# Clients Watching You Work?



## AGullion (Apr 19, 2015)

Mine as well . I live in a high tech town, so you occasionally get a "slide rule" that knows it all....but if I sense they are going to be difficult when I look at the job, I politely pass, referral or not. Life's too short .


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## TNTRenovate (Aug 19, 2010)

I got accustomed to customers looking over my shoulder 12 years ago when we installed a ton of flat screens. It was a new concept and people were curious.

And while I don't mind a hoverer I love customers who give me the keys to their house and then leave for a week or two.


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## AGullion (Apr 19, 2015)

Me too...we get a lot of flat screens that way!! Just kidding


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## illbuildit.dd (Jan 7, 2015)

*p*



AGullion said:


> Any of you guys have these types of spectators ?
> 
> 1. Interested and admire your craft
> 
> ...


Very rarely. 
Another for the list, 
Bored and like to talk


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## AGullion (Apr 19, 2015)

Yes. True


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## Kowboy (May 7, 2009)

I’m lying over the gable end of a one-story roof with a pry bar in one hand and a hammer in the other. The homeowner has climbed my ladder and his face is much too close to the hammer’s swinging claw end. By the time he retrieves a nail puller from his garage, I’ve already got the trim removed. He desperately climbs the ladder and starts to pull the facia board, but I explain that I don’t want that removed. We meet on the lawn.

“I know this is your home and you’re writing the checks, but this is my job, it’s going to have my name on it, and it will be done my way” I state firmly and matter-of-factly.

“Well, I guess we’re going to have to come to some sort of agreement” he says. Right answer; now we’re getting somewhere.

“Get your sorry white-collar-air-conditioned a$$ the f&*k off my job” I told him. Okay, I made that up, but that’s exactly what I was thinking. He’s not a bad guy, but when it comes to extending the overhang on his gable, he’s a lot like a Labrador retriever puppy; full of enthusiasm and action, but clumsy and not so good at taking commands yet.

He and his wife waited until the roofers were tearing off their shingles to start shopping for someone to extend their gable. In her Thumbtack profile (Thumbtack is an internet lead service), she put “Time is of the essence” which is music to my eyes. I have a customer who has just switched “availability” for “price” in her list of priorities. Since my rates are relatively high, the marketplace makes me more available. I emailed her a no-money-down proposal and she acknowledged it. We have a deal.

I’m certain it was my tone that got her old man to capitulate. He could tell by the sound of my voice that if he didn’t get back to his office, I was going to pack up and chalk up the hour and a half drive each way. We are not negotiating.

“I’m going back to my office.” Ahhh….

I documented the neighboring gable for dimensions and details, did demolition, and picked up materials. I’m not going to just tack up a gable extension. I removed the roof sheathing from the gable edge back to the next truss, installed the cantilevered sheathing, and called it a day.

“I thought you’d have gotten more done than that,” Mr. Homeowner says the next morning.

“Oh, that was the hard part yesterday” I deflect. “It’s fairly straightforward now.”

I toenailed blocking between the sheathing and facia, trimmed out the tails in rough-sawn cedar to match the existing, installed the new facia and trim and matched the ventilated soffit. 

I called them out just before dark when I finished. They were very pleased. A major architectural flaw of their home had been abated, on time and under budget. We even laughed about me throwing him off his own job.


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## Kowboy (May 7, 2009)

I got a call from an elderly gentleman that the sliding door in his bedroom was leaking into his garage yesterday. I unzipped the garage ceiling drywall and watched the drip when he watered the door. I was sure it was a flashing problem, but the old boy insisted that I take the fixed door off. Sure enough, there was an un-gasketed TapCon in the track under the door. I pulled it, siliconed the hole, and made a gasket out of uncured EPDM, and re-installed the screw. He insisted on fiberglasing over it so I let him. It worked. That'll teach me.


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