Beware the renegade contractor
“All you need to be a contractor is a pickup with a dog in the back,” is an often-used phrase when reputable contractors discuss the bandits of their trade in North Idaho. Hopefully, new legislation will help reign in the renegades and make life easier for consumers as well as legitimate contractors.
We were lucky to find an outstanding general contractor when our home was built a few years back, but the construction process was a learning experience. The first lesson was during hunting season: No matter if the roof is 7/8 covered with shingles and a Class 4 hurricane is predicted the next day, the crew drops everything and disappears for two weeks. No problem if they come back to pools of water in the house. Apparently, that’s why they have Reddy Heaters and Shop Vacs in their pickups (next to the dogs).
We had just a few problems in the construction of our home: smoking, acid-rock-playing Sheetrock hangers who nailed right through the middle of a 1,250-foot run of coaxial cable, and carpenters who ignored the plans and built the garage door one foot shorter than the height of our boat (it’s sitting out in the snow under a tarp today). Outside, an especially ornery cement finisher killed both lawn and expensive hedges, and the landscaper’s choice of hemlocks resulted in their slow death at our expense.
However, in the end it all worked out and the project was on time, on budget and turned out fine – thanks to the general contractor riding herd on his crew.
After enjoying our home for a couple of years, we decided a few improvements were needed to keep our house updated. Of course, when you pay someone to improve your house, it should be improved. The first element of that task requires the contractor to show up and actually work.
Maybe the Nickel’s Worth is not the best place to find a contractor, but adding onto our deck seemed a small job and “honest, dependable,” in the ad sounded great. “Cowboy Bob” looked at the project, presented a bid and agreed to start the next day. He didn’t show the next day, nor did he return phone calls. After a week or so, I hired a neighbor to help and we completed the deck in a few days.
Two months later, wearing a tall, black 10-gallon hat and tool belt, “Cowboy Bob” appeared on our doorstep, beaming, “I’m ready to build your deck.” He looked as he had just been told his horse had been rustled when I explained the job had been completed some time ago. I asked the obvious, to which he responded, “I had a cold that day.” OK, unless I wanted to be gunned down with a six-shooter, I figured I better not ask about the other 59 days and apologized for the misunderstanding. He got in his pickup, dog barking in the back, and burned out on our driveway.
My wife had a similar no-show when calling a contractor to build a little window seat. He wasn’t our first choice, but at least he came to look at the job. He spent the first hour ragging on unethical contractors in the area who do lousy work and who are undependable. He made a pretty drawing of the proposed project and said he would be back in touch soon with a bid. That was about four years ago and we’ve never seen him, or his dog, since.
After a few more adventures with contractors and more learning experiences (for example, we didn’t know it was a requirement that the contractor’s truck must leak oil on your driveway), we took the high road when a friend recommended someone from his church. The contractor showed up one time without a dog in his truck and just two kids. My wife likes children and these were especially well-behaved and didn’t bark, so we had no problem with them accompanying Dad to work.
The first couple of days, Dad, a self-described “born again christian,” sermonized us on the evils of our church and fornication. I think it was the third day that we looked out the window to see him laying in our front yard, shirtless, making out with a pretty young woman. Fortunately, the couple took their make-out session to our backyard pond. Despite fracturing his leg during one of his “mini-vacations” from the job, he eventually finished the project with good results, hopping up and down a ladder on one leg and preaching.
Speaking of ponds, last spring we elected to hire a self-described “slime slayer” to improve our pond with treatments of an all-natural product. Instead of a pickup, he drove a shiny black SUV with fancy chrome wheels and plastic baggies of product, scales and golf clubs in the back. One hot summer day, huge algae blooms showed the product wasn’t working, so he dumped an acid-based treatment in the pond. The algae died, along with seven of our big koi. Another learning experience – koi-bed killing earthquakes in Japan directly affect koi prices in the United States, much like Katrina causing gas prices to dramatically escalate. Since we don’t have $12,000 in the budget to replace our koi, we may have a nice fire pit in our back yard this summer. I think I will be my own fire pit contractor.
We decided to bite the bullet and go with a national chain in our latest project – installation of “floating” laminate flooring in the kitchen and dining area. It might cost a little more, but certainly a major home improvement store would only hire reputable contractors. I’m no flooring expert or master carpenter, but I’m pretty sure the floor isn’t suppose to have bumps and heaves, gaping corners and holes filled with putty which comes off every time you walk on it. Trim, which reaches around the corner and grabs you with sharp edges and even sharper protruding nail heads, probably isn’t right either.
Fortunately, the big home improvement store has a “supervisor of installers.”
“You made it sound a lot better than it is,” was his first reaction on seeing the mess. So amazed by the shabby work, he went back to the store, grabbing another employee to show her. They poked at the floor, laughed and took lots of photos. The supervisor dragged the installer back and sat on a stool, overseeing the do-over. Leaving only long enough for the installers to cook what must have been lutefisk in our microwave, smelling up the whole house, he saw that most of the flooring was ripped up and new installed.
OK, it took two tries, but at least we finally had a nice, new cherry laminate flooring. Not so fast. My wife noticed the “floating floor” seemed to be floating more around the refrigerator than the rest of the kitchen. Pulling out the big Kenmore, we found the source of the floating. The contractor didn’t secure the connection to the fridge’s water supply and water had dripped under the new floor for three days. We now have had three new floors in two weeks, installed by two contractors, and a very clean subfloor. At least with our new best friend from the big store, the job was finally done right – without him we would still be chasing the contractor.
Our contractor-learning experience isn’t limited to our house. My partners and I suffered a $60,000 loss when a contractor wrote hot checks to subcontractors, causing an avalanche of liens on the project. Securing my dog in my pickup, I took over as the general contractor, working for free to finish the project and to help Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department investigators put together a case. The building was completed and the contractor went to prison.
Last year, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 163, requiring contractors to be registered with the state as of Jan. 1. More than 12,000 applicants have responded so far. Contractors have to provide their Social Security number or employer tax identification number, name and address, buy workmen’s compensation and general liability insurance and submit other information. No license is required if the project value is less than $2,000.
How does this help the homeowner? Jerry Nemec, chairman of the Idaho State Contractor’s Board, says the new registration won’t provide consumer information on the contractor’s experience, but it will tell if a license has been suspended or revoked in another state. It also confirms if insurance requirements are met. Eventually, the public will be able to check records online. There is still no guarantee of good work, nor is there an easy recourse to recover losses from shoddy work.
So, in the future, we will make sure to check the license (of the contractor, not the dog) and try to get references. Or better yet, maybe we can find old reruns of “Home Improvement” and learn from Tim “the Toolman” Taylor how to do our own projects.