so forth.

6. An example. Handyman is doing the bathroom, I ask him about just tiling in the shower instead of putting in a fitted one or what not. He says, no problem, super easy, will be $2,500 at most. I get a bill for $6k. And the god damn shower isn't even done. Still need to be grouted, a few more rows of tile, fixtures, etc ..... It's been almost a month since it was started on.

I'd be willing to bet if you surveyed 100 new build or remodel customers. You'd get 1 or maybe 2 positive responses. With probably 85 highly unsatisfied customers and a few whatever's. Like I said I have never ever ever heard of a positive build or remodel. Not once. And I obviously talk about it to a ton of people right now. It's always over budget, and way behind. I understand not everything is in your control but don't act for one second like the ****** ones are in the minority because that is an absolute lie.

I am sure your are great. I'm sure you are. But dates with your wife, office work, etc .... are not my problem nor your customers problem. I just want people to show up when they say, do what they tell me they will do, and charge me what is agreed upon. If that makes me an ******* so be it.
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And I’ve probably taken it a little more personally than I should have. I also will apologize.
Maybe my perspective is just different than yours. Every problem you just went through, I can easily see a reason it happens. With the flooring, you didn’t say whether the right amount was ordered and it got back ordered, or if they just didn’t order enough. I will say that you picked a really bad time to do this. The supply chains are almost nonexistent right now. On my end, panels and breakers are getting hard to find. Certain brands are basically extinct right now. Because of all this, prices are starting to go up. In this scenario, that’s not your fault, so I eat that.
I will also say that with remodels, you should expect the price to go up. I hate remodels to begin with and I don’t bid remodels. I give estimates. The older the house, the more problems you’ll run into. And the electrician’s problems become the drywaller’s problems, and then the painters problem, etc. Everyone will add some $$ to fix their portion of that problem.
I know you’ll probably disagree with me when I say this, but it sounds like your GC is just not that good. If he can’t communicate to his employees, let alone the other contractors, nothing is going to go well. Of my two main contractors, one is a very good communicator. If I don’t answer his calls and I’m supposed to be on his job, he gets a little testy. He will be on the job 90% of the time. He demands a lot from his contractors, but he takes care of us. The other one doesn’t communicate well, but the guy running his jobs does and he knows how to get stuff done.
I’m not saying there aren’t bad contractors out there. There are dumb asses and thieves and liars and, quite frankly, people who should not be allowed to have a license. But to say every one of us is horrible and a liar and a thief and there is no such thing as a good job where everything went perfectly and there were no issues is a load of ********. I’ve built two houses with two different builders. One was a great experience and the other not so much.
One other thing I’ll add is that your attitude with the workers will make a difference. If I have the choice of two jobs and one homeowner is an ******* who yells at me (for whatever reason) and the other is fun to be around and they joke with me etc. I’m going to choose the second one. Every time; until I absolutely have to go back to the first. IMO, you should not be calling anyone but the General Contractor. It’s his job and responsibility to get the other guys there.
Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would give serious thought to firing your GC and finding someone else. Obviously, I don’t know how much you’ve paid him or what stage you’re in on the job, but it’s always an option.
 
