Contractors.

[65535]

My girlfriends mom is having the guest/daughters bathroom redone. New floor tile and new shower/bath with new tile to the ceiling. A new toilet as well.

The contractor and his helper have been working for 2 weeks now. They had part of the exterior apart to replace boards that had dry rot. The first day was fine, a good solid 8pm finishing day. After that though they where leaving around 3pm leaving a pretty sloppy mess behind. They didn't work on the weekend and have been slow.

On top of it all the workmanship is sub par. They worked with little clarification and did what anyone would consider a sloppy half a$$ed job. They wasted a lot of tile when cutting, rather than using cut offs they would cut down new tile.

Obviously I have no stake in this, other than I am disappointed in it all. What would be the proper thing to do? The cost of materials which is totally separate from the cost of the work is huge in this.

To me the quality of work and time put in is lacking, with what they have done I can't imagine paying them for it, I would want the money back for all the materials they used and did a bad job with. It's sickening.

 

[mycroftt]

I have something very similar going on right now - shortcuts, substandard work, substandard materials (gypsum board instead of yellow board or green board around the shower), short and sporadic work days, etc. He used my deposit to pay personal and business debts rather than putting my materials on site. I have taken to using my managerial skills (ha ha) to "help" keep the project on track. I developed a task list and go over it with the contractor every few days and let him know my clear expectations. I inspect the work on a daily basis and discuss it with him over the phone. I also very subtly mentioned that I saw his license listed on the website of the state Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation "you know, the website that gives the information about the Virginia Contractor Transaction Recovery Fund". All licensed contractors pay into a fund that can give refunds of your money in case of contractor malfeasance, including "ongoing incompetance" - then they usually pull the contractor's license and sometimes prosecute. My guy is starting to dig deep and find some motivation lately. Maybe your state has something similar. I found mine by doing a google search on contractor fraud Virginia. Good luck.

Edited to add: If you're in California, try the California Contractors State Licensing Board. I also recommend finding his bonding agent, contact them, and inquire about filing a claim. They will probably either pressure him to get the job done right or send somebody else to do it.