All Forum Posts by: Leland S.

@Linda S. You feel that waiting is a good idea before trying to settle complaints? 

One thing I forgot to mention is that I paid most of the work on a credit card through paypal... so I will seek buyer protection from the documentation there. 

From here I will speak with a lawyer to see how I can most cleanly severe ties with this contractor. Our contract was very basic, simply statement of their labor rates and that they would hold a materials deposit, plus my addendum stating all the work that needed to be performed, but no phases. Mostly they billed weekly and I paid, except for the very last invoice. Net of invoices and deposits is 2k in their favor now. 

I really need to recoup the money spent on them because my budget is to the red line right now where I'm very dependant on a high sale price of the house. I can't afford to lose any more margins. 

@Lee S. Thanks, looks great!

Thanks for the suggestions folks. This is a flip property, so trying to stay in code and make it look good. We were thinking of painting and doing a runner up the middle.

After paying my contractor 35k, I found his interior work was pretty shoddy. I already had a few issues with the contractor I pointed out and ask for discounts or refunds, but none were ever given, they just acknowledged my complaint. Once they completed all the concrete, plumbing, electrical, and framing which seemed like quality work as far as I could tell, except for the several issues I took up with them, they got to doing interior work. I got to inspect their interior work mid way through and found so many issues it was troubling. I took pictures of all kinds of issues: damage to most of my new cabinets they installed, electrician replaced a bunch of new lights and fan I had a prior contractor put in, wood trim was installed poorly unevenly cut, drywall finishing looked terrible, the plumbing they roughed in didn't line up with the vanities they knew were there to be measured... among many other issues. 

When I sent them the list of issues they just said they aren't complete the work and to pay up the last invoice (for the work that mostly had the issues) and they will complete the job. 

They have permits pulled on my place now and haven't received final inspections. So I'm worried if they pull out, aside from being stuck with paying for all the damaged stuff, I may have the city say other stuff doesn't work or wasn't done right by the contractor. 

It appears this company just wants their money and doesn't find any obligation to my satisfaction or their quality of work. Several other times they did things wrong they just sent me a new bill with their laborers hours on it and when I asked if they discounted the invoice to compensate for the work not done to spec the first time they ignore or dodge me. 

What's the best path forward where I lose the least and give myself the best advantage? 

BTW, I'm trying to flip the house and have been rehabbing for 5 mo now and want to put on market next month asap. I'm already like 2.5x my budget, hoping to get my money back to payoff my debts.

Experienced advice is appreciated...

Hi - I have some old poplar stair treads that I need to figure out what I'm doing with. I have light bamboo upstairs and darker vinyl flooring at the bottom. Several contractors wanted to replace the whole staircase, but my latest contractor who got permits says the clearance at one point up the stairs to the ceiling wouldn't' be to code so we wouldn't be able to touch the steps! I don't see how that is possible, the only way would be to carve out a diagonal in the upstairs bedroom closet, which I guess is what the city inspectors would want. Regardless, I'm stuck with these old treads and not knowing what the heck to do with. I hear poplar is hard to stain too and there are a lot of carpet staple holes in the wood too.

Your ideas are appreciated! See picture. 

@Nick C. that is one way I was thinking about it, having some simple furniture in there and keeping it clean

Hi - a few weeks away from wrapping my (disastrous) rehab project and was wondering if living in it would be a big hit on perception from a buyer. I am trying to FSBO at first so not sure how all that would look to potential buyers.

Is there a place on this website that is appropriate to warn others about bad contractors? 

I've used craigslist with poor success, friends of friend referrals with poor success again, and lastly good success with the contractor websites where they are accountable and have reviews. 

There certainly are a lot of crazy's out there that are quick to take your money. What's been your best strategy to ensure you get a quality contractor on your job -- eg references, proof of license, pictures of past work etc? One guy showed us all these great pictures and talked a big game but turned out he was a 2 man team and was very sporadic and unprofessional. Didn't take us long to find out he was a joke, but unfortunately after I paid him for unfinished work. 

Alright... my rehab managers had trusted this hack contractor to buy a cheap bamboo. It looks pretty nice actually and I liked it, but after installing the upstairs my managers noted that it dents very easily and was soft. Turns out it has a Janka of 1400ish. It isn't stranded. We bought at $1.7/sqft. Now they've decided to go to this Coretec product at $3.2/sqft that supposedly is fully waterproof, needs no moisture barrier, can go in kitchens and bathrooms, floating floor no glue required. So my managers are claiming it will save me money in installation regard. 

I'd rather not lose the 1k in materials I spend on the upstairs plus the probably 1k in labor to install, but I really don't see it being correct to have two different types of hard wood floors in the house. 

What do you think? 

See pictures of installed floor and new floor for downstairs and steps..

https://goo.gl/photos/Gq8SYVKujzyd3MaU9

@Manolo D. 

Thanks much for your input.

You really think someone good would pick out materials, paint colors, floors, cabinets, vanities, fixtures, doors, trim, etc... for $1000? 

By management you mean picking out contractors, dealing with the contracts, payment, and then reviewing their workmanship at those 2h/visit? 

Hi guys I'm in the middle of a house flip that ended up costing a lot of money because the partner that I'm working with is responsible for picking all the materials and contractors out,  as I am remote,  but has been flip-flopping on all of the decisions going between multiple contractors and multiple choices of flooring  xcetera .  I'm already three months into the job and  it's not even a quarter done  and I'm over budget .  I'm wondering how much would be  reasonable to pay  someone on the next job  for picking out flooring cabinets  and all of the Interior items  including paint colors excetera .  Has anyone  payday designer to do this for them and how has it worked out ? I also have to decide how much to pay the partner for the work managing the job...