bigb said:
And I’ve probably taken it a little more personally than I should have. I also will apologize.
Maybe my perspective is just different than yours. Every problem you just went through, I can easily see a reason it happens. With the flooring, you didn’t say whether the right amount was ordered and it got back ordered, or if they just didn’t order enough. I will say that you picked a really bad time to do this. The supply chains are almost nonexistent right now. On my end, panels and breakers are getting hard to find. Certain brands are basically extinct right now. Because of all this, prices are starting to go up. In this scenario, that’s not your fault, so I eat that.
I will also say that with remodels, you should expect the price to go up. I hate remodels to begin with and I don’t bid remodels. I give estimates. The older the house, the more problems you’ll run into. And the electrician’s problems become the drywaller’s problems, and then the painters problem, etc. Everyone will add some $$ to fix their portion of that problem.
I know you’ll probably disagree with me when I say this, but it sounds like your GC is just not that good. If he can’t communicate to his employees, let alone the other contractors, nothing is going to go well. Of my two main contractors, one is a very good communicator. If I don’t answer his calls and I’m supposed to be on his job, he gets a little testy. He will be on the job 90% of the time. He demands a lot from his contractors, but he takes care of us. The other one doesn’t communicate well, but the guy running his jobs does and he knows how to get stuff done.
I’m not saying there aren’t bad contractors out there. There are dumb asses and thieves and liars and, quite frankly, people who should not be allowed to have a license. But to say every one of us is horrible and a liar and a thief and there is no such thing as a good job where everything went perfectly and there were no issues is a load of ********. I’ve built two houses with two different builders. One was a great experience and the other not so much.
One other thing I’ll add is that your attitude with the workers will make a difference. If I have the choice of two jobs and one homeowner is an ******* who yells at me (for whatever reason) and the other is fun to be around and they joke with me etc. I’m going to choose the second one. Every time; until I absolutely have to go back to the first. IMO, you should not be calling anyone but the General Contractor. It’s his job and responsibility to get the other guys there.
Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would give serious thought to firing your GC and finding someone else. Obviously, I don’t know how much you’ve paid him or what stage you’re in on the job, but it’s always an option.
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I agree. Now is not a good time for really anything. We went to buy new appliances. Saw a bunch of stuff was 1/2 off, went to buy, they told us the earliest they could get it was December because Korea was pretty much shut down. Well that's not going to work so we went a different route. I assume the same issue is going on with more than electronics,

The GC sucking is very possible. He is a family friend who came very highly recommended from outsiders, so who knows. Maybe it is all on him. IDK. Just on saturday the "handyman" not sure what else to call him. The guy who is kind of doing all the general things texts us and says the carpet might be delayed due to A,B, and C. So I text the GC and then the handyman says "well, the carpet isn't getting delayed but I can only do so much because I have to wait on paint, plumbing, etc ..." So obviously there is a communication breakdown somewhere along the line. Anytime we push back on the BS someone up the line blames someone else. But like I said, this is not just a me thing. EVERYONE I talk to about this has the same story to tell. This is not an isolated issue.

I have also never yelled at anyone, or complained to anyone other than my wife. If anything I should be way more pissed that I've been out of a house for 2 months past when it was supposed to be done. I've been pretty god damned patient imo. I have only went to the GC a few times to ask WTF us going on? And why no one is showing up. Why everything keeps getting moved. If they can't handle those questions then in all honesty they can **** off and I hope they get fired.

I would fire the GC, but where does that get me? Pushed out even more just to prove a point? Everyone is busy like you said so I'm screwed. I can't move on or it's just cutting off my nose to spite my face. There is literally nothing I can do to make it better other than just doing everything on my own. Which is not great either.

The way I look at it is. A. Companies are making promises they can't keep because they know the client will have no other option when it comes down to it. B. I might just hold off paying on things that went way over budget or way over time and see where that leads. Part out of curiosity and part out of F you to these guys. If I was quoted $2,500 I'll pay $2,500 If they want to go after me for the extra, great. Prove to me or the courts why you are owed the extra. I'd bet my life they can't come up with a valid reason. And "well, we were stupid and measured wrong" isn't good enough for me.
 
Beer said:
I agree. Now is not a good time for really anything. We went to buy new appliances. Saw a bunch of stuff was 1/2 off, went to buy, they told us the earliest they could get it was December because Korea was pretty much shut down. Well that's not going to work so we went a different route. I assume the same issue is going on with more than electronics,

The GC sucking is very possible. He is a family friend who came very highly recommended from outsiders, so who knows. Maybe it is all on him. IDK. Just on saturday the "handyman" not sure what else to call him. The guy who is kind of doing all the general things texts us and says the carpet might be delayed due to A,B, and C. So I text the GC and then the handyman says "well, the carpet isn't getting delayed but I can only do so much because I have to wait on paint, plumbing, etc ..." So obviously there is a communication breakdown somewhere along the line. Anytime we push back on the BS someone up the line blames someone else. But like I said, this is not just a me thing. EVERYONE I talk to about this has the same story to tell. This is not an isolated issue.

