Author Topic: Questions for contractors/tradesmen  (Read 1432 times)

intellectsucks

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Questions for contractors/tradesmen
« on: May 01, 2017, 01:11:38 PM »
So you have given a quote to a homeowner, gotten a down payment and started the job.  After starting the job you discover something that you couldn’t have forseen that will add a lot of extra cost (I’ll leave it to you to decide what that means).  You’ve now started some demolition but can’t proceed until you address this issue.
As a homeowner, how do you differentiate a legitimate problem from a scam?
How do reputable contractors handle such a situation?  What if the homeowner states that they can’t or won’t pay the extra cost?

Greenback Reproduction Specialist

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Re: Questions for contractors/tradesmen
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2017, 01:41:16 PM »
I'm not a contractor, but have worked in the construction industry for 15 years and have experienced this.

First, its important to understand that this happens on almost every project, that is why there is the saying "figure out your budget, then double it". There are almost always unforeseen problems lurking inside walls, or material beyond their useful life, or a jimmy rigged original install, or nuts that wont break free, or extra demolition required, etc. Its really just the nature of construction, nothing put down on paper ever gets built exactly the way it was planned, people try really hard, but things happen.

Second, you could be getting scammed, hard to tell. Common practice is to pay for materials upfront and then pay for the labor when the project is complete. Hopefully, that is what you have done, take possession of the materials incase you need to switch contractors.

I would get another opinion, get a couple, what is really going on will become apparent after hearing it from a couple different people.

Good luck.

 

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