DIYbanter - View Single Post

Robert Allison[_2_]

wrote:

I have hired a team of electrician (3 of them) to do some re-wiring of
the house I am working on. They are 50% completion and I have been
furnishing all the materials.

Something that bothers me.

I hooked up a fridge and told them to help themselves, I asked them
what they like and everyone seems to like Arizona ice tea or
Gatorade. So I stock the fridge full with those drinks.

Problem, at the end of the day I go around and between the three of
them it is not unusual that I found 15 or more drink bottles. They
drink a lot? Noooooo... most of those are 80% full. So they worked
in the kitchen, went and got a drink, took three sips, leave it
sitting on a half framed wall, 30 minutes later he moves up into the
attic to pull some wire, goes to the fridge and pull out a new cold
drink, carries it into the attic, took three sips and sat it down in
the attic...so at the end of the day they went through half a dozen
16oz drinks but only drank a little out of each.

Same thing with materials. I got them a box of EMT couplings, 50 of
them, three days later they needed more, ok another 50, then another
50, I started to wonder, that is 150 EMT couplings, they have not laid
that much pipes. I walked around and round up everything and yes I
have 3 boxes of couplings, almost 90% full in each of them, so they
forgot where they left something and ordered new. Same thing with
wire nuts, connectors, MC connectors, reducing washers, switch plates,
outlets etc...just seemed to be misplaced.

Now I am not worried too much about these materials, compared to the
labor it's insignificant, but is that an indication that they may be
sloppy and absent minded in the wiring as well?

Welcome to the wonderful world of general contracting. If you
supply the materials, what incentive do they have to conserve
anything? Now a really good human being and electrician may do
it because it is the right thing to do, but those guys are not
around much anymore, so you have to deal with what you get.

Here is how I do it: I supply drinks, but I get a 10 gal. cooler
and fill it with water and the gatorade mix of their choice. I
give them enough of those packets to last however long they are
going to be working, or a weeks supply, whichever is less.

Materials; I give them the materials and I tell them that this
is enough to complete the job (plus some) and I tell them that if
they run out, they need to show me where all of them went. I
make sure that they understand that there will be no more coming
unless they can demonstrate that they used more than I estimated.
Sometimes they do and I don't give them a hard time, but I do
check to make sure that they haven't walked off the job.

Ask them to be a bit more organized because it is a money and
safety issue.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX