| Wednesday, June 07, 2006 |
| Give a girl a break... |
What is it about contractor's, car salesmen, and car repair places that automatically see a woman, much less a professional woman, and automatically think "she has no clue = $$$"? And when will they quit messing with me??!
I need two simple garden gates constructed to complete the backyard project with the new garden wall. The masonry guy had agreed to get them done for $150 apiece, but then the guy he paid to do them, decided he didn't have time, and two weeks later, I still have no gates, and now have rats in my yard as a result.
So.... I call the neighborhood handy man that everyone uses and likes for little projects like this. Honestly, I would have built them myself if I had the time and the right masonry bits for my drill, but I don't have either. He called me and said he could do the job for $400. I thought, he meant TOTAL, and thought "well, that's $100 more than the other guy, but I know he'll do a good job and get it done this week". Then he says...."$400 - EACH", and I nearly dropped the phone. He claimed it was $150 for materials alone, and then he'd have to get the materials on site, etc..... I didn't yell "B---lsh--T" to his face - but that was what I was thinking. It was Friday evening, so I told him I would think about it over the weekend.
So Monday night after work, I head to Lowe's.....
Yeah, I'm in a business suit and heels - so what? I approach the lumber guy and tell him I need 12, 1x6 pieces of pressure treated lumber in 6 foot lengths, and 10 2x4's in the same. "Could you pull those, and I'll go find hardware, stainless steel wood screws, and sag braces for the gates?" He looks a little surprised that I could even ask for such a complicated thing as pieces of lumber by size. "Sure thing - ma'am".
I come back 5 minutes later, and he's assembled a pile of lumber. I start looking at the boards and pulling out the crooked ones, ones with big knots running along the edge, knots that go through the board, or knots that are pit knots that will dry and fall out, leaving a hole in the board. Of the 12 boards he pulled, I rejected 7. Now he's annoyed. I tried to tell him this was a GATE. The boards need to be straight and as knot free as possible. They weren't being used for framing or something that was going to cover them up later. He had simply pulled the first 12 boards from the pile, with no quality control whatsoever. I couldn't even find any 2x4's in the 6 foot lengths that met my apparently too high standards, so I asked him to cut a 12' 2x4 in half, and you would have thought I had asked him to climb Mt. Everest naked!
After I finally got the cart loaded, he did offer to help me load the car, but then I thought, "you know - he wouldn't offer a guy help to load 25 measly boards into a car", so I politely said "No thanks - I can manage", and proceeded to pay the whopping sum total of less than $100 for all the hardware and lumber necessary to create two garden gates and loaded it into the back of the BMW (the seats fold down - relax).
Now back to the contractor.....
Called him back, told him I had gotten everything he needs to build the gates, and said I'd give him $300 to build BOTH gates (knowing I had just spent almost $100 in supplies), and that that's what the mason had orginally offered - including supplies. He balked, and we settled on $350. So, I'm now out about $150 above what I was going to spend, but it's a far cry from the extra $500 he wanted to charge me, and the gates will be done and done right tomorrow, and the rats will have one less point of access to my yard.
This kind of crap makes me SO mad!
PS I also picked up rat traps and set them last night. So far, no takers.....stay tuned for the body count. |
posted by Broadsheet @ 9:02 AM   |
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| 10 Editorial Opinions: |
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a) I would've done it for a six-pack (once you bought the lumber) and:
b) nice job finding good wood at the Home Depot... I can't ever find as many as two non-torqued boards there, they're all so damn green. Kiln-dried my ass.
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er, I meant "at Lowe's"... although they both have crap for wood.
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jwer: Thanks sweetie, I know you would have done them for me ---- sometime in October. Between your own house repairs, and how busy we both are, sometimes you need to pay a professional for their time to get it done. For a six pack, you can come over and watch hime build them, while you critique his work.
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My grandmother says that Baltimore doesn't have rats. We have "urban deer".
My grandmother also drinks wine. Every hour.
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Well, I can say I'm impressed with your woodworking skills. I can't even hang a picture straight. We bought new drawer pulls a month ago&nmash;half are on, and half are still sitting on the butcher's block for whatever reason.
Of course, I'd love to see you build some rat traps with the extra lumber. That would be really cool.
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BJB: Yep - the "urban deer" go hand in hand with the "urban woodpeckers", AKA = evening gun fire.
Jen: I have no true woodworking skills to speak of, other than watching my Dad build decks, and endless other woodworking projects (only to have to sand, stain/paint/varnish, and finish them afterwords), and having to go to the lumber yard for supplies with him. But I sure as hell know the difference between a 1x6 and a 2x4, how to pick a clean piece of lumber, and pick the right screws and nails!
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The worst about Lowe's/Home Depot is when it comes down to it, most of there employees don't know what they're talking about.
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Well, there's a pretty huge difference between "fixing all the plaster in my house" and "building a simple gate"... that's less than an hour's work, and that's WITH beer consumption...
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Broadsheet, I agree with the Lowe's / Home Depot comments. The wood is typically of poor quality, and if you have to count on the numb-nuts who work the lumber aisle, you are SOL.
This is why I have learned to avoid those places (for lumber, anyway) like the plague.
That is why I am willing to pay a little more, if necessary, to go to a smaller lumberyard (if you even have this luxury where you live), where the help is usually more knowledgable and well, helpful. I am further fortunate, because my lumberyard is price competitive with those mega-stores.
In the interest of wrapping up this already too long comment, I will spare you my thoughts on contractors in general, and why if I can't do it myself (with family and friends, if scope warrants), I still don't hire it out.
I like your blog - and especially your banner quote - BTW.
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a) I would've done it for a six-pack (once you bought the lumber) and:
b) nice job finding good wood at the Home Depot... I can't ever find as many as two non-torqued boards there, they're all so damn green. Kiln-dried my ass.