Plus and Minus
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08-30-09, 08:31 PM
Join Date: Aug 2009
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Plus and Minus
Plus and minus work
I bow to all of us hard-working people and future consumers of hard-working building contractors’ projects.
I know how hard building contractors work I tried it and it is hard no one can question that.
I am not sure if a lack of knowledge or a lack of imagination or a simple lack of common sense leaves us clients with damages after some contractors finish their work.
I replaced my roof shingles simple work but be aware it may not be.
After discussions with neighbours I chose not to go with the very expensive roofer company and not the very cheap I chose the middle cost estimate.
So the work that was done looked nice.
One month later the water started pouring down first from the light fixtures then from the door frames and at the same time from the window frames and between the moldings. A week later the water was coming from the bubbled gyprock ceilings and from the bubbled gyprock walls.
The contractor’s insurance company’s representatives, a lion fighter, fought for the contractor’s benefit denying all responsibility. Consequently, after 10 months and mold growing everywhere, half of the house had to be demolished because 80% of the structure and building materials were wet.
After my bad experience with the roofing contractor the new roof would be done by a general contractor looking over the work of his subcontractors. It seemed that that would be the most quality-assuring work. Wrong.
So the installation of a new roof and the replacement of the existing sky windows were done.
The first day that the sky windows were installed I complained to the general contractor. The sky windows from the inside look as they are not leveled and twisted to one side the rain was accumulating in one corner as well there was no frost around the skylights after frosty nights.
The response by the general contractor about all my observations regarding the skylights was – ‘he will fix it’.
So we continued our interior work after the first leaking roof. Most of the renovation was almost done including the ceilings and walls, we had new floors, and all had been painted.
All was going well finally soon we would have our lives back simply normal after a year of disaster.
Not yet.
3 weeks later the water was pouring again this time from around the skylights pouring down with a continuous flow of water for the remaining four winter months damaging on its way the new walls and ceilings and the new windows but not the floor. We had taken turns at night emptying the buckets to make sure that the water did not overflow the collecting buckets.
The general contractor came with an axe to break the ice on the roof ….hmmm. I allowed him only a few minutes to perform this ridiculous solution since now he was damaging the roof structure and shingles.
During the skylight’s leaking time I asked skylight experts to do investigations and they concluded the sky window installation was a failure.
So there goes my assumption - complete failure of assurance that the general contractor would be managing the project, the quality of the project, or honoring the warranty contract.
The general contractor offered to come in spring with an engineer and the skylight expert as well with his working crew people and my appointed engineer to assess what went wrong.
Sounded very professional with so many experts but there was one condition in the proposal that I can not be present during the assessment.
The contractor lawyer sent me a letter “any attempt by me to interfere in their assessment will result in halt to the settlement” as well as a statement that his client is not responsible for any of the work or damages.
I can partially understand the general contractor, by the assessment he was building his case against the subcontractor but what was he trying to pull with me by restricting my attendance- any attempt to interfere?
I offered to allow his only one expert representative to only once enter my property for the assessment. My offer was refused by the general contractor and his lawyer.
At the present time my insurance estimator and their contractors will take over, finally the experts I thought – but no not so fast.
The insurance and the insurance contractor will start work to correct the damages under one condition that I replace the sky windows before they do any renovation of the damages.
The skylights were replaced by a licensed company 3 months ago.
The insurance contractor’s estimation of the work that has to be done is a failure from the start.
His contractor under the direction of the estimator opens the walls and ceilings here and there about 190 square feet and only realized that it would be impossible to replace the insulation and the vapour barrier in the squares between the straps.
So the insurance contractor’s estimator estimated again and decided that he would double the surface for another 190 square feet.
Finally it is working now his contractor has access to install the new insulation.
But wait the insulation had gaps about hand size…. they will redo it no problem.
What is the problem now? They are stuck again with how to connect one piece of the vapour barrier to provide the continuous seal one end is under the straps and one end is above the existing end of the straps.
But wait ...the straps the contractor brought were covered with black mold…. no problem.
That is easy to replace at the store. Straps covered with mould will not go on my ceiling.
Please, building contractors, if you do not have the time STOP and do not take the job.
If you do not know how to do the job STOP and find the most qualified experts to help you educate yourself do not harm your clients.
The damages to the property can be estimated and somehow repaired by a good contractor, but the damage to your clients’ lives has no price you could never repair those damages even if you would be wiling to try.
