New Construction: Touching Up Taping/Spackling

Richie-C

Hi all,

I don't do much construction--mostly repaints, but I recently completed two renovation jobs. One was a nice sized basement remodel. The contractors spacklers flat out sucked. I not only had to sand like the dickens, but the touch up work I needed to do was huge--they were sloppy. The other was a bath remodel--where again--without major touch up the walls would have looked like crap and thus my work would have too.

Question is what is acceptable/customary to have to touch up/sand on a renovation? How do you handle these situations?

Keep in mind that I am not working for the GC, so any price hikes would go to the customer.

Richie

ProWallGuy

Whether you are working for the GC, Suzy Homeowner, the Pope, or Pres. Bush, one of the above needs to cover the costs for your time to complete these tasks.
In your case, I would have stopped, advised the homeowner that the walls were not ready for you. Tell her to contact the GC to have it rectified, or offer her a price to do it. Still seems like no matter what happens, you are about to see some down time.

New construction sucks in that aspect.

__________________
Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

tzzzz216

On any type of remodel there is a big mess , but it doesn't mean anyone has to work like a pig, We all try to make good time on a job to make a fair profit but we should still take pride on the job site and respect the other trades work.
My question is this ,did the home owner just call you to do touch up work after the remodel was completed or did you prime & paint the entire remodel after it was done? I would think you should have been the last one in there after all the trades, And if the home owner called you in after it was completed just to do a touch job thats not saying much for the home owner, I would think on a remodel you would want the entire project painted period!! so everything looks uniform .

slickshift

I would agree
That much work is not the norm
I would have no problem doing it
No problem at all really
But it's not included in the painting quote

Richie-C

Thanks for the replies. They are what I expected to hear. Both jobs I described were for priming and painting. I was told that the taping/spackling were completed, ready for paint. Both jobs needed a fair amount of sanding and loads of touch up. Since I don't do a lot of new construction, I thought I may have been wrong, but my gut told me otherwise. I'll definitely be charging appropriately in the future.

Thanks again!

DPainting

Richie,

We are currently stuck in a similar situation.

GC hired a garbage rocker and taper....it's not even 2 months old and there are nail pops and seams busting out.

Our first day of priming we ran into a ton of spots that were not sanded or needed yet another coat of compound. According the GC the place was spotless and ready for paint....oops sorry you need new glasses.

After the GC calls the taper to come back and fix the issues that needed to be addressed we begin to paint. Even though some of the cornering looked like hell the owner insisted we paint it and use a flat or matte to help hide. I said you need a new taper.

He hires taper #2 who calls himself a painter but tapes as well....I see trouble already. Taper #2 doesn't use anything bigger than a 3 inch knife to compound....needless to say it still looks crappy.

I NOW am stuck skiming some walls that look like utter doggy poo. It's sad really to see people who say they can do something and stink at it horribly.

I can do some carpentry but I am by far no carpenter.

The change order alone is half of the original estimate to paint the 4500sf place.

ProWallGuy

Well, at least you will be compensated for it.
Tell the owner to backcharge the GC for it.

__________________
Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation