I was hired to complete a full bathroom remodel for a client of an Interior designer. Part of the remodel required a small shed dormer to be framed in the back of the room. In the intial meeting the client had asked for an independent framer to frame the dormer, I am a general contractor with experience from frame to finish, but I generally stick with just doing the finish. I agreed to this, because the work would be completed faster than if I did it myself, and being that I was working with an ID I knew I would be spending alot of time planning and scheduling things. I also generally work by myself. Well the time came to frame the dormer and the framer that I had lined up backed out, and everbody else was out for a least a month. Trying to come up with a solution, I offered to frame the dormer, it would take me and a helper twice as long, but it would keep us pretty much on schedule. The homeowner agreed and we framed the dormer. When the dormer was framed we had to cut the valley rafter that intersected it. To support the valley rafter the arch. and engineer called for a triple LVL, with the valley rafter being bracketed and bolted to the side of it. As you might expect, some of the plaster attached to the valley rafter cracked when we were cutting it back. This crack unfortunately was in the room adjacent to the bathroom. I did not get the chance to speak with the homeowner that day about the crack, and all hell broke loose that night. The homeowner saw the crack, beleived that the roof was caving in and stopped all work on the project until he could get his enegineer to approve what was done. We had a meeting 2 days later with the architect, the architect’s engineer, the homeonwer, and myself. I have never met or worked with either the arch. or the eng. They both reviewed what was done and agreed that the work was completed as per the plans. The engineer did mention something about the ridge beam not being what he expected and recomeded some additional support be installed. I agreed with the engineer and have will install any additonal support that was needed at no cost to the homeowner. The homeowner then had his engineer come out yesterday for a peer review, I wasn’t invited to the meeting, but the designer did call me a let me know what was found. He pointed out all of the concerns that the first engineer had and not anything more. Here is the problem, the homeowner only wants a framer to complete the work. The work is something that a framer would assign to an apprentice, it is not at all complicated. I have so far refused to bring in an outside framer, because all of the work to date has now been approved by two engineers and an architect. It may come down to me having to leave the job. What would you guys do. Would you stand your ground or bring in a framer for two days and pay him out of your own pocket just to please the homeowner. I am just afraid that this will not be the end of it. I would normally just give in and pay for the framer, but I also don’t usually have two engineers and an architect backing me up.
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>>>all hell broke loose that night. The homeowner saw the crack, beleived that the roof was caving in and stopped all work on the project until he could get his enegineer
Sounds like the owner got his panties in a wad, but that your work was fine. Now he's trying to control the situation by stipulating who may proceed. I'd probably tell them they were being ridiculous but that if they wanted to get a framer on their own, on their nickel, that would be fine, and that they could call me when that was complete and I would then schedule the rest of the work, dictated by the new schedule that resulted from their interruption.
I understand where your coming from, but i would suggest you try and be more of a salesman on this. Tell the home owner you understand his concern. Agree with the home owner along the idea of using a framer, but suggest this will slow the work down due to trying to get someone in on short time. Ask to finish the framing and have it double checked by the engineer, as they (engineers) do seem to be happy with your work to date. Cracks happen when you move things around with in the framing. Remember this is a time where you will both win or both loose. Make sure everything you do is extra neat and clean. Shows you care!
I agree with you. I have tried and the engineer's have tried to explain to him that all of the recomedations that are being made are very minor, and most just haven't been completed yet. The work is something that generally a framer would delegate to the low man on the crew. It is just hangers and blocking. Unfortunately in the begining I told him that there would be a framer and that is all he heard.
I have agreed to consult with his engineer and complete the remaining work per his recomendation, but that doesn't seemed to have helped
Since the dormer is a separate issue, isolate the money, put it in trust and deal with the problem aside from the rest of the project. You could have the money released on the okay of an
agreed upon expert.
This is to soxfan - However you resolve this particular situation, there are lessons to learn from this one that will help prevent this type thing in the future.
I insist on a clear division of responsibilities before I agree to work with people. The customer has specific roles and boundries and so do I. So do each sub, each employee, each supplier.
It's important to establish this chain of responsibility and maintain it throughout the job. It is equally important to make certain that each person's authority is coequal with her responsibility.
When a customer deviates from that chain the first time, all work on their project stops until we meet and iron out what other clauses in our agreement we will ignore. But of course, the key is to make all expectations clear before deciding to work together.
If you and a customer are not a good match, you're a bad one. And even if a few dollars exchange hands, no lasting good can come from a bad match, except maybe a few hard learned lessons.
"I was hired to complete a full bathroom remodel for a client of an Interior designer. Part of the remodel required a small shed dormer to be framed in the back of the room. In the intial meeting the client had asked for an independent framer to frame the dormer, I am a general contractor with experience from frame to finish, but I generally stick with just doing the finish. I agreed to this, because the work would be completed faster than if I did it myself, and being that I was working with an ID I knew I would be spending alot of time planning and scheduling things. I also generally work by myself."
along the lines that jim was discussing:
if you hired on as the GC.. then the framing should have been part of your scope from day one
and it was your responsibility
you planted a seed of doubt by denigrating your framing ability... you deferred to a "framer" as being the better solution... then you backed away from that solution and framed it yourself
so instead of managing expectations , you torpedoed them
" dear mr. customer.... we are going to substitute myself and my half-assed assistant instead of that cracker-jack framer i promised you....."
no matter that the cracks may very well have appeared even with the framer... you set the stage for this
sometimes silence is better than putting your foot in your mouth