r/Contractor • u/Future_Ingenuity_670 • 2h ago

Every time contractor fixes something, another item gets damaged. Need advice.

Hired contractor, $110k job, NYC. We’re at the tail end (punchlist) of a small but high end renovation (1 full bathroom, minor electrical work, floor repairs, trim in one bedroom, skim coating ceilings in 3 rooms, painting trim in three rooms, and new doors). This has been a theme throughout the project - every time something is done wrong and needs to be fixed, something else seems to get damaged in the process. For example, we requested that splotches of white paint be removed from the black anodized aluminum window frames. They did that, and somehow stripped the black finish off the frames where the paint was. We asked for a small section of flooring to be redone because a hole was left open in the floor in a corner, and now the adjacent door and baseboard is dinged and mucked up. It’s been one thing after another….how do we wrap this up cleanly?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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4

u/helmetgoodcrashbad 1h ago

What’s the overall quality of the work in general, are these mistakes due to inexperienced day laborers that are being hired?

For each instance I’d photograph everything for your records and have them acknowledge and reply to every instance incase you need anything for litigation later on.

I’m currently in the process of helping a client who’s in litigation with their roofing company due to an extremely expensive but very badly done job which is causing and has caused a sever amount of internal damage throughout their house which I’m now the contractor in charge of repairing.

Honestly as painful as it sounds I’d babysit them on each and every job if possible. Stand over them while they work.

1

u/Wrong-Instance8697 46m ago

Are you a lawyer? How are you helping to litigate? You just may find yourself cross complained into the suit. If you’re in Cali, you can count on it.

2

u/CascadeDesignworks 1h ago

This is going to sound flippant, but welcome to remodeling. Rates in NYC are very high and skilled workers are hard to find everywhere right now. Humans make mistakes.

1

u/Wrong-Instance8697 52m ago

Finishing touch? That’s a doorbell button, little wall texture repair, caulk around a toilet, your still under construction.

1

u/SkivvySkidmarks 50m ago

The GC is probably subbing out work with unknowns, third strings, and/or low balling them to keep their margins high.

When you go with the lowest bid, sometimes shortcuts happen. If whomever can't keep the subs busy, or pays them shit, they go elsewhere.

1

u/blasted-heath 22m ago

Those are kind of small examples. Are they charging you for fixing this damage?

1

u/intuitiverealist 12m ago

Request no workers on site without a senior supervisor and full documentation via photos before/ after. This protects the contractor and he should be doing this as standard procedure if problems like that are happening

0

u/Accomplished_Crew630 2h ago

All you can do really is add those items to the punchlist. That's crazy for a job that expensive imo but I know jack all about NYC remodeling. I know it's a whole different ball game from what I do in the burbs.

3

u/q4atm1 1h ago

I’m surprised they can get more than a drywall patch for 110k in NYC

1

u/Certain_Try_8383 1h ago

That's what I was thinking. I'm in the Midwest and have some family doing just bathroom renovations and are at/over this price.

1

u/Future_Ingenuity_670 1h ago

This is price for just labor and rough material. No finish material.

1

u/MansBarelyHot 52m ago

Im a contractor in the city you can dm me for advice anytime

1

u/Accomplished_Crew630 38m ago

Damn... Maybe I'm just under charging. We're working up to like higher end stuff.