# GC is 15/16 retarded!!!



## pmarz1 (Jan 25, 2007)

*only half the story....*

Why is it subs always want the perfect world to work in. Time to take a closer look at yourselves. More often than not, it's the subs that screw up the schedule rather than the GC making an unrealistic schedule. We do more and more work in house just for that reason, whiny little primadonnas for subs that insist on "owning" the job site. Reality check boys....mommy isnt around to spoon feed you anymore. As for walking off the job, you keep that attitude up and no respectable GC will even consider hiring you. You all may think Mike was a bit crass in his response but he is right on....grow up!


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## Kent Whitten (Mar 24, 2006)

I think you're the type of GC that he's talking about. The jobsite is just like a marriage. You have to compromise. If one side is bullheaded, like you, then the job will always suck. The "too bad" attitude is the problem. We ALL have to get along to make a project work. Respectable GC's and subs are the ones who are conscientious about the surroundings and are willing to discuss this.


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## IBUILD (Mar 25, 2007)

Right on the button Fman!


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## Scott Young (Dec 23, 2005)

cutting inside??? i only cut inside on an addition or a new build. what do you do when you are installing crown in an already established home....or installing new base and door/window casing in an established home. you take your measurements go outside, cut, then come in and install. i have had to work under a tarp because it was snowing and sleeting. the ground was soup so i had two pairs of shoes on for outside and one for inside. talk about a hassle. 

when you walk off the job you loose the money owned to you, you loose your reputation, and you loose future jobs.

that said, i have walked off a job before when the issue was beyond legal or safe.


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## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

I don't even understand the reason for cutting inside. I measure the whole house, cut, bring it in, install it. Might need to recut 2 pieces in a house. So why cover everything with sawdust? Someone must then go around and clean up after you. Do you bring your mother along?


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## pn70 (Jun 11, 2006)

I'd have to agree with mike and some of the other guys.

Suck it up and finish the job! We do not work in a factory where there are controlled environments. Almost always I have to improvise, no job is the same and no customer or sub/contractor is the same so it's always a journey and I'm never bored. I do get frustrated on ocassion but that's when it's time to chill and come up with a productive game plan to fit the current situation.

I'm not saying it's wrong to have a legitamite issue with the way the GC is scheduling the job, it's just bad to walk off without finishing the job. If the GC is a serious d1p****, finish the job, take your losses and move on in a professional way and best not to let him/her know your real feelings. Burning bridges is bad but you also have to worry about what he/she will say about you to others, true or not true gossip will travel.

In regards to having to cut outside or in a garage, it's good excercise and you can always bid accordingly after the first or second job for that individual GC. I will say this, you can always make up for lost profit if you keep the GC in question at arms reach, burn your bridge and that opportunity disappears.


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## woodmagman (Feb 17, 2007)

thom said:


> I don't even understand the reason for cutting inside. I measure the whole house, cut, bring it in, install it. Might need to recut 2 pieces in a house. So why cover everything with sawdust? Someone must then go around and clean up after you. Do you bring your mother along?


Yeh right:laughing:


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## Casework King (Feb 19, 2007)

You guys ever watch flip this/that house..... Allright well thats this GC you know the guy that goes into the attic with a hammer to cut a hole for the b-room vent and then asks you to patch somthing up for him, hit himself in the head with a vaughn trying to toenail a header from the wrong side, a dot commer who hit it big in stocks, bought a house and effed it up but some tard came in and bought it anyway. so he did somthing right i guess. I've been trying to get away from this guy for a while now becuase of plenty of similar circumstances like the one that started this thread. I finally had it. So I blew a gasket I think somwhere in here I said I left because I can afford to and I'm not looking to get rehired. 


I Invite any of you who dissagree with me to come to my area to replace me. how about you Framerman southern Maine aint to far come give it a shot.Then you can vouch for me. oh yeah I'd like to point out that this guy Always has losses like this job he forgot to price the foundation app $10,000.00, he's missing 800sq' of blonde mahogany flooring app $1,700.00, got doors delivered placed them on concrete..... had to pay etc. etc.. Then he tries to play let's make a deal at the end "well one of my guys helped you move your lumber" and this and that "do you think you can pay him" NO THANKS!!!!

Oh and Mike finley Thanks for typein like and adult this time. Next time my paperwork will be a little more specific.


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## Casework King (Feb 19, 2007)

Oh and thom..... so do you have the flooring subs cut & sand the floors outside too. As to not get any dust in the house.:no: This whole wing of the house is vacant it's a custom home not a cookie cutter. It's not speed base and colonial. I'm gonna cut out of the weather..... this guy doesn't want any dust inthe house but the guys he hired to finish the floors don't have dust collection. 


