RT Animated Adventures
The Contractor Conundrum
2015 Episode 35 November 3, 2015
Burnie and Gus talk about their not-so-awesome experiences working with contractors.Audio from The Rooster Teeth Podcast #330
Fantastic! and yeah fuck them.
They never listen, they neeeeeever listen.
As someone who was a contractor for about 7/8 years, can I inform you all about the bullshit world that is building permits? Man, can you imagine having everything you need to complete a job in, say, a month, but because you dont have some flimsy pieces of paper, you literally cant do shit for months on end? Our company literally had to stop working on a job and wait a year and a half for a freaking permit. We finished the job in about a month and I do not blame the owner of the home one damn bit for being upset with how long that took. Never blame the contractor for not working as fast as they can(unless they just so happen to be a lazy piece of shit), blame the pencil pushers who take their sweet ass time authorizing permits.
out of curiosity why can't you get the permits before you start working? like, take a deposit, tell the home owner you need the permits, get the permits take another chunk of money, finish and take the last of the money. rather then start stop start stop? I'm not blaming you, just curious.
1. This is not about slow working, it's about leaving your customer in the cold, not answering his calls etc... If you do that, you're just an ass hole, and you come across as a scam, if you have problems with papers, tell the customer directly...
2. Get your fucking permits first before you start the construction, so this can't happen...
In a non for see able future I may call upon your services
georgeanna and Roby1996: It differs state to state and county to county, but in my area, you can't get the permits until you have filled out the contracts to start the job. As for permits that come into effect in later stages of construction, such as electrical and some plumbing works, an inspector has to come and examine the site before you can get a green light to continue. To make sure that contractors dont skip around this step, they hold the needed permits until said inspector gives the green light. In the case of the permit that took a year an a half to get, we failed multiple inspections because the building codes were updated multiple times that year and the site had to be continually redone to bring it up to code.
And about the money: That is generally how it is done. We inspect the work site, come up with an initial estimate, get anywhere from 40-60% of the money needed to complete the job in in two chunks at the start of the job and at about the halfway mark, with the rest coming at the end when the job is completed and all inspections have passed.
One of our contractors had us buy wayyyyy too much marble for our kitchen floors, gave us a tiny refund when we definitely should have gotten more, and then used the rest on his own house.
Well that's super illegal. You own that marble, he could have bought it off of you but they can not take material from one job to another.
Well, it could be illegal depending on the circumstance. If you changed what kind of marble you wanted after he had already purchased it and he was unable to return it, then I think some states have laws that would protect him. But if you did keep the course with your choice of marble and he did indeed do as you said, then by all means, call the police and a lawyer, because that is a violation of multiple laws and should call for the suspension or outright loss of their work license(s).
The guy who built one of the high schools where I live intentionally over-ordered on supplies.
The excess was used to build his house.
I service said house every week.
It's gorgeous.
Dammit Gus.
X) I remember this story.
See, this is why it's useful to be handy with tools and have friends who are the same. When I was a hell of a lot younger, my parents did a whole renno of our house- basically doubled the size by expanding into the backyard- and as far as I remember the only people who worked on it were my parents, family friends and our next door neighbours who were happy to help. Hell, we even had all of our names written into the cement surrounding the poles that keep our veranda up.
Still not as bad as dealing with rentors
Isn't it Conundrum?
Hahaha oooh boy XD
You Lied, There wasn't a Cheerleader threesome...
I wonder if that's why my father will never, ever, ask for a professional to help with his latest renovation. He's basically rebuilt three houses, dozens of cars, power tools and more by now, all because he is anti-contractor/mechanic/professional.
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