Family That Expects You To Work For Free?

MIbeachbuilder

Anyone else deal with this? family members expect you to drop everything and race over to remodel their house for FREE.

Also, they have NO SKILLS in the trade but expect a job paying them twice as much as what you pay your SKILLED help, then get mad at you because you don't comply.

How does everyone else feel about this? working for family...

Patrick

Redoing my moms bathroom right now. So far,
the counter top she picked out and ordered had the wrong sink holes
Must be my fault
Old water shut offs and drains need to be replaced
Must be my fault
The guy at HD didn't give her all the parts that are really needed
Must be my fault
Insists on following me around with a vacuum
Doesn't understand why I cant drop everything in the middle of the week just because her counter top came in.

Not to mention she has three bathrooms in the house, and god forbid she has to go one day without HER bathroom

I don't even do bathrooms, I'm just a sider and window guy. MR Finley would you like to adopt my mother?

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Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

Double-A

You are forgetting two things.

The 9 months of pregnancy and 72 hours of labor she went through.

The 18 years of raising your skinny butt up to be the man you are today.

Next time, tell her you're going through a mid-life crises. Tell her you think you might be gay and you have a date with a plumber. If things work out, she'll get a new son-in-law and a new bathroom out of it.

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Torn-Again

Mine is working for friends. Who seem to think they are doing me a favor by letting me work on their house. Especially when they want you to reuse old materials and fixtures but expect it to look like new. Then get angry that you were looking to make a dollar over minimium wage. Heres a good one. Completely renovated a 1200sqft town house and the basement 100% demo and rebuild included all material and appliances for $58,000.00. In the end our relationship took a turn because he refused to pay the last $550.00 for misc. items he bought. I spent 4 months on the job took a huge beating - which he says was my fault for bidding the price (by the way he begged me to do the job) then he sold the house 3 months later for 80,000 more than the house and rehab cost him - I love doing favors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Patrick

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan I thought I had already covered that with the windows and the roofing, and the new siding going on in a few monthes

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Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

TimNJ

I walk in the office today and there on the answering machine is a message from my mom. "I called ...... to come pump out the septic tank. Can you come over and dig the lid out for them?" Geez, the lid isn't even covered!
"Mom, they do that for you."

Thag

I offer a discount for friends and family, work good for both sides. I still make money and they save money.

A W Smith

which is why I no longer go to Massachusetts to visit my in laws. First I am not licensed in Massachusetts yet they beg me to do work when I visit. Then when I bow to their requests and tear out a basement wood floor corner thats rotted.and repair with treated and new sub floor. Build three partitions in this basement so they can rent it out (probably illegally) to her daughters boyfriend. and rock and tape them. hang a door, find a leak for them that caused the rot and repair it. I get bi**ched out because i charged them 500 bucks for three days work. "Jersey prices' they call them Oh We cant afford your jersey prices. All the while My wife is going house to house for the family members doing baby sitting rotation for free.

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Al Smith
http://www.awsmith.com

Tscarborough

Your friends and relatives (other than your parents, do theirs because you should) have jobs. Take it in trade and maybe they will begin to understand the value of your labor. That is just a thought, I will only work for friends and relatives for beer and BBQ, and they must work too. For instance, I won't do dirtwork. I will do the rest, but they have to have that ready when I show up, otherwise I drink beer and supervise them while they do it.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

BattleRidge

I figure I owe it to my parents, and they always have me do stuff for free in the evenings, then they pay me anyway cuz they feel bad. Its like 50 bucks for a whole evening but oh well

I don't do stuff for friends unless its real easy or an emergency. Friends and business don't go together so good.

Michaeljp86

This was one reason why I was looking into joining the army. My grandma had 1 daughter, my mom and 3 sons, 4 grandsons and 3 can drive. and 4 grand daugheters and 3 can drive. But I have to mow her yard, buy oil for her mower, fix the mower with my parts or I buy part with my money. I have to shovel the snow off her roor when we have more then 3in. And there is tons of other stuff. She will not ask anyone to do it but gets upset if I dont. Whats really stupid is every one lives within 3 miles of her. I started ignoring her and that cut my work load down alot. I have no problem doing it but it was going on at least once a day. She did pay me $3 last year though then went and bought a toyota for $28,000.

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I am just a vessel from which genius flows -Homer Simpson

Global warming is a myth, like evolution and the metric system.

jiggyjack

For family and friends, it's full price or free.

That's the only way to keep it clean. If you do it for cut rate they think your ripping them off. For full price you do your standard job and tell them this is what I would charge anyone and do it as if it is a standard job.

If you do it for free ask "Where's the beer" once you get a answer tell them to point to the project.

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I used to be rich, Then I got Married.