I have also never yelled at anyone, or complained to anyone other than my wife. If anything I should be way more pissed that I've been out of a house for 2 months past when it was supposed to be done. I've been pretty god damned patient imo. I have only went to the GC a few times to ask WTF us going on? And why no one is showing up. Why everything keeps getting moved. If they can't handle those questions then in all honesty they can **** off and I hope they get fired.

I would fire the GC, but where does that get me? Pushed out even more just to prove a point? Everyone is busy like you said so I'm screwed. I can't move on or it's just cutting off my nose to spite my face. There is literally nothing I can do to make it better other than just doing everything on my own. Which is not great either.

The way I look at it is. A. Companies are making promises they can't keep because they know the client will have no other option when it comes down to it. B. I might just hold off paying on things that went way over budget or way over time and see where that leads. Part out of curiosity and part out of F you to these guys. If I was quoted $2,500 I'll pay $2,500 If they want to go after me for the extra, great. Prove to me or the courts why you are owed the extra. I'd bet my life they can't come up with a valid reason. And "well, we were stupid and measured wrong" isn't good enough for me.
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There is a lot of validity to the “I can’t due this until x, y, and z are done”. Doesn’t make it any easier to accept though.
I’m glad to hear you’ve been as patient as you can be towards the contractors. Your posts made it appear to me that wasn’t the case.
My unsolicited advice would be to sit down and have a come to Jesus meeting with your GC. Tell him exactly what you’re saying here. Make him give you a firm date that is still acceptable to you and get it in writing that if you’re not done by that date you will start to deduct penalties. A $500 per day penalty will start getting everyone moving. But if you do that, be prepared to watch over them like a hawk, because some of them will try to cut corners. And you may have to compromise in some of the stuff you want. If the flooring you want is back ordered, but another one that’s close to it isn’t, you may have to compromise.


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bigb said:
There is a lot of validity to the “I can’t due this until x, y, and z are done”. Doesn’t make it any easier to accept though.
I’m glad to hear you’ve been as patient as you can be towards the contractors. Your posts made it appear to me that wasn’t the case.
My unsolicited advice would be to sit down and have a come to Jesus meeting with your GC. Tell him exactly what you’re saying here. Make him give you a firm date that is still acceptable to you and get it in writing that if you’re not done by that date you will start to deduct penalties. A $500 per day penalty will start getting everyone moving. But if you do that, be prepared to watch over them like a hawk, because some of them will try to cut corners. And you may have to compromise in some of the stuff you want. If the flooring you want is back ordered, but another one that’s close to it isn’t, you may have to compromise.


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I do understand that there is an order to things and being held up by others is a legit complaint. The most frustrating part is if say A gets behind a few days then B, C, D aren't able to just pick up when they are done, we are pushed to the back of their lines. So a 2 day screwup can easily turn into 2 weeks or a month. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir though.

Glad this turned into a reasonable discussion. I appreciate the advice. I told him we are moving in as soon as the carpet is down and if stuff isn't done they can just work around us. Not sure if that is the best route for us or them but that's what I went with last night.

I've started going down at 9 am, and if the people aren't there that are supposed to be I'm harassing the GC and his henchmen until I have answers. Seems to be working a bit.
 
Beer said:
I do understand that there is an order to things and being held up by others is a legit complaint. The most frustrating part is if say A gets behind a few days then B, C, D aren't able to just pick up when they are done, we are pushed to the back of their lines. So a 2 day screwup can easily turn into 2 weeks or a month. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir though.

Glad this turned into a reasonable discussion. I appreciate the advice. I told him we are moving in as soon as the carpet is down and if stuff isn't done they can just work around us. Not sure if that is the best route for us or them but that's what I went with last night.

