You Make The Call

Mike Finley

I heard a homeowner call into a radio show about her dilemma.

Her and her husband wanted to put cedar siding on their home, but wanted to save money so they decided to be their own GC, they would buy the siding direct and hire a sub to install.

They took only the measurements of the house to the siding supplier and together they came up with the siding order.

Turns out they ended up with 3500 ln feet of extra siding. They want the siding supplier to take it back, he told them no way, you ordered it prestained to save money on not having to pay someone to stain it so I can't take any of it back.

So now they are stuck with a ton of extra material and are pissed because they blame the siding supplier of selling them the wrong amount of material.

Callers were split about 50/50 with half thinking the siding supplier was at fault for ordering too much siding. The other half said the couple is responsible since they took on a GC roll and have a higher degree of culpability than just a retail customer off the street, that like any GC your risk is it is up to you to know what you are doing and knowing what materials you need is part of that responsibility.

I tend to side with the latter and think that as unfortunate as it is for them, they bought it, they own it.

PipeGuy

If they knew what they were doing they'd have had the sub order the siding- but oh well. What's the old saying "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing'?. I fall on the side of the supplier. The homeowners bought it and now they own it. They should build a nice shed.

For any DIY homeowners who are reading this, please take note: SUPPLIERS ARE NOT CONSTRUCTION EXPERTS!! They're distribution experts. There is a big difference.

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Don Benham

I would agree tyat the couple are responsible. However it would be interesting to see the homeowner's measurments used for the order to see if a gross oversale was made by the retailer. But it's pretty much buyer responsibility I think.

Don

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Benham Flooring
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Look, I know the voices in my head aren't real, it's just that lately they've had some really good points.

Floorwizard

It's amazing how some people want to save money with zero liability.
I side with the supplier.

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Glasshousebltr

Pipe, Ben, Flor, 100% Behind your call. I think you should call the radio station mike and see if they could lead that women to this thread. She needs to read your responses.

Some people?

Bob

Mike Finley

I remember the rest of the argument was that the suppliers overage was grossly over, something like 30% over, I didn't catch it all but it was really a lot of extra material. The homeowners/GCs argument was that they suspected the supplier took advantage of them because they were inexperienced and he used it as a chance to sell them much more than they needed full well knowing that since they were ordering it pre-stained any overage he sold them they would not be able to bring back.

One caller called in and said that he had tried to save money by being his own GC in another project awhile ago and it ended up costing him more than it would had he just hired a knowledgeable pro to do it instead. That was good to hear.

I wonder just how many homeowner/GCs really end up saving any money. Hell, if the money wasn't the big motivator and they got a kick out of getting dirty, no harm no foul there, but if these people really get into the amateur GC deal to save some cash, I would really be curious to know how many of them save money, how many end up with no difference and how many end up spending more.

I heard a talk one time about how a contractor was talking about a lawyer who liked doing the self GC thing, the contractor asked him one time if he was really saving any money doing it himself, or if he would be better off just working and billing hours at his lawyer rate and using his income to pay somebody else to do the GC work for him. I think the lawyers response was something about that it didn't cut back his income from being a lawyer, he just was putting in extra hours doing the self GC thing which was ending up like working 2 jobs, but he enjoyed it so it really didn't matter.

Cole

Here in Dallas, a lot of subs wont work and refuse to work for a homeowner/GC.

This is what i got to say to that couple that called the radio station, haha ur f**ed!!!
Hire a professional to do it next time.

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Floorwizard

Well, what kind of paperwork was signed I wonder?
If a client measures their own house and wants to buy material only lam from me, and gives me the numbers, then I recommend a percentage of waste overage, and even recommend another extra box or two, but I will order whatever they want.
When they sign the contract with the square footage, then any argument on amounts end there.
Without the signing of paperwork, anyone can just decide to install half of it, then demand us to refund for unused boxes. But our distributers sometimes will not allow us to return it, and at least there would be a restock fee.
Are we supposed to suddenly stock this overage and give em a credit? no way. The liability is yours, deal with it...or hire a pro, or a company to take the liability for you, but you will pay more.

this is all econ 101!

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

DavidD

I agree with the rest of you guys--it was mainly the customers' fault. They really should have had the sub that was going to do the installation come out and take measurements then tell them how much to order. After all, he's in the business of installing the stuff--not the supplier. If the sub ordered far too much, then they could take him on about the extra.

IHI

Totally agree with all of you. While we may not know the whole story with the supplier, more than likely these homeowners/GC were in the wrong and I've seen it more than once. Save a penny, but spend twenty. Since it was custom ordered to be stained I'm positive there was paperwork the homies had to sign and pre-pay before the order was even placed so they took possesion before the ink dried. There's a reason most folks have a "regular" jobs. If contracting was an easy thing everybody would be doing it.

Having been part of a total house renovation with homies acting as the GC, let me tell you, that job was so poorly run and unorganized, I actually looked forward to getting on site to see what disaster the day would bring All the other subs on site pretty much fell into that same frame of mind as well since they were getting paid to redo all the screw ups which were many. Ex.-I was installing new windows in a room that they had just finished painting 15 minutes prior, kal-coat guys were barely even started on the job and were touching some aspect in every room of the house, while I was putting in the windows in this bedroom I heard evil laughs and watched the electricians start to cut sections out of the walls to run new wiring!!! Flooring guys were on site wanting to do the great room-but plaster guys were only half way done in that room, finish carpenter was installing the base and the electricians still had to get in there as well. LMAO, that was a good time the few weeks I was there. In the end it came together as they always do, but to what expense??!!

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mikesewell

Let's be fair:
1.) The General Contractor on the job ordered too much siding.
2.) He got stuck with it. That's the way it works.
3.) End of story.

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