TempestV

Well, my dad is a contractor, sometimes he has a really wild project that he needs help on, so he pays my gas to come home and help him during the weekend. It works out well for me, since I get to see my folks, pick up some extra hours, and it only happens on the really wild projects, which are usually pretty fun to puzzle through.

Also, I usually help my parents out with different projects around the house, shop and farm- car repair, giving the cattle their shots, butchering chickens, bucking bales, building stuff that requires welding (my mig welder lives there, since I don't have a 220 volt outlet at my apartment, but while my mom has tried it and did quite well, she doesn't trust her ability, and my dad can't see the arc through the the helmet), ect. But, then it also goes both ways- my parents help me with projects I've been putting off till I had another set of hands, welder, heated shop space, ect.

So really, I can't complain.

My Aunt in NJ wanted to hire my dad to build a big addition and porch on her house- who here would be up for a 2400mile commute in their work truck? And that's to say nothing of all the licensing issues.

laybrick

My cousins & I spent years helping family members do major renovations for very little, or nothing. After we got older (and wiser) Didn't really have time to do things no less for nothing, after work & on weekends. So we tell them basicly, we'll do us both a favor and do it for about half cost But since we can't do it for free, just to spite us, they get other contractors to do it at full price That's messed up. Now, I only do masonry exept for my wife & I, or my mother

ChainsawCharlie

I live 2800 miles from my nearest family member.

Hope that answers your question.

Floordude

Here is one for you.

Friend calls and needs help(actually wifes friends husband), He is putting wood floors in someones home, and has no clue what he is doing. He is going to get paid, it is not even his home.
I agree to bail him out, even though he has been shifty in the past on out personal dealings. I tell him what I charge for my services, and he agrees.

He has absolutely no tools to do the job. We use all my tools to partially prep the floor the first day. Partially.... He has no gas in his truck so we take mine so he can get more bags of floor prep. Then doesn't get near enough, but he was out of cash!! Red flag 10 by now. I call the next day to see when he was going to be at the jobsite, and he says he had something come up and isn't going there today. OK. Never calls back, so I send him an invoice for what we agreed on, and didn't charge him a fuel fee, for being his chaufer.

3 months pass and his wife gives my wife an envelope. In it is a $25 check with paid in full written on it. Well, it was a $250 dollar invoice I had submitted to him, exactly what we verbally agreed on. Along with a chicken **** letter saying how he could hire 15 Mexicans for what I was charging him, and a very belittling letter.

Come to find out, the lady threw him out of her home, before he could finish.

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**Education is the key to success. Learn more, earn more.**
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MIbeachbuilder

Thanks for sharing the stories! some of these posts are very funny!

Grumpy

I try very hard not to work for or hire family. No good can come from the few hundred bucks I'd make. I helped my brother install some doors on his place the other day for free. It's my brother, he bought me beer. Though I wouldn't do a complete remodel for him for free, not at all.

Never hire family because when you do you end up making emotional instead of logical decisions. You might keep them on a little longer than you should. You might show them favortism instead of a more qualified employee. I did hire my Uncle but we both agreed going in that it would be temporary and helped us both out of a tight spot (I needed temporary help and he needed some easy money).

I'd do what ever I could for my parents for free or for cost. Infact we were going to reside my Mom & Dad's house with fibercement but once my father got involved with the scope of work, I told him I no longer wanted to do it. I said my way or no way. The agreement we had is that I would manage the job for free and they would write a check to my supplier and another check to my subcontractor.

We all live by rules but there are exceptions to every rule.

bujaly

I have only one family member, that's my mom. Other than that, it's all extended family strewn across the states. BUT, GOD DAMN I GOT A LOT OF FRIENDS!!!! No kidding, or so it seems when it comes to home improvement.....
Seriously, next time someone you knows expects some free **** out of ya, ask the them for free work.. Hopefully their an insurance agent, restaurant manager/owner, LAWYER, DOCTOR, DENTIST would be great, REAL ESTATE AGENT.. I mean, if I asked a few of my realtor friends, and not acquaintances, to not take a commission out of my home when I ask them to list it, YEAH RIGHT!!! If I asked a fellow restaurant owner to buy me food for the rest of my existence or at least till I got to a $3854.54 tab.. Doesn't happen..

I really feel like the tradesman get taken advantage of when it comes to our skills and I really wonder why? I have a few theories, but I'll hold off..

I personally tell all of my friends that I will be charging the same as anyone else, BUT, I always give them a break afterward, depending on however close I am to them AND/OR how much **** they gave me from the beginning or the lack thereof...

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Magnettica

Either charge at a small discount, barter, or don't charge at all.

Just make sure you collect money for the materials.

Also keep in mind that family has friends who will see your work and that might lead to jobs later on. Working for family isn't all bad.

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