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a little background first,
am just a one man and a truck, got my b1 9 years ago but have never really developed much of a ” company” so to speak. a year off for a catastrophic accident and the last two for cancer haunt really helped either. have been happy doing high end work on a small scale for folks who understand and can appreciate it. no advertising, word of mouth.
any way, the girl friends parents have a rambling “art project” no building permit home in an unincorporated hillside community. extreme fire dangers they cant get fire insurance. was built by the wife previous husband, guy was an engineer who had a b-1 as well and bit the place on in his spare time. the wife thinks everything is up to code but that only applies to it structurally. the rest is what we see so often, something reasonable close to code and what was convenient at the time of its construction. the electrical system is terrible over stretch and its just a good thing there are never enough folks around the place to turn on half of the appliances at a time.
anyway, i get called all the time to look at things, which im happy to do, gotta take care of the family i always say. lots of serious shorts though, a new service is long over due along with a lot of rewiring. they are running a utility studio off of a 50 amp panel which is piggy back tapped (by this i mean that it is connected to the main lugs where the subpanel is energized) off of a full loaded 100 amp panel which is piggy backed off of a 200 amp panel that run off the 200 amp at the pole. i cringe every time i think of it.
getting back on my feet these days, im long on talent but short on resources. meaning i cant give em a bid price “fixing it” and then just underwriting all the problems ive not found yet that im sure to encounter as i start into the actual work ( something in years past i could easily have done and would be more than happy to do but times being what they are…)the idea of time and materials is just unacceptable to these folks, and because of blind faith in the previous husband, the fact that tripping breakers doesnt mean much, and much as i tried to illistrate, they just dont see why electrical tape isnt as good as a romex connector 🙂
heh, sorry about being longwinded, about february, they got a second mortgage, to fix all the problems and add a second bath which was desperatly needed. idea being they could improve the resale value… because $ was the number one concern, and the floor plan of the addition was changing add infinum, i finally got an itemized estimate into their hand but allowances for nondefined elements made as much sense to them as time and materials had earlier. and in the meantime, a distance cousin who is a super for a big development company came by and gave em a sq ft bid in about 30 minutes. i was thanked for my valuable imput. their words ” for helping them see that the other guys prices were resaonable if higher than they wanted” and politely shown the door. for a project that had so many open ends as far as the finish work went, i was appaled when they didnt have any interest in ironing out the details. the difference between estimate and bid is still lost on them. and fears regarding completion dates ( ” this guys says he will be done in twenty days, what if you four to six weeks turns onto six months?”) were not appeased by the idea of calling my references and getting first hand knowledge of how my previous work had transpired. you know how it is, far to many people are happier feeling safe than putting in the work to actually be safe. needless to say, when i saw that this guys laborers had blown out the forms pouring an 8″ high curbwall i knew things wernt going to be good.
in the interest of my sanity, i stayed away for the next 4 months ( heh,) and happend to stop in as the rough plumbing been installed. i noticed the floor had been spanned with 2×12’s on 1 foot centers that were spanning the rooms full 15 foot length. no girders, no pressure blocking.both lavitorys have windows above, so vents were tied into the horizontal run of the waste line and trave 9 and 11 feet horizontally before comming up. the floor joist had not been installed in anticipation of the water closet and tub, so bother are cutin into 5 inches to make room. the toilet flange connects to a a street 45 so some of the 2×12 could be left intact, but after it straightened out, it connects to a vented elbow with the 2″ out places horizontally so the shower drain could tie in. toilet is also vented after the elbow, since all walls are 2×4, he has run two 2″ vents comming off the waste line for it up the wall 4 feet and then tied them together with the 2″ vent for the tub which is also run horizontally about 8 feet from where it takes off from the tub waste line. they really wanted the drain end of the tub to be at the end of tub sticking into the room and nearest to the existing structure which is sheeted. no though to opening the wall for the vent or building a sofit i guess. oh ya, not a single clean out, wall were covered before he tied into existing waste system i guess its possible he could have done a water test but id have to take that on faith.
ive never been a fan of turning in unliscenced builders ( the cousin hasnt been out to the place since the first visit.) and mabe this guy does have a license, but no permits were pulled obviously. what do you guy think my responsebility is? i hate to think of the future of this project. no matter how inept, no one deserves to be taken advantage of like this. oh, i have no idea of the financing, but were going on 5 months now, fixtures still arent in and the grapevine is rife with talk of the money being gone. what a sad sad situation.
