Questions for any general contractors

[Ronsant]

I’m curious why most contractors that we have hired follow a similar pattern. They are super friendly and seem great during the inspection and quote. Promise to communicate and be on site with the crew.
Once the project starts, they show up and work, and are fairly communicative.
Once the work has progressed and some payments are made, they all start other jobs, and our project slows to a crawl. Some days they don’t show up at all. Materials are slow to arrive. Communication slows down, or stops altogether.
We have hired contractors to do our roof, our siding, cement walkway, and now a new deck. In each case, we were not 100% happy, and so tried a different contractor for the next job.
My question ( I’m trying to understand) is why don’t general contractors finish one job before starting another? It’s like they don’t care to get the final payment, or at least they are not in any rush to finish and get paid. What is the business case for this behavior? Is 2/3 of the price enough to cover the base pay and materials? The siding guy didn’t finish the final “punch list” for 5 weeks, and we owed him a final payment of $17K! For 17K I would work on the weekend by myself to finish the job!

My deck frame and footing re up, nd it’s been a month of very little activity. Once these guys start the next job, the previous job slows to a crawl.
My experience is that they are all the same, or maybe we have had terrible luck hiring contractors. They have all had great reviews on google and other sites, and my wife and I can’t believe that customers are giving these positive reviews.

Can any contractor on this forum educate me as to these ( what seem to me) strange business practices?

 

[55hambone]

There are several reasons that this may be happening. First, the next customer may have been promised a certain start date, but your job ran over because of weather, or material shortages and wasn't finished by that time. The contractor wants to lock in the next job, so he has to start it in a timely manner or someone else will be making that money. Your siding guy wasn't in a hurry because he knew that the final payment was a sure thing-not so much for a job that he hasn't started. And the contractor has to keep his crew working because these days there aren't enough workers for the jobs that are out there. If you can't keep the crew busy, they will find someone that will. And that puts you in a bind when you find the next job.

 

[Pablo]

That is why I speak directly with references

 

[oilboy123]

Yes the great reviews have not mattered at all in my opinion. Not sure what the answer is. Maybe I need to be more of a rear a hole about it so they don't jack me around. I don't think a lot of contractors do well with customer service.

But like original poster mentions, they sure seem go get ums before the jobs start though......

 

[fsdork]

You could always structure a contract with penalties for missed milestone/overall completion dates. Whether you could find a good contractor who would agree to those terms is another story.

 

[CKN]

We just finished two extensive bathroom remodels. Our contractor doesn't take more than one job at a time. However-we did pay a considerable amount of money for the work. His grout lines look like they were laid by a machine they are so perfect.

 

[Pablo]

That is why I speak directly with references

And ask them how the job went toward the end.........I simply don't hire those clowns who didn't carry the job through at the same pace.

Most but not all - see $$$$ before much all. Some are drunks and stuff, some are just lousy at business. But some know people talk.

 

[burbguy82]

I’m curious why most contractors that we have hired follow a similar pattern. They are super friendly and seem great during the inspection and quote. Promise to communicate and be on site with the crew.
Once the project starts, they show up and work, and are fairly communicative.
Once the work has progressed and some payments are made, they all start other jobs, and our project slows to a crawl. Some days they don’t show up at all. Materials are slow to arrive. Communication slows down, or stops altogether.
We have hired contractors to do our roof, our siding, cement walkway, and now a new deck. In each case, we were not 100% happy, and so tried a different contractor for the next job.
My question ( I’m trying to understand) is why don’t general contractors finish one job before starting another? It’s like they don’t care to get the final payment, or at least they are not in any rush to finish and get paid. What is the business case for this behavior? Is 2/3 of the price enough to cover the base pay and materials? The siding guy didn’t finish the final “punch list” for 5 weeks, and we owed him a final payment of $17K! For 17K I would work on the weekend by myself to finish the job!

My deck frame and footing re up, nd it’s been a month of very little activity. Once these guys start the next job, the previous job slows to a crawl.
My experience is that they are all the same, or maybe we have had terrible luck hiring contractors. They have all had great reviews on google and other sites, and my wife and I can’t believe that customers are giving these positive reviews.

Can any contractor on this forum educate me as to these ( what seem to me) strange business practices?

Before I answer this.....

How many quotes did you get for this work?
Do you hire out often?
How large is your area (city) not your property.

 

[Ronsant]

Before I answer this.....

How many quotes did you get for this work?
Do you hire out often?
How large is your area (city) not your property.

We try to get three quotes, but in the last few years, sometimes we can only get two.
Just homeowners in a suburb. We aim to do one project every two-three years as we save up the money.

This happens so often, I am wondering if there is a business reason why they do this.

 

[Ronsant]

You could always structure a contract with penalties for missed milestone/overall completion dates. Whether you could find a good contractor who would agree to those terms is another story.

Hard enough to find three companies to quote a job. They all seem to be busy.

