For the first time, I made copies of all 4 pages of "estimates" Ronnie had drawn up in his notebook about this project, starting from the very beginning when he showed me first estimates on May 6, to the latest changes. (Numerous changes have been made to the plan since then.) Lacking anything in writing from previous meetings was beginning to give me a very bad feeling, so this was some help.
Ronnie started mentioning some of his troubles with car, associate worker, and the duration of project, etc. Labor was costing him more than expected.
I pointed out that part of the reason things were taking so long was that he was only working 3 hours a day and skipping lots of days. During one particular week this month, he only worked one day. That was not long after I had given him the last advance ($1500) bringing total deposits to $5100 (which yesterday he disputed until I showed him the check carbons).
He agreed, however, that the estimated and agreed-to costs were going to final costs, unless modified by project additions. I was not going to be covering his car, bad loans to associates, etc.
He said that he needed another $1000 advance now to get the slab poured soon. He reiterated over and over that he would do the work one way or another, he was an honest person, etc. But he did not have the money (despite all my payments) to get the concrete right away without a further advance.
I wrote a check for the $330 estimated for the addition of the wire mesh, which I asked him about yesterday, and which had not previously been part of any estimate. The engineer "suggested" the addtional wire mesh if the building was to have bare concrete or tiled floor, to minimize non-structural cracking. (The $330 included $80 actual parts cost for the mesh itself, as shown on one of estimate pages). And I said I would advance him the remaining $670 after the slab preparation had actually passed inspection, and if it would mean he could get slab poured from concrete truck soon (which he insisted it would).
So, FWIW, for the first time, I added an actual milestone (slab inspection) as condition for further advances. That made me feel better about it, though one could easily say I should have refused any further advances since the amount paid until today ($5100) already exceeded total estimated slab cost (and now I've gone further, to $5430). Total project cost is now estimated to be over $11,300, by guestimate, I did not actually add his numbers up yet.
The actual estimated slab cost was initially $3200 (rather high IMO, I had similar work estimated at $1800 two years ago but had hoped Ronnie's work would be better) and got increased another $1500 for upgrades (including thicker rebar and 50% size increase) and moving (to avoid easement violation, an upgrade/change cost which seemed reasonable at the time and I paid that that $1500 a couple of weeks ago), plus $330 for the wire mesh, totalling $5030 in estimated and agreed slab costs. All in all, a rather expensive slab for a shed (though it's worth most of that to me for the highly upgraded way it's being built, as engineered for the originally planned 9 foot high brick walls, and which I still think is a good idea for my expansive clay soil, despite the fact that heavy brick veneer siding is no longer in the plan). Sunday I had joked to friends at my party that the slab was being built so well I could indeed, sometime in the unforseeable future, add two more levels, observation deck, and a dome, as one friend had joked a month before. Another possibility (though not sure if fully engineer approvable) would be using brick as interior wall...that actually makes a lot of sense for passive building, more sense actually than brick siding, since it puts the thermal mass inside the insulated envelope. Given current situation, I probably would not do that right away, but it's another idea for the unforseeable future.
So, am I a shrewd manager or sucker? Only time will tell.
LOL. I've had so much trouble in the past with workers who have car trouble, deaths in the family (sometimes it seems the same relative dies more than once) and other such excuses for not being there. I'm so happy my current contractor and his workers are always here when they say they will be and work quite hard, with the possible exception of two who did a bit of yard work last week for me. I do wonder about the price I paid for the exterior painting. After I take out an estimated cost for the workers and the paint, there is still a huge amount left, much more than it seems the profit should be. Before they start the interior painting, I'm getting an estimate from another company just to be sure this company's price is still in line.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand why in an economy like this, it is so hard to get callbacks from companies. I've been waiting all week for a tile estimate, called twice, still don't have it. Still waiting for return calls from several painting contractors. One did call and has been very helpful and is coming today to give me an estimate.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because there is so little business the companies have laid many people off.
ReplyDeleteI will try to use your builder for future projects.
Painting, yes, often a problem, one can see why people spend $12,000 on brick home upgrades so they never have to worry about painting, and that's the best reason nowadays.
I didn't have the current kind of trouble with Ronnie in the last project, thouth I did have trouble with painting. Last time I had the problem where he did extra work beyond what I asked for, and he had so many workers it all went too fast for me to keep up with. The extra work was painting the entire side of my house instead of just "around the window" as I had asked. Anyway, I decided that the painting was very much needed anyway, and the price was OK. Then I complained about some spilled paint and he rented a power washer and started power washing my entire driveway. He wanted to charge me $200 for power washing. I caught up with him just after he started and got him to accept $100 for only power washing the section with spilled paint. In principle, he should have paid the whole thing, since it was the fault of his crew that paint was spilled. Anyway, I decided these were minor glitches in the experience, and I thought he did very good work in fixing my chimney, eaves, and gutters, work which had been done incorrectly in many ways by the previous contractor I used, and despite his tendency to pad the bill he was generally the best contractor I've had in San Antonio, and i felt he could do "anything" until the current project.
Noel had been very supportive of using Ronnie on this project and insisting that he would do a good job based on past performance. But when Ronnie disappeared and his phone stopped working, I told her the above stories and she was not so happy with him anymore, and has been asking lots of tough questions (which led to my getting Ronnie's contact information, copies of the estimates, and calling the engineering company).
I've had lots of troubles with contractors in the past in San Diego. Then my brother-in-law steered me to use his contractor, who was an angel, did everything perfectly, and always charged pocket change. I regretted leaving such a good contractor behind. Of course my brother-in-law continued hiring him, so it wasn't like he didn't have any business. But then, a few years ago, at age of about 60, he killed himself. He had family and health issues of various kinds. My brother-in-law was kicking himself for not spending more time at his bedside after his first unsuccessful suicide attempt. After he got out of hospital that time, his second attempt succeeded.