Stupid contractor tricks

“It never ceases to amaze me......

Today, we had a crew come in and pour a concrete slab for us. First thing, they are supposed to use 4,000 lb. test concrete, and they only ordered 3,000 lb test concrete. I tell them to send it back and get the right stuff. Our mutual bosses work out an agreement to use the lesser concrete so we don't just waste it. Anyways, credits are coming from every direction.

At the end of the day, I stop back by to check out the job, close up, clean up as needed. I can not believe what I saw!!! After the concrete is hard enough to walk on, they covered the slab with 3 mil poly. Standard practice. But what was utterly amazing was what they used to weigh down the poly on the concrete. They weighed it down with, get this, STYROFOAM!!! Can you believe these Einsteins???? There is a truck load of lumber not 20 feet from the slab and they ignore that and use styrofoam......

If there is any wind over the weekend, the neighbors will be real pleased to see styrofoam all over their yards.... We weighed down the styrofoam with lumber. Sigh.... Then as we are leaving, we notice that they spilled some fresh concrete on the brick paver driveway, some 50 feet away from the slab, and just left it. It was fresh enough that I was able to remove it and clean it. Friggin brainiacs....”

“How much do you know about contruction MonkeyBoy?”

“monkeyboy, do you ever watch Monster House, or is it too much like work?”

“Good God, man! It's FRIDAY!

And beer-thirty, to boot!”

“BTW -
If you had gone down to Hooters and asked reeeeeeel nice, the fellas *just might* have gone back and cleaned-up...”

“bitpusher, I have never caught Monster House. Is this a construction show gone wild, or like Tool Time? If it's like This Old Home, it is probably too much like my job. I generally don't like to dwell on work when I get home. I leave the job at work, if I can. I did enjoy Tool Time, however.”

“We currently have contractors that decided that they didn't have to submit shop drawings for a copper roof. I can't wait to see how they're going to flash the roof into the building.”

“More like a construction show gone wild. People actually volunteer their house to be remodeled in a week by the host and a crew of 5 guys. They do crazy stuff to the house. It's not like "This Old House" at all.

They're showing 5 of them on the Discovery Channel this week.”

“Yeah, bear thirty. I need something for this headache. Do you suppose the PC monitor is helping any???”

“Nobody cares about quality anymore...

Its all just: "get it done"”

“Lumberzac -
If they're worth their salt, they should be able to do the flashing blindfolded.”

“Well, I say 5 guys. I saw one where a woman was part of the crew.”

“I agree with gojo, generally, a coppersmith will just come in and do the job right. Note the disclaimer: generally. There are always those that shouldn't. But copper costs so much, that by the time replacement material is purchased, the one making mistakes will be all done.....”

“gojo,
I hope you're right. The building is scheduled to open next week.”

“Yep.
There's alot of money to be made in the business, but it come as a double-edged sword...”

“Mmmmm, copper. Almost all the pipe in my house is copper, even the DWV...”

“Speaking of money...

that fixed glass ain't replacing itself... I'd best git up from here.

(Work hammer bang grunt scrape nail saw climb... chaCHING!)”

“What?
No polybutylene?”

“Nope, it was built in 1970...The main stack is cast iron, and there's a little bit of PVC in the downstairs bathroom, but everything else is beautiful copper.”

“Actually, I think I have seen the ads for the show. Can't bring myself to watch it.

I used to be much more passionate about my job, so anxious to do it that I would come up with projects for folks, just so I could pound a nail. Sad to admit this, but while I still derive satisfaction from doing a job, it is much more of "just a job" to me. I turn down all offers of side jobs these days, I prefer to recreate.

The one thing, however, that has remained a constant with me is to give the customer exactly what they want, according to their design, and in accordance with codes. If this is the program I think it is, it just strikes me as sacrilige to do that to some one's house. Call me uptight, but think about it, would you be happy if I came over and painted your car for you with a roller?”

“I've never seen the show, and don't think I would want to. I've seen some of those shows; where neighbors redecorate each other’s houses. Almost every five minutes I watch them make something that I know will fall apart in a month or two.”

“I know what you are saying Lumberzac. I can't bring myself to watch them do that kind of thing.”

“This Old House on the other hand is pretty good.”

“No - Monster House is good. They use pro tradespeople and do some really bizarre stuff. I can't imagine people volunteering their houses as they get pretty 'out there' with their designs - like built-in salad bars, fire poles from the 2nd floor, etc.

You really think the stuff on Trading Spaces lasts a whole month zac?”

“I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.”

“Sounds like standard operating procedure on a construction site to me...you need a full time inspector out there to kick some a$$!

I got a "revised" site plan today which is a joke. The plans sucked so bad to begin with, that we had to have a meeting with the engineer and developer. In said meeting, we redisigned the site for the engineer. Do you think he could possibly include anything we suggested in that meeting? NO! I can't approve these plans, yet I've got the TOwnship supervisor on my case to approve the plans. There's no way I can recommend approval - the plans SUCK!!”

“Aren't projects like that fun.”

“So, anyway, this week on Monster House, they had a crew that was doing a Western theme on a couple of rooms. They work a day or two, and it becomes painfully obvious that their electrician has some problems. Even though he stays late, he can't seem to figure out how to wire up the lights, switches, and outlets they need for the project. Finally, on the last day of the project, he admits to the host that he lied on the resume he submitted to the show, and that he's not an electrician at all. He leaves the project, and the host calls up one of the electricians that worked for him on an earlier project, and this guy finishes up the electrical job in about 12 hours.

So they don't always check those guys out really well...”