How do these CLOWNS stay in business?? (rant)

[Knothead]

Well, the last three weeks, I have been building a 12 foot bathroom cabinet. 9 drawers, 4 doors, 2 sinks, all with a beautiful solid Pennsylvania Cherry front. I was really thrilled to get this job, because a) I needed the $$$, and b) I've never tried to do anything like this before, and c) I needed the $$$. WAY COOL!!!

Today was the day to truck the finished work over to the job site, and install this monster. In doing so, I accidentally delivered myself into the hands of "my fellow Contractors"....if I may explain:

This bathroom (the SIZE of which could house a complete family, as long as they brought their own hotplate) was gutted, and the client has put in a bathtub (the size of a hottub,) with Jacuzzi, incredible custom stone floor, hell even the SHOWER is being tiled in beige marble!!

But I digress. Anyway, I hired the guy who's doing the solid granite top for my cabinets to truck the cabinets over to the site. He's got a HUGE flatbed truck, and shows up with that and an agreeable Mexican guy whose English is limited, but is built like a moderate-size mountain.

Anyway, the granite guy is constantly on his cell phone, so he's no help...I paid him $75, and he's on his cell phone. Okay...so me and Jesus get the monster loaded up.

And truck it over and manage to get it up a spiral staircase...all 850 lbs of it...did any of the (six giant-size) guys who were standing around lift a finger to help?

Don't be silly. Anyway, once me and Jesus wrestled it up there, I am confronted by another conundrum...the plumbing was supposed to have been arranged on the wall for this new cabinet...only the plumbing for the left side sink is where it's supposed to be...3 feet from the left wall...the plumbing for the RIGHT side sink is 16 inches from the right side wall.

Basically, I cannot install the cabinets. The plumber
did not do what he was supposed to do... and the ENTIRE PROJECT has to wait...the granite guy can't put the top onto the cabinets until they're installed, the tile guys can't do the floor until the cabinets are installed...

Heh...I just got off the phone with Glenn, who's in charge (the client is touring China, won't be back for a week ) and all he was interested in talking about is, how it's not HIS fault! I told him it wasn't neccessary to do all that CYA, let's just get this put together, so when the client gets back, it's all good to go...

But this guy was having none of it...CYA, CYA,...I finally got him to agree to authorize the plumber to do what he was supposed to do in the FIRST PLACE!! I'm like, "Let's just, you know, DO WHAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!"

Yeeesh, I think my meeting on Monday with this idiot plumber is gonna be violent. Not to mention Glenn. Yeeesh!

And I took Jesus to lunch. The only guy that had a clue as to what was going on...bless you, Jesus!

What a day!

[NeoStarO1]

Man I hate contractors who don't do thier jobs right. Argg, It makes it so agrivating for the other contractors that have thier parts of the jobs to do in the building.

My folks went through thier share of major problems when they had thier house remodeled. it was suppose to be a 6 month project but turned into 13 months because the stupid contractors kept screwing off and not doing things correctly the fist time around. This whole time my folks were living in thier motor home outside the home. Geezzzz,

I know exactly what you going thourgh its a major pain cuz it puts everyone else shcudule behind.

[RedFury]

Ah contractors, the Evil among all evils. I feel your pain Knot. Maybe I can make you feel a little better about your problem by ranting about an occasion I had a few years ago.

I'm in the hardwood floor business, I put the coats on the floor. Pull up to one of our contractors to put the first coat on the floor ( sanded and STAINED ) the day before. Most jobs like this are cake. Walk in, vacuum, tack with cheesecloth and coat. Oh, but not THIS one. These morons don't have the common sense of the average housefly. About this time of the year...you know it, wet, muddy...generally a pain in the arse. Walked all over the floor all day with muddy boots! So, here I am looking at a beautifully stained oak floor, with 2 inch thick clumps of mud drying to the floor. I about freaked. Being the only person there, I had no one to complain to, and considering the damage that was done already, figured I'd better get this fixed and sealed up pronto. So, I whip out the buffer and a rather large pad of steel wool, a broom and get to work. Amazingly got almost every bit of dirt out of the floor.

I figure, I'll make sure I keep these morons off the floor at least until this poly dries ( oil based ), so I put on a nice thick coat of HIGH GLOSS, figuring it will look wet even after it has dried. ( at this point the homeowners to be show up to peek at the progress of their house ). Get finished, stand back and admire the outstanding job I did ( as usuall ).

Most of our contractors hold the final coat until the day of closing, which is usually a couple of weeks to a month away, and I get the job back by some coincedence. Guess what? Full of mud again!!! Ended up chipping off the mud, running multiple wet towels across the floor just to get it clean enough to buff it again. Talk about frustration. Needless to say, I had a friendly chat with Mr. Contractor about the problem. Unfortunately, I still hate going to his homes, because there is always something to deal with, be it mud, paint, scratches...

[vass0922]

hey hey!!
Not ALL contractors are bad lol
just most :P lol

[Knothead]

GAAAAAAAHH!! OMG, Red, I totally understand, even though I'm not in the flooring biz....if I were you, I'd have been standing outside the door with a shotgun, while a (hired) guy played that banjo theme from the movie Deliverance, as I explained, "Ya'all ain't walking on thet nice floor, y'hear?"

HAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

Just got off the phone with that Glenn guy, he tells me that this is COMMON in remodels!! The contractors do not co-ordinate, various neccessary steps get ignored, and basically it seems, in this business, the players are quite content to stand around, observing the latest F***up, and go...

Wull, I'm a little bay-bee bumblebee...
bumble, bumble, bumble, bumble,.... etc....

OMG!! How do these clowns stay in business?!?

Knot, you should have just done the plumbing like it needed to be done and charged the contractor, for the job and extra for the install because it took longer than expected!


signed

surreal-- who thinks contracters are worse than lawyers!

[RedFury]

Easy, they still manage to get paid!

Honestly, in the end the houses are usually pretty good. But then again, I've seen some restaurants that the kitchen was just downright unsanitary, yet the food was good. If you knew where the food came from, would it matter how good it tasted? If homeowners really knew what was going on behind the scenes.

I will vouch for one contractor of ours though. It's almost religious how well he protects our floors. ( which always means he gets the extra effort to make his homes shine )

[Brainchild]

Dang knot, sounds like a real bad day,

HEY! Was the contracter dressed like


<<<<<<<<<<<< THIS??????

[Knothead]

Originally posted by surreal
Knot, you should have just done the plumbing like it needed to be done and charged the contractor, for the job and extra for the install because it took longer than expected!

You know, Surreal, seriously, I thought about it!

signed

surreal-- who thinks contracters are worse than lawyers!

HAHAHAHAA!! But...let's examine this phenomenon of wasting the clients resources:

Lawyers do it by lies and cunning...

THESE guys do it with sheer STUPIDITY!!!

Which is WORSE? I don't know!