MUshrooms With Your Bathrrom?

2500hd

started a bath remodel somewhat for a customers rental property.they wanted me to remove tile around tub and put up that cheap plastic wallboard and remove and replace tile on floor.All for about 1100.00 labour only.removed some tile and there was mold every where mushrooms guys mushrooms!The studs and bottom plates where rotten!Tore ubp the floor and the sub floor and parts of the floor joist needed to be replaced,told them my lic did not allow me to do anything structual so i recommended someone else to remove mold and fix floor joist.Then went into work on house sat and customers came in and spent most of day talking to customers driving to lowes than homedepot because they wanted a new tub than another 2 hrd as customer tried to rig up the plumbing for tub! so for 3 days all i have accomplished is demo and putting down a sub floor when i estimated the wholr project to only take me 3days at that price! what should I do?

firemike

First off, do you have a signed contract detailing exactly what you will do for the $1100? The customer can't possbly think that all the extra work will be included (well, they possibly might, but you should tell them different. Might be too late already...) Everything you have run into is an extra above and beyond what you described as your scope of work.

What has the owner said about the extra work?

First name would be nice too. And proof-read your text before posting, it's kinda hard to read because you have sentences running together.

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-Mike-

Celtic

I couldn't understand that post ....

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skylands

Please take this reply as constructive critique.

You have a couple of things going on here. None of which has anything to do with 1100 bucks.

First, you need to spend some time on diction. Your post is rambling, and poorly presented. Customers need to feel confident with their contractor. The contractor needs to present him/her self in an intellegent persona.

Second, you spent the day running from Lowes to the Home Depot? Why? How long does it take to pick out a tub for a rental property? All this should have been done prior to you starting anything. How can you tear apart a bathroom without knowing what your end result is?

Somehow it appears that you let the customer take total control at your expense.

Mike Finley

Honestly, I'd say to get used to it. If you are going to work for rental customers, house flippers, real estate investors, realtors etc... you're dealing with the most unorganized group of people combined with the trait of being the most price sensitive. Their priority will always be to chase the lowest number possible at everyone's expense.

You could set up some really stringent ground rules to protect yourself in your contract and set yourself up in ways to avoid these situations, but you'll find most likely that you won't get the work anymore.

Everybody I have ever known or met who works regularly for this type of customer ends up being just like them in order to keep being able to work with that group. The guys who rise above those methods simply don't work for those types of customers anymore.

Michaeljp86

I work in the rental industry and Im trying to get out of it. I work one im involved with and did work on some other people had. One of the reasons I got my builders license is because of your problem. I wasnt licenses so I had to sortof run a black market construction campany and did jobs like this. I got my license so I could do normal work for normal people. And hopefully make normal pay. I was tired of screwing around and end up making $2 a hour. Another thing I learned is look reall close for problems like deep rot and always bid on the high side. Its better to loose the job then screw yourself over.

The one guy I worked for wanted to pay $12 an hour wich wasnt bad when you work all day doing a roof or something. But when he asked you to fix a sink he said it shouldnt take a 1/2 hour. So I go in there and it looks like the sink is full of vomit. And the smell almost made my eyes water. Thats not the worst part. It takes 1/2 an hour and at $12 per hour he wanted to give you 6 bucks. I said I want $100 and so far he hasnt needed any help.

Now that I have my license I can do everything the right way and charge people the fair price.

Celtic

Is doing everything the right way a requirement or benefit of having gotten a license?
No offense, but was it like a magical revelation that suddenly you could do things proper because of some slip of paper (and that slip of paper wasn't a greenback)?

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ChrWright

Exactly right.

Also, if you're bidding on a labor only basis, be damn sure they know you expect for materials to be on site and it's written into your agreement. Experience is about knowing what to expect, knowing what to ask for, and telling them IN ADVANCE. Telling them what they DON'T get in a contract is sometimes just as important as telling them what they do.

Eliminate the grey areas and you reduce the chance of being taken advantage of--which is exactly what those type of clients will do everytime if you let them.

There's definitely a market for that kind of work but it takes a certain personality to be happy doing it.

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

Team Scream

I couldn't agree more with that statement.

troubleseeker

Sounds like you need a serious talk with them about the benjamins. If you were hired to replace tile, and gave price accordingly, I don't see how they would expect you to cover all the extra work you describe as part of the original agreement. If these repairs are beyond your scope of experience, explain that to them, and ask them to call you after they have had a carpenter do the structural work, and you will come do your tile job.
That is one of the worst problems with owner supplied materials, you usually end up spending hours of your time material shopping with them; or run the risk of even more delays when they buy a bunch of stuff that is wrong.

Michaeljp86

What I mean by doing things the right way is having inspectors involved, getting permits and all the paper work that goes with it. The way the laws are here a licensed contractor has to do the work if its a rental.

I didnt mean by doing it the right way I do good work now. I always did good work but because I didnt have a license nobody could know any work was being done. Since I had to do jobs like that I had to work cheap because I couldnt be hired to do a job where a permit had to be pulled.