Hiring skilled trade workers and getting screwed 90 percent of the time.

I seem to have the WORST luck when hiring anyone to come to my home to do any work. Here I sit waiting
for a guy to show up who was supposed to be here two days ago. He had no problem at all coming to write up a contract and take a hefty deposit to do some work in my bathroom. Now that the work is ready to be done, he's a no show.

He called several times Friday to say he was going to try to come and bring his tools and get set up to start Sat. morning, but every call came with an excuse to why he would be late, and then he never showed up at all. Saturday came and went without so much as a phone call. He finally did call on Sunday and promised to
be here at 9 am Monday morning.

It's almost 11 am, and no phone call and no show.

I could write a book with my terrible experiences. I hate that feeling in your gut when you realize that something
is terribly wrong and I'm about to get screwed again.

You need to tell him to come at a certain time with tools ready in hand to work or to show up with a refund for the deposit. Do you have any sort of contract that specifies the work to be done, the price, and any proposed timeline?

yea most of them suck...


thats why the no licence guys are better , they have to make the money and have to be there or else they know how easily they can be replaced... but thats a risk most people don't wanna take ..


next time use websites with reviews

like angies list


or super gurantee pages or w/e it was called . Where they gurantee the people you call from there book to do the job or they will make it right


most people just don't care or have enough consideration these days


sad but its reality .


call that goof and tell him to give back your deposit or else you will sue for punitive damages

Yes, I have a contract with everything to be done listed and the total cost, and the deposit I made. But there is nothing in writing to say when the work would be started or finished.

I'm about to call him and tell him if he's not here today that I want my money back and he's fired.

To Seed of Chuckie: I've tried both licensed and non licensed and have been screwed by both.

I was sure I could trust this guy because he and his partner just installed a hot water heater in my house and
they both seemed so professional and did a good job. However, for the bathroom work, I only hired one of those guys ( who is the carpenter, the other guy is the plumber.)

My father-in-law is one of the best contractors you will ever find. His work is superior to any of the work I have seen in any new house construction. He is unlicensed. He does not advertise - he gets business through word-of-mouth. He is always busy.

You need to find someone like him. Get a recommendation from someone.

Your first mistake was paying him anything before work started. Never a dollar until the work is done and is done to your satisfaction. Some guys like to say they need money to buy supplies, I either tell them that as a professional, they should have access to either the cash or the credit to purchase supplies and if they don’t, I can always find someone else.

I cant stress the importance of references enough. If a tradesman wont/cant supply references, tell him to take a hike.

I always ask all my friends and neighbors for recommendations and have never had any problems. I think that maybe the lesson to be learned in your particular situation is that if you get a contract to be sure and add in a specific time frame for when the work will be started and completed. That way if your contractor doesn't honor the terms of agreement specified in the contract you have a leg to stand on should you have to take him to court. Without specific time frames you would be basically at the mercy of whatever judge you end up before's idea of a "reasonable amount of time."

I also think it worthy to note that I have hired many contractors as my husband works away a lot and I have never had to put up a deposit. Most reputable contractors have accounts at supply houses and don't require cash up front for materials. If they did I would think that they have fouled up there credit at the supply houses and would wonder why. That's just been my experience.

I've been a General Contractor for about 12 yrs and it's shocking how few of people have any idea what they are doing. I stopped working for company's maybe 6 years ago because word of mouth became so rampant that I didn't need a company robbing me of half my pay scale. Everybody I work for says the same thing "It's impossible to find a decent worker in the trades" or they can't find someone they can trust in their home so they all keep passing my number around to friends. Here in California we have what's known as pickup crews and that's what I used to do, Basically a pickup crew is a crew of guys that comes in after everything else is done by another group and we'd fix all their screw ups. So basically company pay for cheapest labor/tradesman they can to get majority of project done and then they pay the real carpenters to come in a fix whatever they messed up. Which if you think about it means there is entire crews out there doing the same wrong things over an over again and these same crews get side jobs and transfer their mistakes/work ethic to the poor unsuspecting homeowner.

Any tradesman worth his nailbags has pictures of completed work he's done so that's a good first question "can I see your portfolio"? If he doesn't have one, you shouldn't even consider him as a worker... Most company's I've work for encourage pics taken at the end of the day so you have proof of things completed and it builds your credentials. I have seen the nicest people get scammed by Carpenters/Tradesman and can truly say if there is anything you find even a little strange, don't hire that person! It is extremely easy for someone to do things wrong and cost you Way Way more money to fix than the original job itself costs.

Hope you find a decent worker

I thought I had found a great 2 man team for this kind of thing. When my water heater went out a last week, this 2 man team came out, gave me an estimate and told me they could do it that day. I told them I have been screwed many times before so I absolutely would not put up any money up front. I drove to the contractor supply place and paid for the water heater myself and then I paid the two men when the work was done. They said they understood and were sympathetic to my situation. On the water heater job, the plumber did all of the work and the other guy ( carpenter: the one I hired for my bathroom) assisted him and went to get parts, etc.

In conversation they told me that one was a plumber and the other one a carpenter. I figured since they did such a good job on the water heater, I would hire them for the bathroom. The carpenter seemed to be in charge of the bathroom job, and the plumber was in charge of the water heater. The plumber even gave me a phone call after he completed the job and told me he appreciated my patience ( job took a little longer than planned) and he thanked me for choosing him for the job. I was impressed. Therefore, I put a little trust in the carpenter figuring he had the same professionalism and high standards of his partner. Boy, was I wrong!

My husband and I have no family or friends, so we are not in a circle of people who can make recommendations. I think I am done hiring anyone. So far, in two years this bathroom has cost me $1700 and I've not had a single thing done it it. I should have sued the last jokers who I had to fire because the work was so bad and I lost my deposit.

reply to post by virraszto


What do you expect? How well did you check out this guy before you handed him a check? What was he driving, how professional did he look? Did you call him because of references from some one or two satisfied with his work? Did he give you references about prior jobs? You took a gamble, not a safe bet. Even if he shows, don't expect good work and don't let him come for a couple of hours and leave with even more of your money.

Did they cash the check? (if not, can cancel it)

Note, that in most states, even if you don't have a time on the contract, there is a "reasonable amount of time" implicit in any contract (usually based on an industry standard).

As for doing work with no money down, that seems to be too much to expect I'd wager. I mean, what's a contractor going to do with tiles he ordered for a specific customer, for example? Pay to store them in case another wants them eventually? No, that's an unrealistic expectation.

Expecting money down isn't really a red flag here, as long as it's for materials. It shouldn't be though, for labor.

I'm not a lawyer, but have had some contract law, so don't take my advice as anything other than just that, not any kind of professional legal advice.

reply to post by SirMike


On the other hand Sir Mike are the predator home owners
who decide not to pay because they don't like the paint color they picked out.

Contracting involves shared risk.
But as the homeowner pay a small fee to retain services,
but don't put down the big money till they are on the job.

reply to post by SirMike


I do lots of side work under the table. I will not start without a deposit and I only take cash. I provide all the references you could possibly want though. People will screw you out of your money in a flat second if you let them.