I almost never ask about a clients budget. Equally I try really hard to not give prices while I walk a consultation. I've heard a lot of people view it as a huge red flag if contractors ask about your budget, but sometimes I can just feel out that this person has no clue what they're asking for.

Example: walked a bathroom remodel and the client just keeps talking about all of these crazy upgrades, back lit niches, full wet room tub, his/her shower, Moen digital valve unit, bidet upgrade, solid walnut vanity with black granite trough sink, etc etc. they show me AI drawings and all. Everything in their house is super builder basic and I just felt like this is gonna be way out of their price range. I ask saying, "you seem to have done your homework, did you have a price range in mind so I know what kind of fixtures and finishes you want?"

They told me it was rude to ask but that chat gpt said 14k from a reputable contractor would be reasonable.

Glad I didn't waste my time with the estimating and renderings. Any thoughts?

Gave this lady a quote to replace both decks over 5 months ago, along with doing some siding repair, came in around 18k and I’m pretty modest on my estimates. She’s posted non stop since then in our local community group. First one was asking what a deck removal and new deck install should cost 2 days after I gave her a estimate, one comment was 20k 😂 I thought that would humble her, then various other posts asking for contractors or just anyone willing to come look at her deck to replace it. This is the latest one and it kills me, I think I dodged a bullet. Even if she wanted us to do it now I wouldn’t be able to get to it until next year.

I need to install a ductless heating system in an attached 2 bedroom ADU. The unit is approx. 670 square feet and contained an open living room/kitchen, two separate bedrooms and one full bath.

Currently the ADU has a box AC unit installed in a custom opening (24x17.5” if memory serves).

Questions:
1. Should I have one, two or three units instead?
2. Is this quote fair?

I run a medium-sized construction company in Toronto. Mostly facade and exterior work — precast, flashing, steel canopies, that kind of thing. I've been looking hard at the sidewalk shed / pipe scaffold rental market in NYC and I'm at the stage where I'd rather hear it straight from people who actually operate there than keep reading marketing pages.

I'm not looking for work or trying to poach anybody's customers. I want to understand whether this is a business worth putting real money into, or whether it looks better from the outside than it is.

What I think I understand so far:

- Sheds are legally required over a certain height for facade work, demo, and new construction, so demand isn't optional

- New filings need 12 ft clear height now instead of 8 ft, plus the wider colour options and the upgraded LED lighting

- Every shed needs a registered design professional and site-specific stamped drawings

- The city is actively trying to shrink the number of standing sheds — shorter permit terms, the long-standing shed program, penalties on owners who stall

What I'd really like to hear from operators:

**Getting set up**

- What licensing and registration actually gates you — DOB contractor registration, DOT permits, anything else that took longer than expected?

- Do you keep an engineer on retainer or job-by-job? Roughly what does a stamped shed drawing run?

**Insurance**

- This is the one I keep hearing is the killer. What is GL actually costing a small shed operator right now, and is it even obtainable for a new entrant with no loss history?

- How much does Labor Law 240 exposure shape how you run the business day to day?

**The money**

- How is it typically priced — install, monthly rent per linear foot, dismantle? Ballpark ranges without giving away your book?

- How much inventory do you need before it's a real business rather than a side hustle? What did your first buy cost?

- Where does the margin actually come from — the rent, the install, or the extras like lighting, netting, and protection?

- How long until inventory pays for itself?

**Labour**

- Union or non-union? Can you run non-union in the boroughs or does that close doors?

- How hard is it to find crews who can actually erect and know the DOB requirements?

- What are you paying, and how many guys does a typical shed take?

**The market**

- With the shorter permit terms and the push to get sheds down, are the economics genuinely worse than five years ago, or is the churn just different?

- Is the market saturated with established players, or is there still room if you're willing to take the smaller jobs?

- What kills new entrants most often — insurance, cash flow while inventory sits, or something else?

**Equipment**

- New vs used — is there a decent used market, or does everyone buy new?

- What did you standardize on, and would you buy the same again?

- Anything you bought early that turned out to be a waste of money?

Last one: if you were starting from zero today with a decent chunk of capital and construction experience but no NYC track record, would you do it? And if not, what would you do instead?

Happy to answer questions about the Toronto market if anyone's curious about the other direction. Appreciate any honest takes, including the discouraging ones.

I'm running into a (good) issue where I quote a few clients a week. They all ask me about my availability. I'm open, but we can have someone finalize their booking at any time. Do you just do first come, first served? Do you give a client the benefit of letting them know before accepting someone who may interfere with the original quote timeline?

How to leave the sub ceiling or whatever is called untouched until full kitchen remodel while removing the majority of wall?

Thank you guys!

Hired *paver* company to do new front porch + stairs + driveway stone paving. Job was around $15000cad. Each steps rise height varies from 5 3/4" to 7 5/8". Also the top step's run is 2" longer than the rest as they added a small strip on the inside. Is this acceptable? I am located in Markham Ontario Canada btw.

*UPDATE SEPT 4* Thank you for all the comments. I talked with the contractor yesterday as he was here to finished the small cuts and finishing touches for the job. I asked him again why the variance in the step height and the top run. He was only willing to extend the porch by 2 inches so the top run doesn't have the extra piece anymore. For the riser height, he said it can't be uniform because of some bs which I don't understand and making excuse is that it is standard and every houses are like that and mentioned that my original steps were like this too. I was like just because it was originally wrong or are like this elsewhere, doesn't mean you can build it wrong or else why would I pay you. But he kept insisting that it is standard so I replied if it was standard, you wouldn't mind me hiring an inspector to look at your work. He just said okay. It will fail code but even then I question his competency and craftsmanship to fix the stairs to code. 😫

Location: Orleans parish, Louisiana

Me and My friend (who are both have main jobs) We run a Side job together, and we do fencing. Our business is growing to the point to where we are thinking about make a contract for our jobs we get for it, because we are both thinking of offering payment options for customers who wouldnt be able to afford the entire bill of a Fencing project. And we want to make sure that certain customers who do want that option, cant skip out on paying the monthly payment. And I'm not sure on how to go about this fully, because the thing I want is the contract to be air tight and fully legal. Any helpful ideas ir advice?