Oh one more thing.... when this GC ordered the wrong radius hinges (5/8 instead of 1/4) He asked if I could fill the exess mortise with joint compound.:w00t:


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## Kent Whitten (Mar 24, 2006)

> how about you Framerman southern Maine aint to far come give it a shot.


err....what'd I do?


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## Casework King (Feb 19, 2007)

Ahhhh you didn't do anything framerman..... your just the closest one to my jobsite. And you called me bullheaded..... jerk...Just kidding.


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## Kent Whitten (Mar 24, 2006)

I did? I have been backing you dude. I told off the guy with the post before me.


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## Casework King (Feb 19, 2007)

:laughing: Oh I get it. you didn't specify who you were talking to. I'm a jerk:laughing:
I appologize I read too fast...... Thank you!!


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## airborneSGT (Feb 19, 2007)

Sounds like he should have been a carpenter before trying to be a G.C.!


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## paintr56 (Feb 4, 2005)

I am a painter and do not work well with others. That is one reason I do residential repaints. After reading the advise on here to suck it up and you should have put it in your contract if it was important to cut inside I have a question. Why do you not feel the gc should have put it in the contract if it was important to him that the cutting take place out side? When I bid a job I have a plan on how the job will progress and the job is bid accordingly if it is important to the home owner that things are done in a different way they should tell me. The same is true of the gc. Someone mentioned how well they managed jobs because they would have had one or two rooms ready for the painter then have the painter come in do that and leave come back later. This should be discussed before the job starts most painters would have bid this planning to come in and blow through the whole job. A lot of gc make the job harder then it needs to be for everyone and as long as the attitude is suck it up they will continue to do so.

Jim Bunton


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## petermichael (Apr 13, 2007)

*Qualify the customer*

The problem started before you walked on the job. Lot's of new guys (like me in the beginning) get fired up hungry and pursue every job out there. *You absolutely do not want every job out there*. All the potential customers out there are trying to see who the best guy is to work on their house. Why wouldn't you do the same thing. You must qualify each and every customer. Meet and greet. Ask questions when you meet them so that you can get an idea how they are. Now you will never be able to really know someone, but your intelligence can pick up cheapness, or wishy washy, or just disagreeable behavior. 

You gauge the risk and raise the estimate price accordingly with any part of a potential project. This should be a huge factor as well. There will be those here who say, "_well that doesn't matter if your contract is iron clad." _I happen to think that well it is important to make a good contract, it's just as important to not work for someone whom I see myself potentially having a battle royal with.



> I've been trying to get away from this guy for a while now becuase of plenty of similar circumstances like the one that started this thread.


Some GC's and PM's are farm raised to take advantage of the young talent. Some know you will want to work for them because of the prestige of the project, or the ownership. But looking back I don't think this person qualified as a good customer.

Don't get upset at Mr. Finley and his black and white outlook. Success will make you like that sometimes.:notworthy


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## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

Casework King said:


> I've dealt with this behavior for two and half years now. What would you do????


For heaven's sake why? Has the money been good enough that it's only now become "an issue" worth dealing with?

I'd have a contract agreement that provided different prices for different working conditions. That should cover it.


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## keepitstraight (Nov 12, 2006)

*bid vs hourly*

most guys in the trades are optimistic and think a job will take less time than it truly does (guilty, but feelin' good about it). at this job i am getting 32/hr. and doing some really great stuff, curved base and jacuzzi access door, capping 4 and 1/2 inch walls with logs and scribing them around the granite counter and cabinet, custom closets to the nine foot lid, two - two by twelve bookshelves - one 5 foot by 6 foot, and the other a trap that follows the stairs eight feet tall at the short end and about 3.5 at the short side, and my weirdest to date; making and carving footboard, siderails and build the frame for a bed because there was only a ten thousand dollar headboard sent from india. fun!

so it doesn't matter when i am kicked outside, to the garage, to the sewing room upstairs. i love it so much i literally run up and down the stairs all day and i am 52 years old. 

now if i had a bid to finish this house i not only would not have a clue as to what time it would take (especially with all the change orders that would have happened and the horrible framing and drywall to try to hook it all onto) but i would be insisting on a reasonable working situation. i have moved tasks for painters, tileguys, counter installers, welders, drywall repair, movers, black walnut floor installation, plumbers, concrete work, carpets, and headaches of the owners when they moved downstairs. that wouldn't happen on a bid, but i always insist on decent cutting situations since i did a 9,000 square foot house that had only two hot receps at the other end of the house. veneered casing so each cut had to be perfect and each recut was literally 130 feet away. no more.

if the gc can't schedule trades in a way that it is possible to work together they are pretty special - in the short bus sort of way. we all have things come up that change things and that is when i try to respect the other people and work together as best as possible. my motto is that i try not to be the worst part of anybody's day.


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