What mystifies me is how these guys stay in business.
We signed up for solar panels for our house. At first, it didn't look like it was going to happen. There wasn't a suitable portion of the roof that was strong enough to hold the weight; but then the engineers at the solar company worked out a way to re-inforce the roof over the studio and were able to get a permit for the project from the city.
The solar company sub-contracted the construction to another guy with a crew who came by, looked at the job, and told me to have everything packed up so they could start July 1st.
I have this odd sixth sense about my time in that I can tell when a job that seems to be urgent does not need to be done. I wouldn't claim it's infallible, just that so far the feeling has been correct every time. As I'm packing the studio up that Sunday, I kept feeling like I didn't need to do it because they weren't going to be there the next day. Sure enough....
Not just the next day. These guys didn't show up for two weeks! and I had four shows coming up starting in August. So everyday I pulled out a temporary table and boxes with supplies so I could get a little bit of work done.
They rolled in at 1pm on a Friday in the middle of July and dropped off materials - then left for the day. That was concerning, but no worries, the sub-contractor assured me. They'd work through the weekend.
Except they didn't show up the next day. At 1pm, he calls to let me know his crew's van broke down and they wouldn't make it there that weekend. But no worries, they'd be there Monday and the job would only take 2 or 3 days.
They actually were there on Monday - astonishing - at 10am. And that was the schedule. Never there before 10, always a lunch break from noon to 1, then take off for the day at 3. The 2 or 3 day promise? Total fabrication. They were there two weeks. See the photo at the top? That was at the end of the two weeks, there was two hours worth of work left to do, and they decide to take a long weekend.
Don called to complain, so the crew did come in on Sunday afternoon and did the two hours of work. Yay, except the ceiling still needed to be painted. Knowing that this project was grievously interfering with work, of course the sub-contractor promised to be there the next day to finish up.
Of course. Of course, we began to see, he would say whatever we wanted to hear. When he didn't show up, I decided to clean the studio and move everything back in. That was the other thing. Although they covered everything with plastic before tearing down the drywall, when it fell down an hour into the job, they never put it back up. Anything left in there had to be taken apart and cleaned before the floor could be vacuumed.
Was it a week later that he finally showed up to paint? I can't remember for sure; but I was unapologetic about having moved everything back in and told him it all needed to be covered well before spraying the ceiling.
Finally all done, except for the big plastic bag of trash out front on the street. When they first started dumping all the drywall and detritus on the back patio, Don approached them and said, You are going to haul this away, right? He was met with a blank stare and realized it was news to them that that was part of their responsibility. A few days later, they come with a trash company big haul-away bag and a young guy to haul the pile out to the street.
We should have kept a phone log as to how many times Don called the sub-contractor about that bag. Each time, Oh, the trash company will be there tomorrow or the next day. Finally Don called the solar company again and again - It's still sitting in front of our house! It did finally get picked up, amazing.
We signed up for solar panels for our house. At first, it didn't look like it was going to happen. There wasn't a suitable portion of the roof that was strong enough to hold the weight; but then the engineers at the solar company worked out a way to re-inforce the roof over the studio and were able to get a permit for the project from the city.
The solar company sub-contracted the construction to another guy with a crew who came by, looked at the job, and told me to have everything packed up so they could start July 1st.
I have this odd sixth sense about my time in that I can tell when a job that seems to be urgent does not need to be done. I wouldn't claim it's infallible, just that so far the feeling has been correct every time. As I'm packing the studio up that Sunday, I kept feeling like I didn't need to do it because they weren't going to be there the next day. Sure enough....
Not just the next day. These guys didn't show up for two weeks! and I had four shows coming up starting in August. So everyday I pulled out a temporary table and boxes with supplies so I could get a little bit of work done.
They rolled in at 1pm on a Friday in the middle of July and dropped off materials - then left for the day. That was concerning, but no worries, the sub-contractor assured me. They'd work through the weekend.
Except they didn't show up the next day. At 1pm, he calls to let me know his crew's van broke down and they wouldn't make it there that weekend. But no worries, they'd be there Monday and the job would only take 2 or 3 days.
They actually were there on Monday - astonishing - at 10am. And that was the schedule. Never there before 10, always a lunch break from noon to 1, then take off for the day at 3. The 2 or 3 day promise? Total fabrication. They were there two weeks. See the photo at the top? That was at the end of the two weeks, there was two hours worth of work left to do, and they decide to take a long weekend.
Don called to complain, so the crew did come in on Sunday afternoon and did the two hours of work. Yay, except the ceiling still needed to be painted. Knowing that this project was grievously interfering with work, of course the sub-contractor promised to be there the next day to finish up.
Of course. Of course, we began to see, he would say whatever we wanted to hear. When he didn't show up, I decided to clean the studio and move everything back in. That was the other thing. Although they covered everything with plastic before tearing down the drywall, when it fell down an hour into the job, they never put it back up. Anything left in there had to be taken apart and cleaned before the floor could be vacuumed.
Was it a week later that he finally showed up to paint? I can't remember for sure; but I was unapologetic about having moved everything back in and told him it all needed to be covered well before spraying the ceiling.
Finally all done, except for the big plastic bag of trash out front on the street. When they first started dumping all the drywall and detritus on the back patio, Don approached them and said, You are going to haul this away, right? He was met with a blank stare and realized it was news to them that that was part of their responsibility. A few days later, they come with a trash company big haul-away bag and a young guy to haul the pile out to the street.
We should have kept a phone log as to how many times Don called the sub-contractor about that bag. Each time, Oh, the trash company will be there tomorrow or the next day. Finally Don called the solar company again and again - It's still sitting in front of our house! It did finally get picked up, amazing.
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