The road to remodeling and decorating happiness is paved with good intentions. Homeowners remodel kitchens to transform them into hubs of the house so everyone can cook, eat and chat together. They add luxurious master bathrooms to unwind from stressful jobs.
Yet, something horrible often happens along the way, if you believe even a small fraction of war stories owners share. The kitchen takes so long to complete that everyone becomes frustrated and family members end up not speaking to each other (so forget the cooking, eating and chatting part). The master bathroom costs double the bid, forcing the owners to work so much longer to meet the extra expenses that they don’t have time to soak or steam.
One North Shore homeowner sums up the sentiments of many who blame the contractor.
“I hate him,” she says, preferring anonymity, for fear he’s friendly with Tony Soprano. “He tried to intimidate me into using his ideas because he doesn’t want to do the extra work mine require. He also wants us to use leftover products from other jobs to get rid of them. He’s the worst communicator. Sometimes he calls back; sometimes he doesn’t. He has caller ID so I know he knows it’s me.”
At least she hasn’t had to contend, as others have, with contractors disappearing late at night, never to return.
Why do owners most often fault their contractors? Their complaints about remodeling mishaps, which range from mildly annoying to upsetting and catastrophic, could paper over the interior and exterior of many homes multiple times. But is it the contractors’ fault when work gets delayed or goes awry? Sometimes. Even many contractors say they’ve seen the work of or dealt with inept, uncommunicative and dishonest contractors.
“We’ve been called to come in and take over projects where the homeowners are upset at their contractors for a variety of reasons,” says Chicago contractor Richard Nayer, who has worked in his family business for 19 years.
“Many don’t perform, don’t communicate, were dishonest or inexperienced. I’ve seen lots of bad workmanship because contractors didn’t know about running their business, about materials and workmanship, and they took shortcuts.
“Some were doing something else and decided to buy a hammer and be a contractor. Others may have been painters or carpenters and decided to elevate themselves to a contractor. It takes a lot of work and paperwork to be a good GC [general contractor].”
Anyone who’s involved in a remodeling can derail the job, from unprofessional architects to inept designers and manufacturers. “We’ve had jobs where the architect specified kitchen cabinets too tall or low, or didn’t choose the best materials,” says Nayer.
Yet, the contractor seems to be faulted most often because he or she–usually he–is considered the linchpin that keeps work moving forward, akin to a cop directing traffic at a busy intersection.
But bumps and detours do occur, no matter how skilled the work crew, for several reasons: pre-existing conditions not discovered initially; materials delayed due to shortages and transportation snarls; goods made poorly or damaged at a factory or during construction; blueprints not detailed sufficiently or not drawn; human error, and warring spouses who want the contractor to mediate.
“It’s hard to keep everything perfectly on track and everyone happy throughout an extended project,” Nayer says. “Surprises arise, like hidden pipes. Until X-ray glasses are invented, we have to be flexible.”
Adds Todd Altounian, a Lake Bluff contractor also in a family business: “Because of unforeseen conditions, I advise owners to mentally add 5 percent to 20 percent to the budget.”
Ideally they should factor in another 10 percent of the estimated bid time to see enough products, revise plans and contend with the unknowns, says Nayer.
But apart from events that professionals can’t control, many problems stem from owners’ failure to do their homework about this complicated, expensive process, and from not picking the best contractor. Sometimes, Nayer says, the owners are in a rush to get started, particularly since lining up a contractor can be as tough as securing a Saturday night reservation at Charlie Trotter’s.
Other times, they didn’t interview several contractors to compare prices, availability and chemistry, didn’t ask whether the contractors are licensed and have liability insurance, or check whether they appear on a Better Business Bureau’s “bad” list. Unfortunately, the industry has no specific standards to use in monitoring itself, said Gopal Ahluwalia, assistant staff vice president with the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C.
And homeowners sometimes fail to ask enough questions so the two sides speak the same “language,” says Altounian. “The contractor may specify one thing and the owner assumes it’s another. When work is done, they end up not liking the color or size.” Many homeowners also don’t make time to see finished jobs. Ideally, they should inspect the contractor’s finished projects several months after completion to see how their work holds up.
Most important, many neglect putting everything in a contract: who purchases materials and appliances, what the total cost is (broken down into a line-item budget), how often payments are made and for how much, who hauls away trash. “Many owners allow jobs to be started after a handshake,” Nayer says.
Relationship issues also fuel outbursts and lawsuits. While owners may complain about contractors who rarely call to discuss progress and problems, many don’t ask in advance about the frequency of conversations or say what they need, Nayer says. Other times, they become disappointed because they’re not honest about expectations, sometimes because they haven’t remodeled before, says Don Bachmann, a St. Louis contractor.
“Everybody starts off believing in the other and their good intentions. The contractor says he may not be over or call daily and the owner says ‘fine.’ But after three days go by without a conversation, the owner is bouncing off the walls,” Bachmann says. “Or, owners say they’ll make do without a kitchen for months, but then get tired of eating out and lose it with the contractor.”
But what is realistic? Whatever the sides agree to. But they must agree.
Nayer tries to talk to owners three or four times a week or when either feels it’s helpful. “That’s why I have a cell [phone] strapped to my waist,” he says. Altounian concurs and tries to have a weekly “management” meeting.
In other cases, homeowners create problems because they don’t extend common courtesy. “We had one project in a home with four bathrooms, but they wouldn’t allow us in the house for three months. We had to rent a port-a-potty,” Nayer says.
Many times after a host of little issues brew and aren’t addressed, they boil over into a brouhaha. On one job, an owner became annoyed because subcontractors left the front door unlocked. “Four months later we heard about this, after another incident occurred; someone had left lights on. The owner could have said something at the start,” Bachmann says.
While escalating prices are often due to a change in materials because something wasn’t available or because a problem arose, it often is because an owner makes repeated changes. Isaac Abella, a physicist at the University of Chicago whose wife, Mary Ann, is a ceramic sculptor, initially wanted Nayer to redo part of their kitchen and fix a bathroom. They enlarged the scope, turning a closet into a wine cellar, redoing a laundry and adding air conditioning. “We paid more for the rehab than for the apartment 25 years ago,” he says.
Another owner faxed so many change orders for an addition that it added four months to the project. Insecure owners also ask advice from every friend and relative, which spurs changes and delays work. Others hover over the work crew or are gone so much that they’re not around when questions arise.
“Projects take on a life of their own because designs look so different in three-dimension than on paper,” says Nayer. As for the client/contractor relationship: “They may feel they’re choosing us, and they are, but we’re also picking clients. We do turn down jobs.”
15 questions to ask your contractor
1. Do you have three references who will show your work?
2. What services do you offer (design, a timeline)?
3. Do you like working with an architect, and who’s in charge?
4. Who are your subcontractors?
5. Will you “line-item” your bid so one can see what it all costs?
6. Can you offer a better price in slower periods?
7. How will you stop final costs from exceeding the estimate? Who pays if costs go higher?
8. Do you use a written contract? (They should.)
9. What recourse is there if anybody is unhappy?
10. What happens when unanticipated problems arise? Who pays? What about damage workers do?
11. What hours does your staff work?
12. How much money do you require upfront, and how often do you require the remaining funds to be paid (weekly, biweekly, monthly)?
13. What are valid reasons to terminate a contract, and how will you resolve unfinished work/payments?
14. Do you prefer for owners to stay or move out?
15. Will you tackle a job in phases, and is it less expensive that way?
