DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:

Less so, in the case of a residenttial roof.

The best protection you can get is to check references. Ask for
them and check them out. Always, always, always see the job he is
working on and the last one he completed. (He cannot cherry pick
references that way.)

I finished my last job before you found me, but you can see that
finished job if you want.
It is over at my cousins house.
He is expecting you, and will know not to tell you that he is related.

I have several other jobs like that for you to see if you want to see
them, and none of them are the ones where I just walked off the job.

You will undoubtedlly get all kinds of advice .. . about demanding
this and demanding that .... understand that yours probably is a
small job. If the contractor is legitimate, he may be put off by a
show of apparent distrust.

If he is a professional, he likely already has a contract written up
like this for you to sign.
I have one, and all the companies that I have dealt with for the past
10 years had one.

While you're trying to decide whether to trust him, he's trying to
decide whether to trust you, and whether you're more bother than
you're worth.

Him trust you?
Pay $30 to a little lawyer to mediate the job.
He gets your payment to the contractor with instructions to pay him on
completion of the job.

Now, if the contractor cannot trust the lawyer, then he is trying to
rip you off.

Why should you trust him if he is not willing to give you some sort of
show of good faith?

On a ten thousand dollar roof, he probably grosses three grand, and
nets maybe a thousand, before tax.

Then he is not a professional.
No contractor will take a job that will not allow him to be out of work
for a month after your job while he is trying to start the next job.

Professional contractors do not do the work themselves.
They have multiple crews doing the work on multiple jobs while they are
lining up the next job.

Be aware that the lowest bidder is often too low to actually happen and
will rip you off.
Know what a job normally pays, and do not drop to much under that or
you can expect problems.
You get what you pay for.

And a lot depends on your market. Here, for example, building
permits are almost exactly double what they were a year ago. I'm
turning down good projects from good people who have been referred to
me by clients ... let alone projects from people I don't know who
treat me with distrust.

Ken

If you could not fix your roof yourself, would you let me show you my
relatives roofs, then rip you roof off without giving you any idea at
all how long it would take me to put it back on?

Would you if all you could do is try to sue me if it took me, say 25
years?
No judge, I am not finished with that job.
He took me to court for being a slow worker.
You can't prove in court that I will never finish that job, so all you
got is that I am slow.
And you have nothing to say that this is not the time frame that we
agreed on in the first place.