Most Expensive Mistake

 
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Old 04-28-2006, 08:42 PM   #1
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Most Expensive Mistake


What's been your most expensive on job mistake?

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Old 04-28-2006, 09:31 PM   #2
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


I saw a news article on TV where the demo crew did the house next door to the one they were supposed to demo. Ooops!
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Old 04-28-2006, 09:50 PM   #3
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


Does it have to be excavation related?
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Old 04-28-2006, 09:52 PM   #4
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


No Ron,

Just job site related.

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Old 04-28-2006, 10:00 PM   #5
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


I was installing brand new kitchen cabinet doors for a customer, lost my focus and drilled two knob holes on the wrong end of the door Bought a new one and replaced it the next day Cost of BooBoo=$135.00 Cost of lesson learned=priceless

P.S. One day I hope to share some excavating experiences with ya'll
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Old 04-29-2006, 06:39 AM   #6
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


ron, you were lucky they weren't on cabinets that were 12 weeks lead time to get.
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Old 04-29-2006, 01:39 PM   #7
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


Aint that the truth. Ikea had them in stock.
Do you guys have Ikea stores in the States?
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Old 04-29-2006, 03:37 PM   #8
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


Pressure treated 6X6 from 2 stories up....Smash...brand new Trane condenser.....

Cord got wrapped around the bottom leg of the ladder. My ground man was taking a frickin nature walk or something. I yanked the crap out of the cord. Slam slam slam slam slam I rode the ladder to the ground raking the crap out of every single piece of 8sq steel tech siding I just installed. That crap just doesn't unzip like vinyl!
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Old 04-29-2006, 03:56 PM   #9
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


My most costly mistake: Not knowing how to speak Russian!

Some serious communication barriers on an estimate coupled with a far to generalized scope of work... cost me about $1000. She was a sweet lady though... I just wish I had covered my a$$ better.
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Old 04-29-2006, 08:44 PM   #10
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


My customer hired another contractor to build an 8x20 deck last month. The contractor had built it without a permit and got caught. The town made him take it down completely. Oops.
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Old 04-30-2006, 06:44 PM   #11
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


"86" doing a spec. house with a partner,2.5 acre lot, sloping lot, picked a nice spot on the lot for the house. At the time I'd just go and eye ball the lot lines and pull the offsets and stake out the house. Well come to find out after the house is built 1 corner of the garage about 12" x 18" pie shape pc. is into the setback. Tried to get a lot line varience. Previous few months the ZBA had 3 or 4 other applications with the same kind of problems, after those they decided to take a hard stance on these. When I went in there was 1 other builder with similar problem, they declined both applications, told me to cut 2 feet off the garage Open tract of land out back probably 35 - 40 acres. Went to the land owners 4 guys and asked to do a simple lot line revision swapping equal amounts of property, think it was like 8 sq. ft. They hemmed and hawed took for ever and said they wanted 10 k Had me over a barrel, so we did it. 10 yrs. later they come to subdivide their parcel, guess who went to every planning com. meeting and rallied the neighborhood to talk it down , Nothing felt better than to give them a big smile when they were denied. To this day the land is still undeveloped.
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Old 04-30-2006, 08:37 PM   #12
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


Way to go jmic!

Revenge is a dish that is best served cold!
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Old 04-30-2006, 08:51 PM   #13
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Re: Most Expensive Mistake


So far, no mistakes that couldn't be corrected. Measure twice and call in backup.
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