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Thread: Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice
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10-07-2021, 04:49 PM #5401
Grey cedar looks like cedar. If you want it to stay clear looking you’ll need a different finish.
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10-09-2021, 02:53 PM #5402
Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice
Here’s a home repair/remodel tip, if you’re going to complain about not getting contractors to come to where your house is don’t Fucking ghost them when they drive 60 miles round trip. Now on it’s a $100 service fee and it’s non refundable. And guess what? Local contractors will talk to each other about customers so good luck with your projects. And if I take the job you’re paying up front so I don’t get stiffed
“I have a responsibility to not be intimidated and bullied by low life losers who abuse what little power is granted to them as ski patrollers.”
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10-09-2021, 02:57 PM #5403Banned
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60 miles round-trip is an imposition?! What is this, 1840? Hang on while I get out my tiny, tiny violin to play you a tune.
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10-09-2021, 03:05 PM #5404
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10-09-2021, 05:48 PM #5405
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10-09-2021, 06:55 PM #5406one of those sickos
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My very first client in Tahoe was so blown away that I showed up on time that he told so and hired me on the spot. I never get why guys can't just be reliable. If you have too much work (we all do, sometimes) just explain it to people and they will understand. Not calling back or, Ullr forbid, ghosting people is just unacceptable.
If I drove 45 mins to meet a prospective client and they blew me off I'd be pissed too.ride bikes, climb, ski, travel, cook, work to fund former, repeat.
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10-09-2021, 07:00 PM #5407
Evan--maybe you can tell me why the contractor code is to never just say no when you don't want the job. Multiple missed or canceled appointments, look at the job and sound interested but never send a bid or return calls, absurdly high bids, etc.
But anyone who ghosts a contractor in the current environment, at least around here, is insane.
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10-09-2021, 08:16 PM #5408
Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice
I’ll tell someone if it’s beyond my capabilities and try to refer them to another contractor I trust
Sometimes the customers view of the problem is a little different from the contractors
“Hey I have some loose railing and some deck that needs fixing before it snow”
“Um you have 5 rotten decks going up 3 stories, one deck failing , the giant center post...I can poke my finger halfway through, the railing is falling off, the broken gutter has been leaking right where the beam is sagging on the exterior wall which probably has water damage too who knows how far down....$50-100k easy, a month or two project then depending if and when the supplier can get everything....and it will start snowing in a couple weeks...”“I have a responsibility to not be intimidated and bullied by low life losers who abuse what little power is granted to them as ski patrollers.”
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10-11-2021, 03:37 PM #5409
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10-11-2021, 03:40 PM #5410
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10-11-2021, 05:26 PM #5411
Why you never say no is because every once in a while you'll find someone who says yes to your stupidly high 'Fuck off I'm busy' price. You can't win the lottery if you don't play. This is not unique to contracting. Every business does this.
And if you're not the contractor's first appointment of the day at 6am, it's a gamble if they're going to be on time. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake and there is a business and other projects to manage all at the same time. You don't care that the reason they're late to your free estimate is because they had to go to 3 different supply houses to get the parts to keep the crew going so that other project finishes on time because shit hit the fan for whatever reason. You think they're late and therefore unreliable because they weren't sitting in their office all day awaiting the moment you could come and bless them with the opportunity to be one of 10 bidders on your little deck job (and regardless of their skill or qualifications you're choosing the cheapest price, so it's just a race to the bottom anyway).Wait, how can we trust this guy^^^ He's clearly not DJSapp
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10-11-2021, 05:55 PM #5412
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10-11-2021, 06:08 PM #5413
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10-11-2021, 06:27 PM #5414
Contractors who show up late don't bother me. I kept enough patients waiting because my case went longer than expecting or a patient in the hospital was crashing, or I had important business on TGR.
Contractors who show up and give a ridiculous bid don't bother me--I've had dates cancel because the woman had to wash her dog. I get it.
Contractors who don't call you back when you leave them a message to see if they're interested in a job don't bother me--if there's no prior agreement they don't owe me anything.
Contractors who never show at all for appointments, contractors who don't return their calls after they give you a bid and you call them back--in other words contractors who ghost you--those are the one's who bother me. Ghosting is rude in any profession. I answered every call the same day, on my own time, and I was getting a salary with a guaranteed clientele. Maybe you guys have had it too good for too long, but the wheel turns and the guys who show up and return their calls are the one's who will have work when times are slow.
I'm sure you guys have just as many complaints about bad customers--like the one above, or people who drag their feet paying their bills or don't pay at all. Their are too many assholes in the world.