Plus minus work.
I bow to all of us hard-working people and future consumers of hard-working building contractors’ projects.
I know how hard building contractors work I tried it and it is hard no one can question that.
I am not sure if a lack of knowledge or a lack of imagination or a simple lack of common sense leaves us clients with damages after some contractors finish their work.
I replaced my roof shingles simple work but be aware it may not be.
After discussions with neighbours I chose not to go with the very expensive roofer company and not the very cheap I chose the middle cost estimate.
So the work that was done looked nice.
One month later the water started pouring down first from the light fixtures then from the door frames and at the same time from the window frames and between the moldings. A week later the water was coming from the bubbled gyprock ceilings and from the bubbled gyprock walls.
The contractor’s insurance company’s representatives, a lion fighter, fought for the contractor’s benefit denying all responsibility. Consequently, after 10 months and mold growing everywhere, half of the house had to be demolished because 80% of the structure and building materials were wet.
After my bad experience with the roofing contractor the new roof would be done by a general contractor looking over the work of his subcontractors. It seemed that that would be the most quality-assuring work. Wrong.
So the installation of a new roof and the replacement of the existing sky windows were done.
The first day that the sky windows were installed I complained to the general contractor. The sky windows from the inside look as they are not leveled and twisted to one side the rain was accumulating in one corner as well there was no frost around the skylights after frosty nights.
The response by the general contractor about all my observations regarding the skylights was – ‘he will fix it’.
So we continued our interior work after the first leaking roof. Most of the renovation was almost done including the ceilings and walls, we had new floors, and all had been painted.
All was going well finally soon we would have our lives back simply normal after a year of disaster.
Not yet.
3 weeks later the water was pouring again this time from around the skylights pouring down with a continuous flow of water for the remaining four winter months damaging on its way the new walls and ceilings and the new windows but not the floor. We had taken turns at night emptying the buckets to make sure that the water did not overflow the collecting buckets.
The general contractor came with an axe to break the ice on the roof ….hmmm. I allowed him only a few minutes to perform this ridiculous solution since now he was damaging the roof structure and shingles.
During the skylight’s leaking time I asked skylight experts to do investigations and they concluded the sky window installation was a failure.
So there goes my assumption - complete failure of assurance that the general contractor would be managing the project, the quality of the project, or honoring the warranty contract.
The general contractor offered to come in spring with an engineer and the skylight expert as well with his working crew people and my appointed engineer to assess what went wrong.
Sounded very professional with so many experts but there was one condition in the proposal that I can not be present during the assessment.
The contractor lawyer sent me a letter “any attempt by me to interfere in their assessment will result in halt to the settlement” as well as a statement that his client is not responsible for any of the work or damages.
I can partially understand the general contractor, by the assessment he was building his case against the subcontractor but what was he trying to pull with me by restricting my attendance- any attempt to interfere?
I offered to allow his only one expert representative to only once enter my property for the assessment. My offer was refused by the general contractor and his lawyer.
At the present time my insurance estimator and their contractors will take over, finally the experts I thought – but no not so fast.
The insurance and the insurance contractor will start work to correct the damages under one condition that I replace the sky windows before they do any renovation of the damages.
The skylights were replaced by a licensed company 3 months ago.
The insurance contractor’s estimation of the work that has to be done is a failure from the start.
His contractor under the direction of the estimator opens the walls and ceilings here and there about 190 square feet and only realized that it would be impossible to replace the insulation and the vapour barrier in the squares between the straps.
So the insurance contractor’s estimator estimated again and decided that he would double the surface for another 190 square feet.
Finally it is working now his contractor has access to install the new insulation.
But wait the insulation had gaps about hand size…. they will redo it no problem.
What is the problem now? They are stuck again with how to connect one piece of the vapour barrier to provide the continuous seal one end is under the straps and one end is above the existing end of the straps.
But wait ...the straps the contractor brought were covered with black mold…. no problem.
That is easy to replace at the store. Straps covered with mould will not go on my ceiling.
Please, building contractors, if you do not have the time STOP and do not take the job.
If you do not know how to do the job STOP and find the most qualified experts to help you educate yourself do not harm your clients.
The damages to the property can be estimated and somehow repaired by a good contractor, but the damage to your clients’ lives has no price you could never repair those damages even if you would be wiling to try.
Plus minus work.
