# How many times has a quitter put you in a bind



## Joegreen (Feb 18, 2013)

Well my skilled labor and his helper suddenly decided I ask too much of them apparently. I am looking at demo and installing 1000 yards of carpet tile tonight starting in. An hour and have no helpers  FML EH? Oh we'll the show must go on looks like ill be in for an all nighter!!


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

Yeah, that sucks. 

Hopefully it is an easy demo. Ive demo'd commercial glue down carpet that was so stuck you to cut in 1.5" strips and one guy pull with channel locks and one hit it with a scraper. 2" at a time.


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## skillman (Sep 23, 2011)

Worst is when family does it and I don't no why I rehire them back . Those not today boss drives me up a wall .


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## Joegreen (Feb 18, 2013)

Jaws said:


> Yeah, that sucks.
> 
> Hopefully it is an easy demo. Ive demo'd commercial glue down carpet that was so stuck you to cut in 1.5" strips and one guy pull with channel locks and one hit it with a scraper. 2" at a time.


Yes sir been there done that! No biggie though. It's carpet tile demo. PSA is easy money really. They were in for an easy night. Just had to work the night to get it is all. 

Life goes on and such.


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## Doctor Handyman (Mar 13, 2012)

The question now is...
Will you be there for them when they come back needing work?


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## Joegreen (Feb 18, 2013)

skillman said:


> Worst is when family does it and I don't no why I rehire them back . Those not today boss drives me up a wall .


Yeah I can certainly relate to that. Family will f¥EURk you harder than any one else and with no remorse lol. What ever though. "I CAN DO IT" is my personal motto man. Doesn't mean I'm any less annoyed though lol


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## tyb525 (Feb 26, 2013)

Just a tip - a local flooring crew rigged up a cool setup. A piece of plywood with a cable winch on it. The plywood has a bunch of tack strips on the bottom, for slabs. For wood subfloors they use screws.

The hook the cable to a strip of carpet, from as far away from the winch as they can, then just winch it on in. Re-set for the next strip. It worked well for them.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

It's happened, but I always work though. If things fall on me last minuet I pick up the phone and start calling friends. Heck I volunteered to deliver pizza for my friend's pizza joint for free when he was in a jam and he's happy to return the favour.


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## Joegreen (Feb 18, 2013)

Inner10 said:


> It's happened, but I always work though. If things fall on me last minuet I pick up the phone and start calling friends. Heck I volunteered to deliver pizza for my friend's pizza joint for free when he was in a jam and he's happy to return the favour.


Boy I need some real friends like that. Turns out the carpet tile here was installed with multipurpose adhesive on the majority of the area. So not such an easy job after all. Such is life lol.


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## renov8r (Feb 16, 2013)

Has happened to me before to dude. 1 hour before the guy was supposed to meet me at my place to head to the job. I work alone 9/10 times, so I hadn't made arrangements with anyone else. Ended up taking my wife in the end to be my helper for the day. Saved me money but the headache wasn't worth it, not at 6am. I never forget that day, two thing happened. Did the install in just over 4hrs, which is incredible timing for me being practically on my own and I also got a call from him at 5ish that evening crying and apologizing to me for bailing.


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## MelFallen (Nov 28, 2012)

Wow I think we've all been there before! I'm sorry to hear that, especially sad to hear that the job ended up being more difficult than originally thought. Isn't that always how it goes?


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

renov8r said:


> Has happened to me before to dude. 1 hour before the guy was supposed to meet me at my place to head to the job. I work alone 9/10 times, so I hadn't made arrangements with anyone else. Ended up taking my wife in the end to be my helper for the day. Saved me money but the headache wasn't worth it, not at 6am. I never forget that day, two thing happened. Did the install in just over 4hrs, which is incredible timing for me being practically on my own and I also got a call from him at 5ish that evening crying and apologizing to me for bailing.


So what happened? Did you do a Michael Vick (give him a second chance)?


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## Joegreen (Feb 18, 2013)

MelFallen said:


> Wow I think we've all been there before! I'm sorry to hear that, especially sad to hear that the job ended up being more difficult than originally thought. Isn't that always how it goes?


Yes it does always end up that way. Turned a two day job to a three. That's ok. It's in the budget. Most of the time is being taken up by unforeseeable's at this point. Lots of VCT coming up with the carpet and some old patch work as well.


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## renov8r (Feb 16, 2013)

MarkJames said:


> So what happened? Did you do a Michael Vick (give him a second chance)?


Couldn't afford to say completely no to him when he offered his services for the next one. We did some skyjack signage work together a week ago, even offered to purchase his own harness. He's a good guy just a little strange and can be a hard worker. He's actually coming to work for me on the next few projects. However, if he messes up on the first the basement we are starting in a few weeks he wont see the basement after that.


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## tedanderson (May 19, 2010)

I've been there too.

I was doing 3-5 day kitchen remodel for a HUD property. It was nothing serious- We were just doing an exact replacement of the old cabinets, fixtures, and appliances. It was an easy job and they were paying me an obscene amount of money to do it so I wanted keep the deadline.

I hired two of my cousins to help, offered to pay them whatever they asked, and we had a pretty good first day. Day 2 came off to a rocky start. Both guys have been out of work for a while so when they asked me for some pocket money until payday, I had no problem giving it to them. 

At the end of the day I gave them $100 each. The next morning they both had an excuse for why they weren't coming in. One cousin said that he had to go to his kid's daycare to handle a problem. The other had some other ridiculous issue and said that he would be in later. Neither of them showed nor did they call or show on day 4.

I had to pull 2 all-nighters to get it done and a few days later the guys came back asking for the rest of their pay.


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## SDel Prete (Jan 8, 2012)

tedanderson said:


> I had to pull 2 all-nighters to get it done and a few days later the guys came back asking for the rest of their pay.


Tell them "The rest of what pay?"


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## olligator (Nov 23, 2007)

Ironically it looks like my lead/foreman-in-training is going to do that tomorrow morning. I hope I'm wrong. A shame really, as I invested a lot of time and money in this guy. If he does quit though, no, he's not getting hired back.

I hate to say that short of some understandable situation, e.g. transportation dies, I just don't have the tolerance or patience to play games of this sort with employees or vendors. We're all in business, not here to be Dr. Phil to help people with their emotional issues and spoon-feed them money at their leisure.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

olligator said:


> Ironically it looks like my lead/foreman-in-training is going to do that tomorrow morning. I hope I'm wrong. A shame really, as I invested a lot of time and money in this guy. If he does quit though, no, he's not getting hired back.
> 
> I hate to say that short of some understandable situation, e.g. transportation dies, I just don't have the tolerance or patience to play games of this sort with employees or vendors. We're all in business, not here to be Dr. Phil to help people with their emotional issues and spoon-feed them money at their leisure.


What's the clue that he may bail? Long-winded story of some sort?


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## Joegreen (Feb 18, 2013)

It's always something long winded. Hell one of my Guys made up a story that he broke his leg... only to reply to the cl ad I posted looking for unskilled labor 

I mean come on... really?


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## pibe (Jan 21, 2013)

Joegreen said:


> It's always something long winded. Hell one of my Guys made up a story that he broke his leg... only to reply to the cl ad I posted looking for unskilled labor
> 
> I mean come on... really?


Thats hysterical :clap: You should have lead him on and had him show up at a random jobsite where you were waiting....been like "oh hey man what are u doing here"


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