# The biggest mess I've ever experienced...



## Remodelor (Nov 5, 2010)

So anyways, I'm kind of the new guy at this company I work for, and they've gotten so much business lately that they're slammed and have work scheduled several months out. We're just now getting to jobs that were sold back in February, so things have been pretty stressful on management and on the installers who are working long hours to keep the pace up. Anyways, yesterday, all of that scrambling finally caused a huge sh*tstorm.

First off, we get to the job at 9AM, but we'd been waiting around for management to show up and tell us where our next job is since about 7. We were told that this kitchen was getting a new bamboo floor overlay and a new tile backsplash. There are two of us, so we figure it'd probably take about a day and a half, two days max to get everything done. The granite guys are also supposed to be showing up soon as well, so the first thing we're supposed to have done is have the old backsplash demo'd and the old countertops removed.

Long story short:

Nobody had told the customer to empty his cabinets the day before, so they were loaded with stuff.

The granite guys showed up 15 minutes after we first arrived, sending my partner into panic "get er done" mode. He decided to go into turbo demo mode, pulled the countertops off before demoing the backsplash and didn't empty the cabinets so their contents were covered in debris. I tried to protest, but I'm the new guy and really can't give orders.

I took on the tile backsplash, and the other guy started the bamboo floor. Someone, somehow sold this guy on a 13x13 tile for their backsplash with no border. It looked terrible, but the HO likes it so who am I to judge?

The guy installing the floor didn't notice that somehow a box of a lighter shade of the same flooring got mixed in, and we didn't notice it until after it was pretty much done, so we have to tear up about 1/2 the floor and replace it with new. In his defense, it was hard to notice until you get up and look at the floor in its entirety and you see a slightly lighter section. Sadly it's in the middle of the room.

After I had tiled about 90% of the backsplash, the HO asked if we were still going to wire up the formerly plug-in puck lights to a switch, and also to remove the window stool I'd tiled around and tile over it. (this wasn't on the spec sheet because someone had forgotten to note it)

So yeah, bad day. The cool part is that we have the best HO in the world. His attitude is "Yeah, sh*t happens, I know you guys will take care of it." We got his kitchen functional for the weekend, and we've got new materials due to be in Monday. He'll be done by Wednesday at the latest. Still, just goes to show what happens when people get in a hurry.


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

I really hate when someone doesn't supply me with a complete scope of work.

I am in the habit of giving my guys the estimate sheets on how I priced everything, including the labor hours. I do delete the costing numbers mind you.

We all have found this to be a great service for them since they can see as an example I figured say 40 meters of concrete for a footing, if they come out at a lot less or a lot more I get a call questioning the discrepancy. Also they track the hours, so if I figure 40 man hours to build and pour a set of footings and they are hitting more I get that call to.


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

Just wait, there will be more.

& more f'u#'d up.


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## Remodelor (Nov 5, 2010)

Yeah, right now the scope of work we get is either spare, or nonexistant. I just know now to confirm everything with the HO on site before I begin, that way there are no surprises.


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

I've worked like that before...it sucks, now the HO appreciates you but hates the guy they contracted with because he looks disorganized, which he is, and the contractor gets mad at you since you made him look like an idiot. 

Hence, fast forward I work for myself and learned a lot from others failures and faults


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## Rob PA (Aug 30, 2010)

I have seen that happen to floors many times. Thats why I bring my coffee with me. I try to stop from time to time and take a look at things. Many mistakes happen when your in get r done mode. Its nice to be quick, but if you do it too fast you end up doing it again.


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## goneelkn (Jan 9, 2010)

Another one for "slow down, it goes faster"


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## thomasjmarino (May 1, 2011)

It's all about experience.
But, I guess you have to have experience to know that. :whistling


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## Remodelor (Nov 5, 2010)

thomasjmarino said:


> It's all about experience.
> But, I guess you have to have experience to know that. :whistling


Yep. Nobody in this business learned by doing everything perfectly the first time. That's because there aren't any good teachers on the subject.


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## Paulie (Feb 11, 2009)

I'll bet your boss didn't come up through the ranks. 

A lot of us guys are terrible at the business end of the remodeling industry but are great craftsman.

But there are a lot of guys that are good at the business end of it but don't have a clue what the guys in the field need to work effectively because they didn't work in the trades.

My .03.


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## Remodelor (Nov 5, 2010)

He didn't. MY boss did, but I was lent to another manager for a couple of days who has only management experience. The manager I work regularly for was an installer for about 5-6 years before he became a manager, and that's plenty of time to run into a lot of problems. He takes pretty good care of our team.