 

[Ronsant]

There are several reasons that this may be happening. First, the next customer may have been promised a certain start date, but your job ran over because of weather, or material shortages and wasn't finished by that time. The contractor wants to lock in the next job, so he has to start it in a timely manner or someone else will be making that money. Your siding guy wasn't in a hurry because he knew that the final payment was a sure thing-not so much for a job that he hasn't started. And the contractor has to keep his crew working because these days there aren't enough workers for the jobs that are out there. If you can't keep the crew busy, they will find someone that will. And that puts you in a bind when you find the next job.

Maybe this is the answer. I wish they would be more communicative about when they are planning to work on my job, when materials will be arriving, and when they won’t be working on my job. Towards the end they tend to go silent.

 

[Zee09]

You never know what you are going to get until they show up and start working. That's just the way it is.

References mean little if the top guy quits or is on another job or out sick.. Increase the amount of draws to keep them hungry.....they all chase fresh money...

 

[facility1]

Draw up a simple contract with, starting date , material specifications and ,delivery of materials to site , time frame completion constraints , payment intervals upon progress etc. & finial completion date , then have it notarized at your bank. and importantly get references and also three written bids.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Why - because they can. Short version.

Long version, if they were gods gift to project management they wouldn't be doing spot jobs to replace your siding.

You already paid some and are captive. Your stuck with them and they know it. They will get there when they get there.

• A more regular customer called and needs them right away or they lose that job, so there off
• They don't have the money for materials for yours - so there off to other smaller jobs to earn some. Or maybe they simply forgot to order your materials. Or there supplier gave there materials to a better customer.
• One of there subs or day workers didn't show up - often because they owe them back pay. Or they could just be hung over.

Are they all like this - no of course not. The good ones are booked 2 years out and have regular customers like builders. If the guys doing spot jobs like retrofit your Bathroom were good at what they did, they wouldn't be doing spot jobs.

Contracting is a dumpster fire with no barrier to entry. Your best bet, in my experience growing up in it, is find a family affair - like a father son type thing.

 

[zzyzzx]

They have all had great reviews on google and other sites, and my wife and I can’t believe that customers are giving these positive reviews.

Did you leave reviews of all these contractors?

 

[zzyzzx]

You could always structure a contract with penalties for missed milestone/overall completion dates. Whether you could find a good contractor who would agree to those terms is another story.

You won't find a contractor who is going to agree to penalties for missed milestones / overall completion dates.

 

[Pablo]

You never know what you are going to get until they show up and start working. That's just the way it is.

References mean little if the top guy quits or is on another job or out sick.. Increase the amount of draws to keep them hungry.....they all chase fresh money...

True but you can easily eliminate the real chisel weasels. We just went through starting this with painters examples one co for sure eliminated didn't show for bid. Another was super professional up front, but after speaking face to face with a couple references, nope. Yeah I know painters are all like the finished product. Kinda flaky.

We had some bad experience with painters, never contractors though so

My neighbor had to run some painters off, half paid, quarter done. Never checked any references. Wow.

 

[SC Maintenance]

True but you can easily eliminate the real chisel weasels. We just went through staring this with painters one co for sure eliminated didn't show for bid. Another was super professional up front, but after speaking face to face with a couple references, nope. Yeah I know painters are all like the finished product. Kinda flaky.

Around here the "painters" are a handful of guys that pretend to be painting companies but all simply use the same undocumented painting crews and keep half the money.

The crews are usually guys that know each other and always work together. There often related. They go project to project. There often owned money because the first guys never pay on time.

If your fluent you can bypass the first guy, but they don't have liability insurance either, so there is that.

Welcome to contracting.

 

[Pablo]

Around here the "painters" are a handful of guys that pretend to be painting companies but all simply use the same undocumented painting crews and keep half the money.

The crews are usually guys that know each other and always work together. There often related.

If your fluent you can bypass the first guy, but they don't have liability insurance either, so there is that.

Welcome to contracting.

Exactly. I know enough Spanish. We even made friends with one of the references (pretty cool). Hired a dude and his brother. Not the lowest bid (2nd lowest) But NEVER start an new job until current finished. (Yeah they may pressure wash on Saturday, then dry a week kind of thing).

 

[Zee09]

True but you can easily eliminate the real chisel weasels. We just went through staring this with painters one co for sure eliminated didn't show for bid. Another was super professional up front, but after speaking face to face with a couple references, nope. Yeah I know painters are all like the finished product. Kinda flaky.

My father was a painting contractor for 55 years and was sued only once and it was by a Delaware judge..

She lost and as we walked out of the courtroom she asked my father over for lunch and to talk about more projects... he declined....

We worked mostly for the very wealthy but my fathers policy was no money down, no draws, and he billed after completion....who does that?

You can tell a bozo because they need all the money upfront because they can't even afford the materials .

Also if your bank calls you when they are trying to cash your check, you know you are screwed.... it happened to me once.