Omg contractors!!!! Or tradies, as we call them. You have to be on their back constantly. I thought they were experts and professional but they cut corners and leave messes and unless you spell it out for them precisely and remind them, they seem to just do what they want. Like, the sparkie (electrician) who, when asked to put two sockets and either end of a lounge wall, didn't even THINK to line them up evenly so each was same height. And it's worse if it's just me home - apparently women speak an unintelligible language??? My Dad used to practically hover over tradies and never accepted it if they didn't do EXACTLY as asked. Now we understand why.
I remember my bro in law having an argument with a tradie who swore blind he'd insulated a particular wall. Mat was on the phone to him saying 'mate, I'm right here looking inside the wall. There's nothing here'. Tradie got annoyed he was being called a liar.
Then the scaffolder last week putting the rail up round the house to get the roof done, playing music so fucking loud the whole street was thumping. He got annoyed at me for asking him to turn it off.
But there's awesome ones too. We have an amazing plumber who loves two streets up. He just did our roof (plumbers are also roofers here) and was right on the ball.
Jesus, lying about insulation and sockets at different heights?! It sounds like you're well-versed in what it takes to work with them! Lol. We've noticed a difference in attitude from them when my wife talks to them too. It's as though a wall comes up and they stop listening. Sad in this day and age.
We've had a few extremely good tradies but then some nightmare scenarios as well. We have a good friend that's a handyman and can tackle pretty much any project and we had him do most of our renovations until we moved into this house. He's a perfectionist and have discovered during this ordeal that he's spoiled us tremendously. I honestly think most of the chaos with these contractors could be solved by an administrative layer that could keep the crews on schedule and on track. The crews, most of them in their 20's, left to their own devices without direction are just issues waiting to happen.
Agreed. You need a good boss to manage them. The good plumber we have is just that. I watched him tell the apprentice off for putting some roofing on the garden over one of my plants, and make them all do a last check for mess. It's that kind of detail that matters.