On 10/15/2010 8:33 PM, RicodJour wrote:
On Oct 15, 7:48 pm, wrote:
Molly Brown wrote the following:

Too many people are watching too much HGTV and similar channels and
getting the idea that a contractor is supposed to finish a job very
fast. This is wrong. A contractor doesn’t work by the hour like you
do; he works by the job. The more carefully he or she works the better
a job he or she is going to do. So the slower he works the better. No
I’m not talking about those contractors that come late to the job
sight and leave early or never show-up at all. That’s not working
slowly, that’s just not working period. Unless you’re planing on
selling the house and moving away as soon as possible as homeowner
what you want is a carefully and meticulously done job not a fast one.

Sorry Molly, the shorter the time working 'by the job', the sooner one
can start the next job.
Working slower can also mean inexperience or laziness.
The contractor sets the price for the job. He then pays his workers by
the hour.

Or it can mean that he's fitting your job in between other jobs. If
he's waiting for an inspection on his main job, you just got lucky and
he'll come over. Does doing it that way make sense? Not always, but
it's not always idiotic either.

R

And if it is contractor you can trust to actually follow through, and
can live with the logistical hassle, being flexible on schedule can
sometimes save you some bucks. A good contractor with his own crews
(versus a GC that merely juggles subs), has all his projects blocked out
to know when which trades will be needed where and when. I didn't know
the name, but I knew what a Gantt chart was 40 years before MS Project
existed, just from looking at the blue sheets on the walls in my
father's office. Every house had a stepped timeline on a blueprint page,
with each trade on a seperate step. Sometimes, there were small gaps
here and there, and although his business was 80% new construction, he
would try to tuck the small remodels into those gaps, just to keep the
guys busy. I suppose a good sub could do the same for their crews and
specialties, but they are more at the beck and call of the GCs who give
them most of their business. (ie, a 10k kitchen remodel is gonna get
pushed for a GC that throws 100k a year their way.)

--
aem sends...