I have to admit as a contractor and life long do-it-myself guy I live in a little bubble and only get to see one side of the remodeling process. Sure I deal with sub-contractors for plumbing, electrical and other specialty work on jobs but I have almost zero experience getting work done on my own home. Until now.
Recently I needed something done that I just can’t (won’t) do myself. I called a contractor I know that does this work and asked them to come take a look. Long story short there was some mix ups, lack of follow ups and various other things that led to almost three weeks going by before I got the estimate.
Things happen. I understand. Honestly if this were for a customer’s project I would have been hounding the contractor long before rather than waiting for them to get back to me but since it was my own project I wanted to see how it would play out from a typical homeowner-dealing-with-a-contractor’s point of view.
One of my biggest pet peeves when working with others is lack of communication. If it’s lacking from the start I don’t see it getting better once we get into the project. In the end I’m going to go elsewhere but I did learn a lot from the experience that will hopefully improve how I handle our customers and potential customers in the future.
What’s your biggest pet peeves when dealing with contractors? Leave us a comment below and let us know. Hopefully I’m not guilty of any of them but if I am at least I’ll know I need to change!
Herb Coulter, The Remodeling Company, LLC