thanks
Replies
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a little background first,
am just a one man and a truck, got my b1 9 years ago but have never really developed much of a " company" so to speak. a year off for a catastrophic accident and the last two for cancer haunt really helped either. have been happy doing high end work on a small scale for folks who understand and can appreciate it. no advertising, word of mouth.
any way, the girl friends parents have a rambling "art project" no building permit home in an unincorporated hillside community. extreme fire dangers they cant get fire insurance. was built by the wife previous husband, guy was an engineer who had a b-1 as well and bit the place on in his spare time. the wife thinks everything is up to code but that only applies to it structurally. the rest is what we see so often, something reasonable close to code and what was convenient at the time of its construction. the electrical system is terrible over stretch and its just a good thing there are never enough folks around the place to turn on half of the appliances at a time.
anyway, i get called all the time to look at things, which im happy to do, gotta take care of the family i always say. lots of serious shorts though, a new service is long over due along with a lot of rewiring. they are running a utility studio off of a 50 amp panel which is piggy back tapped (by this i mean that it is connected to the main lugs where the subpanel is energized) off of a full loaded 100 amp panel which is piggy backed off of a 200 amp panel that run off the 200 amp at the pole. i cringe every time i think of it.
getting back on my feet these days, im long on talent but short on resources. meaning i cant give em a bid price "fixing it" and then just underwriting all the problems ive not found yet that im sure to encounter as i start into the actual work ( something in years past i could easily have done and would be more than happy to do but times being what they are...)the idea of time and materials is just unacceptable to these folks, and because of blind faith in the previous husband, the fact that tripping breakers doesnt mean much, and much as i tried to illistrate, they just dont see why electrical tape isnt as good as a romex connector :)
heh, sorry about being longwinded, about february, they got a second mortgage, to fix all the problems and add a second bath which was desperatly needed. idea being they could improve the resale value... because $ was the number one concern, and the floor plan of the addition was changing add infinum, i finally got an itemized estimate into their hand but allowances for nondefined elements made as much sense to them as time and materials had earlier. and in the meantime, a distance cousin who is a super for a big development company came by and gave em a sq ft bid in about 30 minutes. i was thanked for my valuable imput. their words " for helping them see that the other guys prices were resaonable if higher than they wanted" and politely shown the door. for a project that had so many open ends as far as the finish work went, i was appaled when they didnt have any interest in ironing out the details. the difference between estimate and bid is still lost on them. and fears regarding completion dates ( " this guys says he will be done in twenty days, what if you four to six weeks turns onto six months?") were not appeased by the idea of calling my references and getting first hand knowledge of how my previous work had transpired. you know how it is, far to many people are happier feeling safe than putting in the work to actually be safe. needless to say, when i saw that this guys laborers had blown out the forms pouring an 8" high curbwall i knew things wernt going to be good.
in the interest of my sanity, i stayed away for the next 4 months ( heh,) and happend to stop in as the rough plumbing been installed. i noticed the floor had been spanned with 2x12's on 1 foot centers that were spanning the rooms full 15 foot length. no girders, no pressure blocking.both lavitorys have windows above, so vents were tied into the horizontal run of the waste line and trave 9 and 11 feet horizontally before comming up. the floor joist had not been installed in anticipation of the water closet and tub, so bother are cutin into 5 inches to make room. the toilet flange connects to a a street 45 so some of the 2x12 could be left intact, but after it straightened out, it connects to a vented elbow with the 2" out places horizontally so the shower drain could tie in. toilet is also vented after the elbow, since all walls are 2x4, he has run two 2" vents comming off the waste line for it up the wall 4 feet and then tied them together with the 2" vent for the tub which is also run horizontally about 8 feet from where it takes off from the tub waste line. they really wanted the drain end of the tub to be at the end of tub sticking into the room and nearest to the existing structure which is sheeted. no though to opening the wall for the vent or building a sofit i guess. oh ya, not a single clean out, wall were covered before he tied into existing waste system i guess its possible he could have done a water test but id have to take that on faith.
ive never been a fan of turning in unliscenced builders ( the cousin hasnt been out to the place since the first visit.) and mabe this guy does have a license, but no permits were pulled obviously. what do you guy think my responsebility is? i hate to think of the future of this project. no matter how inept, no one deserves to be taken advantage of like this. oh, i have no idea of the financing, but were going on 5 months now, fixtures still arent in and the grapevine is rife with talk of the money being gone. what a sad sad situation.
thanks