I tried doing a roof once. Old Seattle house, two layers of wood shingles + composite, coal heat for years Coal dust everywhere. Roofers are either young or f**king crazy. Guy that finished the job had two full sized bull dogs on the roof with him
I thought I was done living paycheck to paycheck
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I tried doing a roof once. Old Seattle house, two layers of wood shingles + composite, coal heat for years Coal dust everywhere. Roofers are either young or f**king crazy. Guy that finished the job had two full sized bull dogs on the roof with him
OP
The main issue with the renovations is its old and I keep finding things. I do not have the equipment to deal with lead paint so that got hired out. I was not expecting to replace the ceiling and I can't do that by myself so I had to bring in help...... at least the asbestos will be easy.
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
I rented a house Way back and the landlord had some fly by night roofing company do a tar and gravel roof on it. They were all tweeker types. One guy showed up in the morning with his levi’s Still welded to his boots with roofing tar. That means he slept that way with his boots and pants on for who knows how many days. They were pissing off the roof into the back yard and threw all they’re McDonalds food wrappers/trash off the roof too into the yard. They also packed all the fan vents and water heater vent, furnace vent with gravel too. When I called the owner he came out and payed me several $100 bills to “make it better”.
Wow!!
But I didn’t hire them, the landlord did, so...
CuriousRambler
Contributor
Knowing people who can provide quality work makes a huge difference. "Back home," I know who's who in the trades, so getting quality work reliably is easy, and often times comes down to trading labor plus material cost. Living in California, where I have no history, I'm pretty much limited to Yelp for referrals. I hired out replacing my HVAC system, they did a mostly decent job, except stepping through the ceiling in a closet and not saying anything. Then trying to charge me an extra $5k over the invoice price. Hired solar installed...they almost couldn't have been more screwed up, I ended up redoing a bunch of their wiring and conduit because they flat refused to come back. They only agreed to pay back my expenses and lost generation after I got an attorney to contact them. Hired the shop roof redone to prep for solar, I've never done roofing and simply didn't have the time. First rain flooded my shop and destroyed a bunch of tools and equipment, which led me to discover they never even pulled a permit (which I specifically had them put on their quote), so I was able to send the city after them and get it sorted out.
I've probably hired 5 or 6 "professionals" to do stuff I either don't have the tools, knowledge, or time to do myself. 100% of them have resulted in a minimum of two call backs to fix shoddy work or other stuff they damaged in the process, or in two cases with me redoing the work anyway.
I've learned a lot regarding what questions to ask and what paperwork to get before work starts. Growing up doing the stuff, I never saw that side of things. Do the job right or don't do it. It's funny and depressing how many people will bid a job out here, then quit responding completely when you ask for insurance paperwork.
Frankly, I'd LOVE to hire more of the work out. I just don't have a sliver of faith the work will get done remotely well.
I've been in construction management for over 30 years. Unfortunately, the only way to make sure you get quality and professionalism (including proper insurance) is to find out who is working for wealthy people and hire them. Not rich people, but wealthy people. You work for people like that and you HAVE to do the right job or they eat your children.
Either way, you end up paying the same whether it is in cash, frustration, or damages. Or jail time if you kill the idiot.
Either way, you end up paying the same whether it is in cash, frustration, or damages. Or jail time if you kill the idiot.
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Northern California is especially bad right now because of all the fire rebuilds. I’m hearing about a lot of nightmare stories with fraudulent contractors coming in from out of the area, in some cases from several states away.
CuriousRambler
Contributor
The unfortunate truth is that this is extremely common post-disaster. I used to volunteer with a disaster response organization, and we were often the first group of folks allowed in after the legitimate first responders. Most of the time, we were allowed in well before property owners even were. Living in California, that obviously meant lots of fires. The entire situation following major disasters is challenging on every level. Scumbag contractors flood in to the area and do shoddy, often outright dangerous work. This is especially bad when insurance or FEMA are footing repair bills, because there's practically zero oversight. After Hurricane Harvey, we wound up running some non-local contractors out of town who were simply screwing a fresh layer of sheetrock over top of flooded, moldy sheetrock and calling it good. After the Tubbs Fire, there were contractors running around offering to clean up lots so the owners could rebuild for a "cool twenty grand." Something we were doing for free. I never came across anyone who actually paid (or even could have afforded to) for this service, but we'd spend a day or two carefully clearing someone's property, being mindful to save anything that survived (you'd be amazed at some of the oddball things that survive - a pickup truck is burned to a pile of ash and brake drums, but a 30 year old family photo survives intact ten feet away) and return it to the owners. The next day we'd start on the next property, and there's a banner for a scumbag contractor in the front yard of the property we cleared out the day before, advertising their services.
You get businesses who show up and dump literal tons of building supplies next to roads and just drive away. Call it a "donation" and write it off on taxes, but in reality it just becomes a burden to the locals who were never contacted and have no plan for its use, and are often times weeks of work from being in a position to utilize it. All the while, you've got bunks of sheetrock weathering outdoors, so by the time anyone actually can put it to use, it's just more weathered garbage that needs to be disposed of - at the expense and labor of the locals who lost everything. Even if the intent was good, the execution genuinely makes the situation worse for the people most impacted.
It's sad to see how many scumbags appear and attempt to exploit these situations. The really difficult thing is seeing the folks who are eager to help and genuinely mean well doing things in an uninformed or misguided way, and adding more stress than they help to alleviate.
Still Kicking
Contributor
I worked paycheck to paycheck for decades. Then I quit.
I miss my paychecks.
I spent most of my money on dive gear, hookers and blow....
....the rest I just wasted
An old joke but couldnt resist it.
broncobowsher
Contributor
I ran out before I got to the hookers and blow.
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Old houses suck.
They suck money, time, flesh and blood.
Mine is 151 years old.
I cut it in half and moved it across town.
Full gut out remodel inside and out.
Three layers of roofing 1 wood 2 sphalt
two layers of siding
3 layers on walls and ceilings, plaster and wood lath, sheetrock and then a layer of paneling and ceiling tile
New poured concrete foundation formed and poured after the house was on new site and rejoined.
new mechanicals
etc,etc,etc,....................
They suck money, time, flesh and blood.
Mine is 151 years old.
I cut it in half and moved it across town.
Full gut out remodel inside and out.
Three layers of roofing 1 wood 2 sphalt
two layers of siding
3 layers on walls and ceilings, plaster and wood lath, sheetrock and then a layer of paneling and ceiling tile
New poured concrete foundation formed and poured after the house was on new site and rejoined.
new mechanicals
etc,etc,etc,....................
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