Roofing Question

[aemeijers]

(snip)

Shrug. I've had it go both ways, fixing up this place. The furnace company wanted half up front, the painters wanted a token 'good faith' deposit, and the roofer looked at me like I was an idiot for asking if he wanted anything up front. So did the insulation guy. Plumbers and such got paid at the end, and the flooring guy (who was after-supper moonlighting on himself, from his one-man-company's day contract with the borg) got paid at the end, in cash. (No, I didn't ask for a receipt.)

On small work (under 5-7 K), if I know the guy has an actual local business location, and is in the real phone book, I'll risk paying front money. If the guy works out of his house in a plain truck, him asking for front money starts to set off my BS detector. Now if I ever do anything big where I have to get the bank's help to pay for it, I'll let them make the call. I do understand the concepts of draw payments at defined progress points- doing the punch lists to meet the bank guy's checklist was one of my duties as a kid. (Is the house 'dried in'? Are all the windows and doors set and lockable? Is the permit board current and legible, with the proper inspection stamps for each trade? That sort of thing.)

aem sends....

[Eigenvector]

Reading this thread, not just your response Ed, but reading it got me thinking about some of the replies.

I know a lot of people who don't hesitate to spend top dollar for contracting work, myself included, but oftentimes we find a few things that immediately turn us off.

1) The contractor has a great reputation and obvious talent, but the personality of a pit bull and I personally will suffer subquality work from someone less qualified as long as they have a decent customer face. A lot of people that I know feel the same way. When we can't find someone reasonably human, we then decide to give it a go ourselves. 2) To comment on what you said Ed, I know 3 electrical supply houses in my area (50 mile radius) who will deal with someone who is NOT a contractor and doesn't have a line of credit with them already established. So what that means is that I have to go to Lowe's or Ace if I want to do work myself - it's not that I don't want to deal with them or that they're unhappy people, they simply refuse my business. Or, when they do interact with walk-ins the help is so unfamiliar in dealing with single customers that their skills immediately turn us off. Seattle Lighting is one store that I simply won't do business with - simply because of the poor quality of their floor help. Yet I know lots of contractors who work with them all the time. 3) For many people working with contractors isn't a frequent occurance. So oftentimes we simply don't have any familiarity with their business, costs, or schedules. I sincerely hope that I will have to deal with a contractor at the most once a year. You aren't going to get any sort of familiarity with them at that level of frequency - couple that with what I outlined in 1 above and you can see why people balk at using them or make what a contractor considers an unreasonable demand.

[Mortpes]

Partly due to code and partly due to the product that is sold for that purpose. Ask roofer to replace any bad wood. It would be highly unusual for none to be found. And that is something you would want done.

[krw]

I use HD's credit to buy now and use their money for a year, free. Works out quite well (have $4K worth of carpeting on credit now). I've done it with a half a dozen appliance and furniture stores too. I even bought my wife a laptop and used their money. I like the free use of money. ;-)

Good for you! I like to hear success stories. OTOH, it's difficult to get someone, such as yourself, to give us the time of day here. When they do honor us by agreeing to give an estimate they usually don't show and *NEVER* call. Tradesmen generally *suck* around here. I do my own work, when possible.

[<kjpro]

There&#39;s a difference between operating capital and a deposit. Please learn the difference.

[<kjpro]

That still doesn&#39;t qualify your comments.

[<kjpro]

You put money down in order to get the cabinets.

That *is* a deposit!!!!

[<kjpro]

Minor repair, dipshit!!!

[<kjpro]

Don&#39;t mean that it doesn&#39;t exist, now does it??

[<kjpro]

He did mention the "clueless", he was referring to himself!!!!!

[<kjpro]

That&#39;s his thought for this post. LMAO

[<kjpro]

Plonking the people that see the real you? LOL

[<kjpro]

You sure as hell don&#39;t fit that category!!!

Just read the post you made on running your business. The REAL truth comes out.