Just fix my damn house.

If any of you are knowledgeable about how residential contractors work, I'd be interested in hearing your commentary.

Scott got a referral from our electrician, who has proven himself to be quite trustworthy, for the name of a guy to finish up some carpentry work around the roof and paint the house. We trusted that this guy would be good (and speedy) based on the electrician's mention that he lived two doors down from him and that they've gone to church together for a long time. Our electrician always shows up when he says he will and does good work for a good price.

Seeing as how our last carpenter decided that his original quote was too low and didn't want to finish the work for the price, we kind of thought, "Well. He goes to church. What are the chances he'll screw us?" He even calls his two-man company some bible-inspired name.

Okay, so the guy hasn't technically screwed us yet, but our house is still in a state of "under renovation" and we can't get the roofer to come out and put the gutters back up until everyone else does their job.

The contractor and his assistant came out on schedule to finish the carpentry and powerwash the house. Everything was great - the driveway was clean and white. After a couple of days of rain, they came out to do some sanding and paint stripping. That took a couple of days, however before finishing they disappeared, leaving their ladder and extension cord running across the yard. There's drippy melted paint goop coming off the soffits they didn't scrape.

Last Thursday and Friday were both beautiful, warm, sunny days - both of which they were supposed to be out to work on the house. They didn't show either day and didn't return phone calls.

They've been paid half down for the job with the other half payable upon completion.

So...what's the deal here? Are they trying to shaft us (time is money) or are they simply trying to squeeze us in between larger, higher-paying jobs?

Posted by Tiffany at April 17, 2006 09:10 AM | TrackBack