Problem Project Example
One of client being refer to me, which is a home addition project. before the job start last Jun, I stopped by and consult for them about design idea and how much budget should owner prepare. base on rough drawing I told owner it will cost in between 120k to 150k, and job might take 4 to 6 month. if they want to do some other portion remodel together with it will cost more. and back then the owner doesn't need me refer some reliable crew for them. they will use the crew referred from designer.
After almost a year, this owner end up going in to the court now with the contractor and the job not even finish framing work yet. contractor suit owner for short payment and stopped work. owner try to defense for not making enough progress. So many month past the job still not finish framing work and whole job stopped. now every of owner's friends focus on help owner how to win the court law suit, and if owner can get back some money from contractor or not. 2nd contractor try to took over unfinished job, still having problem, because a lot of things will be charged for extra.
For the owner not only cost more than budget, but also need extra money pay for all the legal settlement. I try to find out how much the owner did contract with first contractor, they told me, it is about 100k. couple of month ago I was called for help, when I see the second contractor’s work, I really don’t like it. They are missing holdown bolt, missing anchor bolt, wrong nailing space on exterior sheer wall plywood panel. Over cut on roof rufter lumber…
Why it is happen. Most of chance is lack of planning for the budget and miss choose contractor. When owner plan to do this extension work. They miss their study or get wrong information from some of friend, and try to save money from unrealistic situation. And get referral from wrong person.
When a contractor can take the job try to follow your unprofessional number, something fishy. A good contractor, will give you a quote by read plan carefully, check job site carefully, try to figure out how much unforeseen situation possibility. Then add up overhead and profit margin. When owner try to cut price. They will try to see if it is possible to cover all the cost or not. If the number being cut too low. They will tell you “no” because the price unrealistic. But if contractor can drop price try to get job first. Either this contractor never understand the job or they try to get the owner first and then charge big change order later.
Compare good contractor and bad contractor. Good contractor is reliable. They take things seriously. That make them plan the contract carefully, once contract signed, they will feel obligated for all responsibility both on job quality and financial number on the contract. Bad contractor, the have bad habit for not being serious for anything at all. They will never be responsible for your job, they just have talent to bill you extra.
But mostly owner don’t take professional people consulting suggestion. And don’t have enough knowledge for construction. Only cut price, but don’t know how much will out of range. Both good and bad contractor know when owner cutting price out of range. Bad contractor will feel your really don’t know any of the construction. So they have more confidence to nail you after job start. And they will more confident to use unskilled cheap worker to do your job because you don’t know what is good job what is bad job.
Good contractor care about their name. so they will try to use high skilled worker or sub contractor to do the best job. Bad contractor since they don’t even know what is good job, they always try to hire cheap worker or sub to save their cost and make best profit themselves from your low price contract, they never care about your house your job. Even some time they hire temporary worker from homedepo, after work drop of them without pay them. Some of worker come back to job site still material or tool to get pay check compensation.
Construction not 1 plus 1 equal 2 business. Before sign contract consult some people have both knowedge from design and construction. Review contract and check plan carefully, it will help a lot.
Good luck for every one.
No comments:
Post a Comment