Opinions Needed - General Contractor Disagreements

[dreamingat30fps]

As others have stated, either your post is not clear, or it is clear and IMO you are wrong. If he’s charging you what he quoted that’s that, pay it and stfu. If he trying to charge you EXTRA labor on TOP of the original quote then you are correct and I would only want to pay for the actual labor performed.

Secondly if he quoted you the completed job I’m not sure what the point of putting the labor rate was.

[M-technik-3]

My question is did they put enough insulation in to stop the heat loss that's causing the ice dam's Skylights are known leakers just due to the nature, but the kitchen?

[nycplumber]

I feel bad for the contractor

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Onesie

You got $3,700 from insurance to get this done as they appraised it.
You want to pay him $3,000 and keep the change. This doesn’t seem right. Especially because the insurance estimate was on the low end.

Your contractor estimated it $4,350. Came under at $4,150.


There is a path to this, and I’ve done it before. My story is I backed into a motorcycle that had “just” parked behind my car as I was leaving a store’s parking space. I told him it was his fault.

After contacting my insurance they said it was my fault, and “this is why I had insurance”. Hearing that made me re-think, so I texted the guy apologizing and saying I hope insurance will make him whole again, and taking full responsibility.

The guy was super appreciative of me coming around.

Perhaps it’d be big of you to meet with the guy in person and say you were paid X by insurance and after asking friends they made you see you were trying to “fix” the way things are done on somebody else’s dime (insurance money). This is how these things work, as your contractor advised you. So you want to make it right and will pay him the 3,700 and top it off with your own money 450 to make the 4,150.

I suspect this will be greatly appreciated, and it is strongly likely he will take the 3,700 and turn your money away, meeting you half way. And all is well again.

Take the advice here on doing it yourself if this bothers you, and perhaps just understanding that somethings are done the way they are because in the grand scheme of things they make more sense.

Best of luck.

Agree with most of what you said, by I think OP got $2,500 from insurance after deductible. The $3,700 was the insurance company's estimate for the work.

[///d]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Agree with most of what you said, by I think OP got $2,500 from insurance after deductible. The $3,700 was the insurance company's estimate for the work.

Correct

Originally Posted by Onesie

You got $3,700 from insurance to get this done as they appraised it.
You want to pay him $3,000 and keep the change. This doesn’t seem right. Especially because the insurance estimate was on the low end.

Your contractor estimated it $4,350. Came under at $4,150.


There is a path to this, and I’ve done it before. My story is I backed into a motorcycle that had “just” parked behind my car as I was leaving a store’s parking space. I told him it was his fault.

After contacting my insurance they said it was my fault, and “this is why I had insurance”. Hearing that made me re-think, so I texted the guy apologizing and saying I hope insurance will make him whole again, and taking full responsibility.

The guy was super appreciative of me coming around.

Perhaps it’d be big of you to meet with the guy in person and say you were paid X by insurance and after asking friends they made you see you were trying to “fix” the way things are done on somebody else’s dime (insurance money). This is how these things work, as your contractor advised you. So you want to make it right and will pay him the 3,700 and top it off with your own money 450 to make the 4,150.

I suspect this will be greatly appreciated, and it is strongly likely he will take the 3,700 and turn your money away, meeting you half way. And all is well again.

Take the advice here on doing it yourself if this bothers you, and perhaps just understanding that somethings are done the way they are because in the grand scheme of things they make more sense.

Best of luck.

As stated above, I received 2500 from insurance after deductible. Insurance also quoted everything, including drywall, texturing, room manipulation (moving fridge, clearing cabinets, removing cabinets, etc), replacing a much larger portion of ceiling, and so forth. The contractor was also there when the adjuster was there, and the adjuster worked with him to try and get the insurance payout as high as he could. I know insurance always comes out lower than the work will cost, so I was just using it as a base.

In the end, what I'm upset about is I agreed to the estimate with the assumption and expectation that it was built upon the quoted $60/man hour. When I see far less labor go into the job than what they estimated naturally that should raise flags. Had I known the estimate was based on a minimum of 8hrs per day per man, I would have never agreed to it, or I would have made sure there was an estimated # of days needed and it was agreed to make the most use out of each day. I feel like I was taken advantage of by not disclosing the 8hr minimum and working such short hours for multiple days. But I have, however, talked with him, and he understands where I'm coming from and agrees the quote should have stated 8hrs min/day and says I'm in the right to question it. He wants 3350 now, and I'll give it to him, and I think we will be fine, but it's a lesson learned on my part and hopefully one learned on his end to make sure he quotes those types of details.

And now that I'm re-painting because they just painted a base white I'm seeing how uneven everything is. It's like they used too thick of drywall. But oh well I guess.

[antgenn]

Originally Posted by ///d

With those 8hr/day minimum rates, do you plan your schedule to make the most out of the day to not unnecessarily add extra days? I'm not saying he intentionally planned to show up at noon and put 4 hrs in the first day so he could show up at noon the next day and put 1.5 hrs in to finish that piece and charge me for 2 days instead of one, but it feels like thats the case. I see no reason they couldn't have cut and hung the sheetrock that first day, but thats just how I see it from my point of view.

My suspicion (cant confirm, not going to ask him) is they work multiple jobs each day, which would mean they charge the other jobs 8hr/day as well and double dip their labor between multiple jobs.

We are in a different line of business, so cannot compare apples and oranges. If our personnel is dispatched on site for 1 day and completes the job in 2 hours, we charge for 8, if it takes 10 hours, we will charge for 8 straight and 2 OT. The reason is that we will not be able to use the same person for the rest of the day. But it's our specific.