I'm Getting Worried

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00naomi00

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Good morning,

I've hired a contracting company in my local area. The demo was done last week on the kitchen and master bath. I now have a completely demolished kitchen and bathroom that has been that way for a week. The only materials that have been ordered are the kitchen cabinets. My GC was supposed to be taking a materials list to a "bid room" to try and get a discounted rate for such a large purchase. This was 10 days ago....every time I've asked him about how things are going with the "bid room", I get an excuse. He has now stopped answering my messages. The team is supposed to be here Monday to start work and he won't respond to requests for the subs information or when they are supposed to be here. Am I overreacting or do I have reason to be concerned? What do I do? Thank you!
 
Seems you are already off on the wrong foot with the GC. Time to rein him back in and explain what you want and the timelines you expect....and any penalties associated with his delays.
 
havasu said:
Seems you are already off on the wrong foot with the GC. Time to rein him back in and explain what you want and the timelines you expect....and any penalties associated with his delays.
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He's no longer answering any of my messages. There aren't any penalties lined out in the contract, other than him not getting any additional money. He received a down payment before the demo was done and would not receive anything more until 2/3 of the work was complete.
 
I wasn’t a big fan of the approach in your other thread. We really don’t have all the information or the gut feel required to make a judgment on a situation such as this IMO. We were not there and haven’t had the conversations you have had with him to make a judgment call. If you show us photos of the work and such we can tell you if it is being done correctly etc.

In general I’m a guy that likes to see all the ducks in a row before starting. Plans, materials ordered, long lead items received etc all before any work is started. If I was planning on living in the house at the same time I would want even better control of the timing. I have even set up a temporary kitchen or shower etc to get thru the down time. I don’t personally think a week of dead time sounds correct and I don’t think not returning calls is good.

How much was paid up front if I can ask and how much is left?
 
When you guys talk about having the material ordered, are you saying before the first cabinet door is removed to start the demo, that all the materials should be ordered and at the site?
 
If if had of been my job all this would have all been decided on before the demo even started, prices discussed and agreed upon in writing, materials ordered and on hand or at least being delivered with a few days of the demo.
 
I agree at least have a supplier picked and pricing set. I think a lot if guys jump on demo to get paid. I would want my customer to have as little down time as possible.

To me I can deal with the week of nothing happening but not responding is a big issue for me. Even if you have no news or bad news at least communicate.
 
vinny186 said:
When you guys talk about having the material ordered, are you saying before the first cabinet door is removed to start the demo, that all the materials should be ordered and at the site?
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Should be ordered and know when they will be showing up. If you start demo before and then find out there is a 4 week lead time you leave your customer with no kitchen for 4 weeks longer than you have to. The whole project shouldn't take more than a couo k email weeks if homework is done and things are scheduled proper
 
Yeah, after what I've seen from other people's experiences, I would not let demolition begin until there was a very clear plan of what everything would cost and guarantees that the stuff would be delivered by x date. Granted, I would also want to make allowances for surprises found during demo (stuff that might interfere with proposed layout or that needs fixing). but in general, the replacement cabinets should already have been ordered before demo started.

Saw someone else who let demo start without even a clear plan of what they wanted the new layout to be. Learn from this: never do that! Always have a plan. Maybe even a contingency plan or 2 if something goes pearshaped.
 
zannej said:
Yeah, after what I've seen from other people's experiences, I would not let demolition begin until there was a very clear plan of what everything would cost and guarantees that the stuff would be delivered by x date. Granted, I would also want to make allowances for surprises found during demo (stuff that might interfere with proposed layout or that needs fixing). but in general, the replacement cabinets should already have been ordered before demo started.

Saw someone else who let demo start without even a clear plan of what they wanted the new layout to be. Learn from this: never do that! Always have a plan. Maybe even a contingency plan or 2 if something goes pearshaped.
Click to expand...

Luckily, the GC finally returned my call and I made it very clear that communication is extremely important. I think I got my point across there. Also, the cabinetry has been ordered and have a definite design in mind and won't have any problems with that. There were specific items we had picked out that he was supposed to take to a "bid room" for lower pricing. Every time I asked about how that was going, I got a different excuse. It took 10 days to finally get his answer, which was that he did not like the bid he received and that he was getting another bid on Monday (tomorrow). This stalls the purchasing of materials in my opinion. We are now nearly 2 weeks behind schedule. The project, as outlined in the contract, is to be finished by 1 Apr 17. This is for a full master bath remodel, full kitchen remodel and built-ins around our fireplace. We have firm pricing on both the labor and materials.
 
That's good news. I'm glad it's back to a working relationship.
As annoying as it can be to go over schedule, IMO it's better to go slightly over than to have it become a rush to finish at the end, where corners may be cut in order to save time.
 
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