How woud you handle this

Dh and I made the mistake of hiring a friend to do our bathroom. She is my BFF and basically just rebuilt her house over the last year. She is starting a business with the workers from her house. They had given us a quote that we felt was slightly high and said it woud take 10 days. To cut down the cost and timing, we had the demo done ourselves. There were some issues with the plumbing and they did have to level the shower area from the house settling, so there were a few delays. Last Wednesday the plumber was coming to finish and I asked the workers how many more days (we're paying $420 a day.) He initially said 3 days then said 4 to be safe. That woud put them at finishing tomorrow. That is clearly NOT going to happen. Which will now put them back at 10 days- if we're lucky.
Now what? Do I just suck it up? I made a comment that we had expected them to be further and the worker caught an attitude. I don't want to have a problem in my friendship, but on the flip side, I don't think it's right that I'm going to be paying $840 more then I expected as of last week.

How woud you handle this

Unfortunatley, I think your stuck, if you want to keep your friendship. It sounds like they ran into some unexpected issues that took extra time (although I think you should always "expect" unexpected issues in any type of remodeling job), so it sounds like that's why you're back at the original time frame. We have done a lot of work in our house this year and DH always "knows a guy" - after dealing with his friends and friends of friends, I said never again - it seems like there are always issues and even though you want to do the right thing to help a friend, I've learned that friendships and business rarely mix well.

Re: How woud you handle this

I think you're right. It just sucks that it's costing me the money I expected to be saving. And I totally get there were delays, but he told me 4 more days AFTER all of the issues were resolved. That's why I'm so annoyed.

How woud you handle this

Is there anyway you can "finish" it. The crew can get it to the point of just needing paint and then you can paint it yourself. That should save at least a day.

Re: How woud you handle this

They're painting now while waiting for the concrete pan to set. We had expected them to poor the concrete last Friday so they could start tiling the floor today, but that didn't happen. I think tomorrow they are going to finish painting and start the floor. Then I assume grout everything on Wednesday. Then Thursday the have to install the vanity, mirror and finish all the floor/door moldings. I'm praying that will be all. Then we have the electrician and plumber coming to finish the connections on Friday.

Re: How woud you handle this

I don't know, I can't understand why you are paying per day. You have to wait like 3-4 days for the floors to set. If you don't you will have a problem with your tile.

I really don't know what I would do. Do you feel like they're jerking you around?

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We are paying them for days worked. There have been a few days along the way where there was no work to do (ie: waiting on plumber) and they didn't work or get paid for those days. So if the floor needed a day, then they wouldn't work.

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I think it's an odd arrangement to pay for the days worked. That gives them no incentive to work hard. It just means they can take their time and make more money. I think that at this point you have no choice but to fork over the additional money and consider it a very expensive way to learn a lesson.

How woud you handle this

This kind of project should have benn priced as a lump sum plus. Any extras. Never a per day price. You are stuck.

Re: How woud you handle this

As the other ladies pointed out, there should have been a lump sum estimate for this kind of work.



I might try calling your friend and having a convo and saying that you are willing to pay X amount of $$$ more to finish the job already and that you did not expect this to be taking so long and so much out of pocket.

And since she is just starting out, it may be good business-sense to let her know that if she wants to grow her business, she needs to give estimates and not charge by the day.

Of course some things come up that need to be paid for additionally, which is different ;).

Message edited 12/20/2012 6:42:51 AM.

Re: How woud you handle this

They did give us a project cost to begin with. And we told them that it seemed high, so she explained how they got to that number- that's not something she would do for a regular customer. So basically I knew the materials cost and their per day wage. We had the demo done ourselves thinking that would take at least a full day off from them and their labor. The project will be done tomorrow. The good news is they did a great job. The bad news is that they didn't cut a single day out, so we're paying the original quoted price.

How woud you handle this

This ia a prime example of why you dont shit where you eat. Lesson learned.

Re: How woud you handle this

Re: How woud you handle this

She is your BFF you should be able to talk to her. I am kind of surprised she isn't more on top of her workers since she is such a good friend of yours. Seems like you are only communicating with the workers. What is she saying?

Re: How woud you handle this

Re: How woud you handle this

I am glad that the situation seems to be working out for you, but for her, I really hope she can get her act together or that business is doomed to fail.

From talking with DH (he's a contractor), contractors who don't know how to communicate well with customers is the #1 reason their businesses do not grow. He sub-contracts with a couple people in this situation.

I also hate to even bring this up, but as a female in a male-dominated field, she is going to be taken even less seriously. Being walked upon by her guys and looking clueless to customers.

I know it's a touchy subject though, so maybe it's best to just let her learn the hard way ;).

Re: How woud you handle this