I needed our LR/DR drywalled and some joints from previous work finished up, so a neighbour who's in construction gave me the contact info for a drywall guy he uses. Guy gave us a very reasonable estimate and we signed a contract to get the work done. His drywall hanging crew showed up, were in for 2, 2.5 days and then the taping/mudding "crew" came out - one guy with a pair of stilts. He did good work and worked fast, but after the first couple of not-quite full days said he'd be back early the next day (Saturday). Never showed. It wasn't a big deal anyway because I had a bunch of other work to do around the house, and we had somewhere to be in the afternoon.
Guy didn't show on the following Monday, I shot the owner a text and he said the guy would be back Tuesday. He did come back on Tuesday, worked for a few hours, left. Wednesday, no show as of 11:15am. I texted the head guy, he said the guy will "be there shortly". 2.5 hours later the guy showed up, worked for a couple of hours, and left (after mentioning he couldn't reach one of the wall/ceiling joints he needed to finish because it was 12' high at the apex). Not sure how that was our problem, his boss saw the job before he sent him to do it.
Came back again the next day, worked for a couple of hours again, did do the high seam except the very highest spot, left and told my wife he'd be back the next day to finish up the last of the sanding. I noticed this time he took his mixing drill, stilts etc with him which he hadn't done before. Suspicions confirmed the next day when he didn't show up. This time the head guy doesn't return my text, or answer my call. Not a huge deal yet because it still isn't really impacting our timelines. No show again the next day, texts and calls go unresponded to.
I ended up sanding the remaining seams myself so we could crack on with painting before the floors got installed.
At this point, we haven't paid anything but did get an invoice in the mail. I'm tempted to subtract a (small) % for the sanding work I did myself but feel bad because I got the guy on recommendation from my neighbour. I keep hearing from people in the trades that business is tight, they need all the work they can get, yada yada, but it seems like even the ones we get via word-of-mouth can't keep their shit together long enough to see a job through to the end.
WWLRD?
(And to top it off, the flooring guys showed up today and proceeded to install half the living room room and half the foyer with the boards running the wrong way from what we agreed to with the install manager who came out to measure. Luckily I noticed it while taking a break from working, and after the installer spent 15 minutes trying to explain to me why it wasn't the wrong direction and it had to run that way despite me pointing out the floor joist direction, I called my brother-in-law who sold us the hardwood, who called the install manager, who then called the install crew. They just spent the last two hours tearing out a bunch of Brazilian Teak, which they will be eating).
Guy didn't show on the following Monday, I shot the owner a text and he said the guy would be back Tuesday. He did come back on Tuesday, worked for a few hours, left. Wednesday, no show as of 11:15am. I texted the head guy, he said the guy will "be there shortly". 2.5 hours later the guy showed up, worked for a couple of hours, and left (after mentioning he couldn't reach one of the wall/ceiling joints he needed to finish because it was 12' high at the apex). Not sure how that was our problem, his boss saw the job before he sent him to do it.
Came back again the next day, worked for a couple of hours again, did do the high seam except the very highest spot, left and told my wife he'd be back the next day to finish up the last of the sanding. I noticed this time he took his mixing drill, stilts etc with him which he hadn't done before. Suspicions confirmed the next day when he didn't show up. This time the head guy doesn't return my text, or answer my call. Not a huge deal yet because it still isn't really impacting our timelines. No show again the next day, texts and calls go unresponded to.
I ended up sanding the remaining seams myself so we could crack on with painting before the floors got installed.
At this point, we haven't paid anything but did get an invoice in the mail. I'm tempted to subtract a (small) % for the sanding work I did myself but feel bad because I got the guy on recommendation from my neighbour. I keep hearing from people in the trades that business is tight, they need all the work they can get, yada yada, but it seems like even the ones we get via word-of-mouth can't keep their shit together long enough to see a job through to the end.
WWLRD?
(And to top it off, the flooring guys showed up today and proceeded to install half the living room room and half the foyer with the boards running the wrong way from what we agreed to with the install manager who came out to measure. Luckily I noticed it while taking a break from working, and after the installer spent 15 minutes trying to explain to me why it wasn't the wrong direction and it had to run that way despite me pointing out the floor joist direction, I called my brother-in-law who sold us the hardwood, who called the install manager, who then called the install crew. They just spent the last two hours tearing out a bunch of Brazilian Teak, which they will be eating).