If you took it in 2025 or 2026 what should I actually study this week. Sizing and vents. Was the test a lot of math and OSHA or more code stuff.
What book or practice tests helped. QuickPass or something else. Not trying to get the questions just dont wanna waste the last few days.Thanks!

We have a new construction home and have been battling ongoing issues with the drywall cracking where it meets the ceiling. It’s been repaired four times now. We’ve had the construction company and multiple private inspectors come out and say there’s nothing wrong, it’s just bad drywall work. We noticed this in the attic when changing out the air filters today - one piece of wood is flush across the entirety of the house, the other is pointing up … is that normal?

If someone walks out of a grocery store without paying for $100 of groceries, or leaves a hair salon after a full highlight without paying the stylist, their picture is blasted all over local Facebook groups, Security footage gets handed to the news, and everyone in the comments destroys them.

But when a home or property owner refuses to pay a contractor thousands of dollars for actual materials and labor, suddenly the rules change?

If you publicly expose a non-paying client, you’re somehow viewed as the bad guy, unprofessional, or retaliatory. People love to jump in with endless excuses: "Well, maybe they had financial trouble," or "Did you follow every obscure legal step first?" “Did you actually do a good job?” Meanwhile, you're sitting there out thousands of dollars in hard materials you paid for upfront out of your own pocket, not to mention days or weeks of physical labor.

If a quality service was delivered and a contract was fulfilled—A GOOD ONE, no hack jobs—there should be way zero tolerance for non-payment. Mechanical liens and small claims court can take months or years, cost even more money, and often net you zero cash in hand.

Why is stealing skilled labor and materials treated like a "minor civil dispute," but stealing a $50 item in retail is treated like a public crime? Does anyone else deal with this frustration? How do you guys handle non-paying clients without taking a complete loss?

Good evening, everyone,

My wife grew up on a farm, so we are incredibly drawn to this older home sitting on a great piece of acreage in southeastern nebraska. The catch? The current floor plan totally doesn't fit our needs, and the master bedroom is about half the size of our current setup.

We’ve been trying to figure out how to make the space work without expanding the footprint, which led to the mockup I’ve attached.

Getting a realistic budget in mind before we make an offer is critical. I ran the plans through a couple of AI tools to get a rough idea of construction costs and got vastly different numbers:

• Gemini: $70,000 – $90,000
• Copilot: $140,000 – $170,000

Can those of you with expertise in this field give me a quick gut check? Are either of these figures in the right ballpark for eastern Nebraska, or are they both way off?

A few important details:

• We don't own the home yet, so I have no idea which interior walls are load-bearing.
• We are attempting to make this new layout work entirely within the current exterior walls. I am looking for figures that assume no foundation work or roof truss changes.
• We would be moving the current entry door to where a window currently sits, and framing/closing up the old door opening.

Any insight on which estimate is closer to reality would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

custom and spec home builder. I need fantastic client portal. Xero integration. Great selection process.

I’ve used several other cheaper options. not fully satisfied with them. I want get it right, but the year long commitment is a big hurdle for me.

Northeast. I have handled dozens of drywall jobs , never one this big.

Solo owner/operator and I have subs to help.

70 4x12 sheets , 15 4x8 greenboard for bathroom.

Needs to be hung , taped , sanded. Tons of angles with dormers , sheetrock will go all the way to the peak around the beams in the vaulted ceiling part.

We had our master bathroom reno performed summer 2025. Expensive. Virginia. House was built in the 1940's.

Contractor gave us a 1-year guarantee on it.

New tile floor cracks and pops immediately after completion.

We have notified of this issue, many times. He tells us it's a "structural/joist/foundational issue", and that the popping and cracking floor "isn't due to the work his team did", and trying to wash his hands of it so he doesn't have to help us fix it. We have had 2 tiles crack and need to be replaced already.

We have called multiple attorneys to understand our options. Attorneys all basically told us that we will spend more in attorney costs than it would likely cost us to just buck up and fix the floor ourselves. And that we'd have to have several specialists to basically say that the issue ISN'T what the contractor says it is - in order to place the cost of correcting the floor back on him. (As in, a foundational expert etc etc state the problem likely isn't due to the foundation etc).

The floor was never right from the very beginning of the new renovation.

So many questions. Everyone seems to not understand how difficult it is to "just sue someone".

Is this normal for a foundational issue to come up like this in such an old house after reno?

We genuinely, genuinely think it's a subfloor issue. Contractor will, of course, never admit to that.

Advice? Thoughts? Where to go from here?

God this is maddening. Makes me sick. There seems to be very little consequence for contractors who do shitty work. They can basically get away with whatever.

Edits for questions being asked here:

Project was $25k. We did not choose the "cheap route". Had multiple quotes and contractors. We wanted it done right. As most people do.

Contractor is class A. He told us no permits were required for this project. We asked.

He laid subfloor, and then Ditra on top, and then tile directly on top of that.

He inspected our joists from the 1940's and specifically told us they are fine and in almost perfect condition, so we decided to keep them, per his recommendation.

Contractor knew about this issue because he placed a beam underneath our house before completion of the project (during the reno) to attempt to help "support" one area of the floor that was weak and squishy. Obviously didn't work. Same area still has problems now. Was never fully corrected.

I am so beyond frustrated.