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## Paulie (Feb 11, 2009)

Remodelor said:


> He didn't. MY boss did, but I was lent to another manager for a couple of days *who has only management experience.* The manager I work regularly for was an installer for about 5-6 years before he became a manager, and that's plenty of time to run into a lot of problems. He takes pretty good care of our team.


Go figure.


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## WarnerConstInc. (Jan 30, 2008)

I can't even manage to remember where my smokes are most of the time.


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## GO Remodeling (Apr 5, 2005)

It's a great idea to go over the project with the HO. It can save you. Also, every once in awhile, step back and look over your work (unless you're a roofer ). You just might catch a mistake before you get too far along in the work.


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## lh66 (Apr 18, 2011)

Yikes that sounds pretty bad


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

Sounds like the job they did on my road. The town hall beautification program. They did a lot of work and the last thing to go in was the road. They had been ripping it apart for months doing all kinds of sewer work and whatnot below the surface. Finally they finished and put the 1st coat of asphalt on it. It was late in the season and they decided to wait until spring to put the top coat on. The day finally came and they put on the final layer of asphalt. It was beautiful.....

1 week later they were ripping a big trench in it to get some water to the town hall that they missed. Now we have an ugly patch that is a bump and where they trenched under the beautifully done stone wall it has a sag in it. Then there was a leak in a gas line that they probably just left to be instead of replace while they were under everything, there is another ugly patch. 

It pays to think ahead and to plan it out, even if it takes time. Better to do it right once and be a bit behind then to do it twice and be way behind and out of money.


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## Remodelor (Nov 5, 2010)

On my latest job, I started out today by going through everything with the HO, and it's a good thing I did. The salesman sold a 16x16 shower seat to a man that weighs about 350 lbs. We upgraded to the 26x18 just in time to have it in on Friday, about when I'll be done with this project.

Friggin salesmen just don't think things through sometimes. It'd be like a normal sized person trying to sit in a soap dish...


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

One of the Remodeling Magazine Big 50 remodelors in houston went out of business because he did bad estimates and inadequate scopes. I've been guilty of it before, and it bit me in the azz everytime. JAW


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

At my last company job, I worked most of the jobs that I sold. It made it much easier to get things right. We also had a system that if you sold the job, the installers would call you direct in order to solve any problems. They would have a work order with everything spelled out as to if we were or were not doing something. They would call me and I would know the ins and outs of the job. I also had the information to call the ho's bluff when they tried to tell my guys they had paid for something they specifically did not want to pay for, this usually allowed me to sell it to them anyway.

There is a reason big companies get big and stay big, and small companies get big and then get small again. The small stuff makes a difference.

Oh, and we didn't have any "management" types, except for the owner, and he let us do what we wanted. He knew he knew the business end, and we knew the install end. Anyone in our shop that ran jobs, or sold jobs, or had anything to do with making that job go, was very skilled in what they did.


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## Remodelor (Nov 5, 2010)

I believe at our company, there's a policy that if a salesman makes a mistake that the installer has to work extra to correct, the installer's extra work pay comes out of the salesman's commission. Either way, it's getting ridiculous. It's like once the salesman closes the sale, they don't take the time to stay in contact with the customer, leaving the installer to deal with all their mistakes. They need to be more accountable.

I'll tell you this much, there's not a skill those salesmen possess that I do not. I've been self employed and been my own salesman. The difference between those "professional salesman" and myself is that I know a hell of a lot more about the remodeling process than they do, and their lack of understanding and caring clearly shows. I probably have many more "sales" and organizational skills than many of them judging by the chicken scratch layout sketches I've been getting, seeing as I know how to use many different types of CAD software and could actually create a nice project folder. Also, I make it a point to keep my customers informed and to empathize and stick up for them, unlike these sheisters.

/rant

Sorry, just got off yet another botched planning where my deco strip in the shower was wrong and held me up a week. On top of that my radiant floor mat was short and the salesman didn't know it needed a dedicated circuit and didn't account for that in his quote. Oh yeah, and the granite that he sold them never got ordered, so we're in a world of hold at the moment. I've also been asking my manager about it for 2 weeks and for him to contact my customers which he still hasn't, so I have to be the bearer of bad / no news everyday, and I hate it.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in my life who actually does their job... I worked one job this morning from 8AM to 4PM, then drove to another to give it a few finishing touches and got home by 9PM. I've had two days without going to work for at least 4 hours since memorial day, and I work an average of 10-12 hours a day. I'd love to see my managers or the salesman work that hard...

/ok, really end rant. I love my job, but everyone has a bad stretch every now and then


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