one must imagine Sisyphus happy

[the_siobhan]

Workmen arrived at 9:00 this morning to install three (3) doors and finish off the framing of one (1) window. Ostensibly less than a day of work for two people.

Lords, ladies, and gentlethems, it is now 9:30 PM and they just left and only one door and the window are finished. Original Contractor did something funky with the framing of the doorways and nothing is squared properly and so they have to buy some more materials and come back later in the week to finish fixing it.

There was shouting. In Polish I think. They are very clearly not impressed with Original Contractor.

Any vindication I might have felt that Original Contractor was in fact just making it up as he went along is somewhat overshadowed that I have to pay tradie's rates for a second day of work.

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

well that sucks but at least it's getting done I guess

[trobadora]

Oof, that sucks so much! *hugs*

[the_siobhan]

I'm kind of kicking Past Me for letting things get this far, but on the other tentacle I was already dealing with A Lot.

[the_siobhan]

I am starting to realize that every single thing he touched is wonky. I have somebody coming over this week to look at finishing the stairs and deck, and I'm afraid of what he might find.

[elusis]

Is there any potential remedy available to you?

I'm so sorry but I'm also glad your House of Theseus is getting more functional.

[cornerofmadness]

and we should be able to trust a professional

[miss_squiddy]

You did not need another person to manage at that time. It sucks that the help became a hindrance.

[warriorsavant]

Every contractor feels obliged to bad-mouth the prior contractors. That having been said, all too many prior contracts did do shoddy work. Sadly, the new contractor will someday be the prior contractor.

[the_siobhan]

And so the cycle of life continues.

[the_siobhan]

When this is all over I will gather together all the bills and photos and screenshots of text and I will tap a lawyer for a consult. I strongly suspect the answer is no, but I'll see what happens.

[greylock]

Look, I know there are some tradies who will say your doors suck because they can charge more to fix it, and some who are too precise to standard, but the evidence suggests OG contractor was only slightly better than I am at this stiff.

Also, they staid until 9:30? Wow.

Is there a licencing body there you can complain to? I suspect no, and nothing will happen if there is... but I am curious.

[the_siobhan]

You know, that's a good question. The "licensed" part of the title Licensed Contractor title would seem to suggest so.

I did a quick google and it seems to be mostly an insurance thing. But still, I was planning to compile all the bills and photos and text message to present to a lawyer anyway, so this might be a second prong of attack.

[greylock]

The licensing bodies here are SUPPOSED to be a signal of some degree of professionalism.
In practice, they take fees for reasons. My experience hasn't been great.

I expect whatever you do you'll get competing narratives: the work WAS done to the standard, the work WASN'T done to standard, or the work was done as good as it could be given the constraints of the House and Budget.

All three might be true, depending on.


But if nothing else you should be looking at the extras you've needed to do to rectify shoddy work. I guess that might be covered by someone's insurance?