Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for July 06, 2021

And they’ll try to get the money up front.

Remember The Money Pit? Everything was “twoweeks” away.

We pretty regularly deal with contractors and, they pretty regularly deliver at the promised price with the promised quality, within 6 to 12 months of the promised time.

You can have it at the lowest price, on time, and the right quality. Pick two

Will someone kindly defend the honour of the contractors, please!?!

When will my meal get here?

2 weeks.

Gonna be some harsh comments today.

Takes longer if you ask for a sub.

It’s been my experience that the delivery FAR EXCEEDS the time of the estimate;-D

At least you don’t have to pay them, according to some people.

“You wanted a bun with that hamburger? Well, that’s going to change the estimate.”

Does the estimate come with a guarantee?

If so, what are the conditions?

The Heisenberg Uncertainty principle of contracting, as soon as you pin down one element, all hope of pinning down any of the others goes out the window.

Plus it won’t be what you were told.

We removed our kitchen’s wallpaper, which was installed incorrectly, coming off in pieces, small pieces. So we hired a contractor repaint our “popcorn” ceiling and to resurface and paint the kitchen wall and our living room. After he was done with the ceiling, which in turn they dented our refrigerator. When I ask how he was going to prep the walls he replied, We’ll paint and see how it goes.

He was fired the next day and I explained, “You’re doing what I could do.” We hired two brothers who were in a union. The walls were worked on for two days, whichever the correct term for drywalls, along with painting the other walls/rooms. It looks great and their price was no more than the first contractor.

I would hire union talent, more than one bid of course, over non again. Of course it depends on the individual, but they are exposed to the proper training and years of experience. The others seem to be folks who used to in a factory etc, before where they ended up.

Gee, ya mean if ya go to a Choke ‘N Puke and don’t get extremely good food, it’s their problem? Or if ya go to a fine restaurant and try to bully the servers, complain about everything, and annoy everyone else there, ya could “get taken” and be “treated poorly”?

Hmm, did ya ever think ‘bout being smart enough to ask others about the place, check ratings, look at the place and what they offer online, find out if it’s in the price range you want, and also treat the business with respect and dignity first?

Do your research with any business. Set limits for the business and yourself as well – if you don’t discuss goals and budget there’s gonna be a problem. Expect that everybody including you should stick to their end of the bargain too – it’s a two way street.

Want it on a plate? that is an extra. A Clean plate? Woha that is ‘going to need to be signed off by the architect extra.’

You want a side dish? Gotta have a meeting to check the plans. Want it to go? Have to check with the Union for that one. And we don’t even want to think about what kind of a field day OSHA will have with that.

Make any change to the order what so ever? We will need to schedule a meeting with the designer, architect and three engineers on site to review the changes. You then need a change order signed off by everyone before it goes to budgeting for a cost review. followed by another round of meetings. Then it will be an extra.

ok Ill stop now… Worked too many years as a GC

And the waiter will bring you your salad…and then you won’t see him for the next six weeks.

Managed by a government?

I think it was to be Government Contractor Cafe.

Why do I get the feeling from the comments that many people consider “contractor” and “consultant” to be synonyms? I’d guess your HR folks don’t confuse them.

I suppose I can’t eat there anymore since I’m no longer a contractor. …not sorry.

Rule of successful contracting: No changes, so think the project out. “What if you …” will cost a lot.

Café Cheops would have been better. After all, it’s Chop’s Law that states that no project will be brought in on schedule and within budget.

15% overhead automatically added to each check.

So I guess at this place you’re required to pay 1/3 after ordering, 1/3 when the food is delivered, and 1/3 when you’ve finished eating. The is also a 15% contingency cost built into the food pricing, in case you don’t like the service.

Ever see the Cary Grant Movie: “Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House”?

We’ve never had a problem with a contractor who was willing to do what we asked. We needed a new ceiling in one bedroom, and the fellow originally suggested removing the old interlocking tiles (maybe asbestos? they dated from the late40s) before he put up the sheetrock. Hubby took him into the attic to take a gander at the blown-in insulation, which would come raining down if the tiles were removed. “Ah yes, Mr. Rice. We’ll just put the sheetrock over the tiles. That will seal them off perfectly.”

OTOH, we asked a guy for an estimate for dredging the pond in the front yard. He wanted to drain it completely, divert the stream to dry it out, then dredge it and line it with concrete. Talked himself right out of a job!

When I ask you to light a candle, don’t wind down the moon and wrap it in sticky paper!

I have to say, I am happy with nine out of ten contractors I have hired for projects around the house, but it is that tenth one that I always remember.

How?

contractors should write contracts that state any changes in the agreed upon work will be charged EXTRA! People take advantage of every loophole they can find.

Stop giving the contract to the lowest bidder.

“Your burgers been back-ordered.”

Looks like most hotel lobbies in the mornings. When did that become acceptable?

Honorable contractors should include this on their business cards: “Have it done FAST! Have it done RIGHT! Have it done CHEAP! (Pick two)”

Free Estimate: We won’t charge you to tell you what we’ll charge you.

I call that the Cheops Corollary to Murphys Law.

It applies to almost all construction projects.

…and you’ll get half your order and then wait forever for the other half

The Texas legislature has repeatedly tried to pass a law requiring roofing contractors to register with the state and list where they’re from and how to contact them. The bill has died each session due to the bill killing actions of State Rep. Ramon Romero Jr…a contractor,

Twice as long? Ha! He has two other restaurants on the other side of town.

My wife tends to be the one who supervises the contractors or maestros, as they are called down here when we’ve had any construction or remodeling work done. She’s tough and stays on them until the work is done to her satisfaction. She even fired her own brother for not doing some blockwork to her liking in a timely manner. She’s not called La Generala for nothing!

Every time I hire a contractor he has to provide a written estimate to which he MUST abide. The honorable ones agree; the others don’t get hired.

It’s kind of his own fault for always choosing the lowest bidder. Contractors are going to low ball the costs in order to get the job.

Since when do cafes promise your food in a certain amount of time?

“Oh, we can get it done for $100,000.”

Final bill: $351,215.

I always gave a high and low estimate of a job and explained why. You can’t know what’s behind the wall before you tear into it. I could usually do the low bid, but too often an idiot had “fixed” it before me which meant I had to tear out his fix and do it right. Thankfully I’m done with that and all the headaches that go with it.

Welcome back from COVID-19, I think…

I want to sell your property and I’ll come and give you an estimate as to how much it’s worth, and YOU WON’T HAVE TO PAY ME! But this t-shirt with my estate agency’s logo will cost you $25.00 to advertise for me, for nothing. Got you coming and going.

I spent 34 years working in the Glass/Widow Industry, oh gawd the stories I could tell. The wealthier the customer the bigger the issues. Dot Com zillionairs were the worst by far followed by lawyers.

I can not believe that ANY government contractor would promise their firm would deliver a product as described, when promised, and at the cost stated, and not do so.signedI. M. Naivety