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10-11-2021, 06:50 PM #5415Registered User
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why don't contractors care?
great question
communication is key anywhere in life I try my best to always call people back overly communicate with the customer as the job is moving you name it
looking at and bidding jobs is a whole nother beast, I always call everyone back who calls me to take a look at their shit job, usually I decline to come visit, but I try to provide as much basic info to them over the phone in hopes that it might be helpful, most contractors and trades people play the short game how much money can they make right now, how much work can I take on, I play the long game, calling people back, brand awareness, and always worrying about three or five years from now
lucky for me and I've gotten to a good place so I don't look at much under six figures so that cuts alot of shit out occasionally I'll pick up a job for under just to fill in
I've only done 24 estimates this year and might squeeze one or two more in before the end of the year, mary jane rotten crotch's I need a drywall patch and some tile laid in the entry isn't for me, it was years ago and it's how I got started, I let them know (politely) that it's not for me, on the other hand playing the long game I pick up shitty little jobs for an organization here in town because I want to be their guy for the bigger projects some 4k worth of bullshit siding repair on a hysterical house might get me somewhere so I always say yes when they call
its truly a shitty job
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10-11-2021, 07:17 PM #5416
I only need 50' of 9' tyvek.
Can't find that little, so I'll have 100' soon if anyone around Seattle East side wants it.
And snoq, if I pissed you off regarding that 2'x4' window, my apologies.Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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10-11-2021, 10:00 PM #5417
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10-12-2021, 01:10 AM #5418
If you have any reason to be in Olympia, the HD down there stocks 5’x100’ rolls of obdyke hydrogap wrap, which I used on my home addition. If you’re installing yourself, the 5’ wide rolls are easier to handle and the gapped drainage plane could be good in the PNW if water somehow makes it to the sheathing.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/HydroGap...GAPS/204228896
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkDude chill its the padded room. -AKPM
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10-12-2021, 04:37 AM #5419
I'll add that I've never given a crap when a contractor reaches out and even does the noncommittal "I have to reschedule" - shit happens, I get it, but treating potential customers as the last priority without shooting a text or email (which takes all of 2 minutes) means you probably don't have your shit together, which will make everything take longer and be more expensive.
Have some neighbors that are on month 5 or so of a kitchen remodel because their contractor is scattered as fuck and didn't plan ahead on materials ordering.
Fuck you price bids make sense, just a nature of the market.
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10-12-2021, 11:07 AM #5420
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10-12-2021, 11:59 AM #5421I drink it up
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Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice
Agreed. Everything has a price.
You’ll only manage it if you prioritize it. Like fastfred said, it depends on what game you’re playing. If you’re playing the long game you worry about your brand, and a big part of your brand is showing up when you say you will.
If you can’t ever show up when you say you will how the fuck am I gonna think you’ll move heaven and earth, or at least visit 3 different supply houses and fuck up your schedule for the rest of the day, to deliver my project on time? You’re talking like those are different things but they aren’t. If you don’t want my little deck job don’t schedule a time to come bid on it, but if you DO schedule a time to come bid on it I expect a modicum of respect for my own schedule and my own time, which is also valuable. There are downstream effects on my side too for being late to my next meeting because you couldn’t manage a schedule or communicate effectively when your schedule got blown up.
You own your own business? Kudos. Now grow the fuck up and act like it - you won’t waste my time twice. Because to fastfred’s other point, I won’t invite you to bid next time if you blow me off or act less than professionally when it comes to smaller jobs.focus.
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10-12-2021, 12:16 PM #5422
Imagine if all other businesses acted like these contractor snowflakes.
Nobody else cares how hard your day was.
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
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10-12-2021, 12:32 PM #5423Registered User
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when somebody else fucks up it fucks up your contractor, the proverbial fly on the other side of the world flapping it wings wrong and messing up something in america
I had an orthepedic surgeon who I somehow realized was always 2 hrs late so I would take a book or magazine and not worry about it, so when he said sorry I'm late I said no you are right on time
but I'm 2 hrs late ?
yeah but you are always 2 hrs late ... sheepish smileLee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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10-12-2021, 05:48 PM #5424Registered User
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every day sucks balls in my world
I am someones banker, best friend, and social worker all wrapped into one plus the whole building end of things
had a customer start to have a melt down last week all I do is listen agree and be positive it's all part of the gig I saw it coming and new it was going to get ugly and it did
managing materials is crazy right now imagine being told they don't have the paint you want you can't get electrical boxes a salesman is hunting down the trim you need because no one is going to bend on what they want and suddenly it's hard to get cabinets and windows need to be ordered 3-6 months before you start the job
I like the doctors office shit, that's funny being in and out of the drs offices constantly for the past two years patience is something I've learned you just sit back and wait was at the cardiologists office awhile ago and the one of the drs wife just had a baby so the dr was out and they were backed up some guy was going ape shit and was going to shit a brick and throw it at the receptionist cause he had sat around for over an hour bro that's not good for your health being that stressed
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10-12-2021, 06:38 PM #5425
I had a hand surgeon after I tore a finger tendon. He had 6 cases the day he did my surgery. He had all of his patients for the day come in at 6AM so they were all ready to be first case in case all the other ones canceled. He didn't like waiting. Didn't seem to mind making other people wait. He anesthetized my finger with 30 mil of anesthetic injected through a 19ga needle. Fuck that hurt, and my whole hand was numb for a day. (That's a LOT of anesthetic and a VERY big needle--but it goes in fast and works right away--no waiting.)
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