I've started going down at 9 am, and if the people aren't there that are supposed to be I'm harassing the GC and his henchmen until I have answers. Seems to be working a bit.
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Yeah, moving in is probably the right way to go, but maybe not the best. It’s easier/better if you’re not living there, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. It’s not like it will be the first time any of them has worked around a homeowner.


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Back on topic:

My latest pet peeve is that my wife apparently doesn't know how to tell time and plan enough time to get ready and be somewhere on time. It's my fault she was sitting on her bed looking at her phone until 10:50 the other day when church started at 11:00.
 
I’ve got a couple jobs going here in St. George, in southern Utah. Driving around down here for the last couple weeks I’ve come to realize they are basically allergic to right hand turn lanes and driving the speed limit. What a joke.


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My dog got attacked by a pit bull last night while we were out on our walk

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fishonjazz said:
My dog got attacked by a pit bull last night while we were out on our walk

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Oh crap, is your dog ok? Are you ok? My mother's husband was walking their new puppy when it was attacked by a pit bull and a rottweiler, and the puppy was killed. Her husband had severe gashes on his arm where he tried to protect the dog.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Oh crap, is your dog ok? Are you ok? My mother's husband was walking their new puppy when it was attacked by a pit bull and a rottweiler, and the puppy was killed. Her husband had severe gashes on his arm where he tried to protect the dog.
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Ya we were really lucky. My dog has a laceration on one leg and a limp because of it, and a couple puncture wounds on his back and sides but I think he will be ok. I was in the middle trying to grab the pitbulls collar but everytime I grabbed it I wusses out and let go thinking I would get injured. Luckily my wife had her taser and ran over and pushed the button and the noise from the taser kind of broke up the fight and then the owner got hold of the pitts collar.

It was a beast of a pitbull even by the breeds standards. We walked past it (it was in the front yard of a house on the other side of the street) and the owners were holding it's collar and I commented to my wife that it looked terrifying. It was huge and 100% muscle.

Then after we were way down the street I guess the owners thought that we were far enough away that they could let go of its collar but it took off and ran straight to my dog and started the attack. I don't think it really wanted to kill my dog luckily or it could have easily. My dog had no chance in hell. There aren't many dogs I have ever seen that would have been able to beat that pitbull in a fight.

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LogGrad98 said:
Oh crap, is your dog ok? Are you ok? My mother's husband was walking their new puppy when it was attacked by a pit bull and a rottweiler, and the puppy was killed. Her husband had severe gashes on his arm where he tried to protect the dog.
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I was telling my family about the incident last night and my brother told me about his neighbor who had a little white fluffy dog and their neighbors pitbull got hold of it and tore it into little pieces.

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fishonjazz said:
I was telling my family about the incident last night and my brother told me about his neighbor who had a little white fluffy dog and their neighbors pitbull got hold of it and tore it into little pieces.

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Ugh that's horrible. I'm glad you and your dog are generally ok. That's terrifying. That dog definitely sounds weaponized.
 
fishonjazz said:
I was telling my family about the incident last night and my brother told me about his neighbor who had a little white fluffy dog and their neighbors pitbull got hold of it and tore it into little pieces.

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Hope your dog will be fine! How did the pitbull's owner reacted? Did they try to stop him too? Offered to compensate for a possible veterinary costs?
 
bigb said:
I’ve got a couple jobs going here in St. George, in southern Utah. Driving around down here for the last couple weeks I’ve come to realize they are basically allergic to right hand turn lanes and driving the speed limit. What a joke.


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Do they drive faster or slower than the speed limit?
 
Jazzmix said:
Hope your dog will be fine! How did the pitbull's owner reacted? Did they try to stop him too? Offered to compensate for a possible veterinary costs?
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They were very apologetic and yes they offered to compensate for any costs. I feel bad for them too. I'm sure they had a bunch of anxiety over the situation and were upset at their dog and stuff. Just crappy for everyone involved

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