Here’s the most recent issue with David. We got a tile bid that was almost $500 more than what I expected (from the research I did online and knowing the square footage and price of tile). My online research said the cost of laying tile is between $5 and $10 a square foot. Based on the bid we got from the tile guy he was charging almost $15 a square foot for the floor (and in his defense I did choose a tricky tile, but doesn’t that mean $10?). I brought this up with David and told him how I came to my conclusion (which I’m not sure why I had to defend my argument). He had the strangest response. He said that if we didn’t want to go with his tile guy we could fine our own. He said it would be a pain for him and it wouldn’t be a good tile job, but that we could find a different tile guy ourselves. Our question is: what are we paying this guy for? Isn’t he our contractor? If we don’t like a bid, isn’t it his job to get another one?
We fumed over this all day yesterday (day 88). Not only did he tell me he wouldn’t find us another tile guy, he also used some lame excuses for the price. He said because it was a small job the tile guy needed to charge more. He said on a bigger job there’d be more room to lay the tile out and in a small space it’s more difficult. I understand a teeny tiny piece of that argument (perhaps there’s more cutting), but if you’re laying tile in a larger space you have to buy more tile, so do you actually save any money? And do you really save time, or do you just do less cutting? Anyway, the excuse didn’t fly with us.
As of this morning David has called and said I can either pick out a tile that’s in stock and less tricky to install (because he claims there’s a $100 charge on any tile that has to be shipped) or he can give me the name of some tile guys. There goes my dream of installing penny tile on the floor. If this was in our home I would find another tile guy, but since this is just the garage I’ll save the penny tile for the house and go find something in stock at the tile store. Basically I’m saving money by picking out cheaper tile—instead of getting the tile guy to shave a couple hundred off his bid. It doesn’t seem very fair to me, but I’d rather spend time picking out new tile instead of being a contractor for a tile guy my contractor won’t work with. Ridiculous!
I figured out yesterday that in the past 12 working days (this excludes Labor Day), Lazaro and Arturo have been here 2.5 days. Today marks day 13 of the working days and they showed up around 12:30, so maybe by the end of the day it will be 3 days in 13 working days. That’s about 23% of the time that they’re here. I certainly don’t blame Lazaro for this. It sounds as though David has him working on another job. If this pace keeps up we won’t finish until Thanksgiving—or Christmas! Please, no!
This morning we also got an update on the garage inspections; specifically the inspection that didn’t pass a week and a half ago. David wrote a letter arguing his case (that the second story/roof is grandfathered in) to the next guy up at the City. He sent it last Tuesday (9th) and has left two messages with him. He hasn’t heard anything. He then asked someone above that guy to look into the issue because until we pass inspection we can’t get our electrical and plumbing rough-in inspections. Until we get those inspections we can’t insulate and we can’t sheetrock. Basically we could be at a stand-still once Lazaro is done putting up siding (which I expect to take a couple days). That makes me wonder…where are the garage doors?! I haven’t asked David about them in a week. Although if I did ask him he’d just tell me we don’t want them yet, but yes, they were ordered.
1 comment:
This is a bit like the question of what weighs more a pound of lead or a pound of feathers... If the install is more difficult because of the tile or there are more cuts, then he has to work longer thus makes more $$, so I don't understand why they have to raise their hourly rate because it is more difficult??? This David guy needs to be black balled from contracting. Have you guys had "the talk" with him yet???
-HO (Back in SMA)
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