wasted day

[CCPC 26]

I go out this morning to clean a rather large house, driveway, cooldeck etc., and when I arrive at the house I see a truck and trailer in the driveway so my first thought is landscapers, no problem they'll be gone in no time. Then I see a guy out on the front porch with a table saw and some other equipment set up, now I thinking what the He##. It turns out they were haveing hard wood floors installed through out the house. I talked to the lady and she said: "I thought they were only going to be working inside" I'm thinking:yeah lady, the're gonna do all of there cuting in your living room. Anyways, I kept my cool, didn't want to loss the job for latter, so I rescheduled. Anyone else ever had this happen? I sorta blame myself to an extent because I didn't make certain with this customer that there would be no other contractors scheduled (which I usually do). I guess it only takes one time to burn ya. Now I'm eating the better part of days income, pisses me off. It seems some people just have no common sense.

[PLD 14]

Been there, done that. One lady thought our guys and the tree cutting crew could "work around" each other...

[RyanH 14]

One customer wanted me to pressure wash his house, clean his gutters, get the windows, etc. while having his house renovated. For goodness sakes, he was wanting me to blow the leaves out of his gutters while he was having the pool deck installed. This was the job from hell for sure. Stupid me (this was in the beginning) actually went to his house 5 times for different tasks. Twice I went and could do nothing because other contractors had the water lines disconnected for plumbing reroute! Needless to say I was a little ill with the situation. Then he almost fainted when I gave him the final bill. What bothered me more than anything was that the place looked like crap after I was done because of all the construction that was going on. The beautiful driveway had fresh mud tracks from the other contractors, dust all over the windows and siding from the concrete saws and dirt movers, this guy really had a very poor sense of planning.

[flimmy 14]

I had it happen today. Went to the customres house to clean a deck and concrete patio and nothng is moved. They have alot of sh!t on both and were to have it moved over the weekend. Had to rescheduled for thursday.

[PressurePros 249]

I had it happen Saturday. Same thing hardwood floor installation. The other contractors worked around us but when it came time to rinse the driveway the sawdust/mud combination added an hour to the job.

[squirtgun 122]

flimmy,

We have an aditional charge to move stuff and they sign a waiver.Some people are just lazy and would rather pay the extra than it it themselves.The price of moving things depends on the amount there is.A few iems no charge but 30 plants,tables,chairs,grills etc. they are looking at a minimum of $50.

[JFife 14]

Scott Karvonen,

A good round charge is $1 per item.....and that saves the guesswork and doesn't make the homeowner feel it is negotiable. When I did decks, it was all super-upscale and my bids were all-inclusive, but I know some of you guys work in lower areas and the $1 rule works okay.

[flimmy 14]

Scott , the guy told me he would have all the stuff moved. I even told him if he didn't get it all done to call me and I would go to a different job no big deal. Well, he didn't call.. He had alot of big stuff that I realy didn't want and maybe couldn't move myself.

btw the job is for a friend and I'm not movin his sh!t :D he's already getting a good price. I will move a few small things if they forget.

I did have one customer let his dog sh!t on a deck I had just stripped and was going to stain the next day. I just stained around it and let him pick it up when he got home. The piece got stained the next day.

[Adrian 155]

lmao flimmy about the dog. Sorry about the misfortune though. But I have learned something from you guys on this one........ to ask in advance if there are any other contractors onsite and decide if they will be in my way or not. Plus, like a (fool) nice guy I have always moved whatever is on the decks and patios as part of the inclusive price. From now on , there is a charge for moving items or the customer moves it themselves.

I like Mr. Fife's fee of a dollar per item. Maybe my next customer will have a couple of cords of firewood. lol

Live and learn.

[big mike 14]

I had a guy last month that had landscapers in to do pavers and retaining wall UNDER the deck I was going to stain. I had done the prep work the Friday before, and on Tuesday (holiday weekend) when I came to stain, here's a bunch of machinery and workers hard at it. The homeowner had the b@lls to tell me that his $14,000 landscaping job trumped my $2400 deck job. He did however pay a $100 rescheduling fee. It got done last week, and he was more than happy to pay to finally use his deck (above some beautiful landscaping!).

I don't think this will be a repeat customer though, darn:rolleyes:

[One Tough Pressure 580]

These have served me well.

Customer Agrees To:

. Keep job site free from any obstructions or conflicts that would tend to interfere with the performance or work of Preferred Pressure. It is also the responsibility of the customer to ensure that children and/or pets are kept clear of the work site. Items that can not be removed from the job area, will be worked around within common reason.

Provide Preferred Pressure exclusive access to areas covered by this contract during the performance of work specified in this contract, and areas to be covered are to be cleared of other workers, equipment, and materials.

[dave 14]

Alan,

I like that section of your contract do you also include a waiver i'm in the process of putting a contract together and would like to see some examples if you don't mind sharing email grimecontrol@yahoo.com.au

Regards

Dave

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Had a similar situation last week. We were out working on a deck that was being sealed the day we were there. It was a two-tone job. This guy shows up in the bcak yard..... we talked openly to him... I felt bad....we wre talking about the job with him and he was asking if we were going to paint it, and I spoke up (as you know I do...) and told him we don't like the "P" word, it's not the best coating for wood, holds in moisure and promotes rot. It was shortly after that that I discovered he was a painter. Whoops! Oh WELL...

The owner had hired a painter to do the trim in the front. He was pretty standoffish, didn't give a name, shake hands, etc. We were talking with him as we walked around to the front of the house - he was very curious about what we were doing on the deck. Well, in the coure of conversation we found out he was also a power washer , or at leased owned a machine. Next, I happend to mention ( should have not said anything) that we needed to talk to the owner, the house needed washing. He snaps that he's going to talk to her about that. We went back to the deck.

Five minutes later we hear a machine fire up. Go back out front and one of his guys us on the ladder washing. Tnen he's on the roof washing. Chems are being upstreamed...running right thru the pump. Next thing we know, water is shooting over the house and starting to rain on OUR dry deck. Talk about livid. Well, the Boss Man was nowhere in sight, left Frick and Frack and the washer and ladder to their own devices. We yelled at them to stop. Then I see the older son in the house. Knocked on the door, and asked him to call mom and tell her to contact her painter and have him return please. Told him why. About 30 minutes later, a very sheeping Boss Man (painter) comes back and apologizes, says he didn't know his guys were washing the whole house ( Yo! Dude! You're in charge Helloo!!!!), yet in the next breath says he is planning to do it soon - maybe today later on. Rod was less than thrilled. We wrapped up the job that night about 7:30pm. He was there...again...to give them another estimate and lock up the paperwork on the house wash I suspect. He wanted to return the next day to wash the house. We told her - he can wait till monday!

We have worked with many companies in various trades on construction sites and so forth. You have to work with those around you, but you must also respect the work area of others. These guys arrived after we had been there for a good 4 hours already, and the boss was the biggest problem in the crew. The owner didn't even know he was supposed to be there that day.

Beth

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

We have a policy that we dont move other peoples belongings from a deck to to liability reasons and explain that many times when in the process of moving things that have not otherwise been disturbed to find them brittle, shattered and still standing, rotted, rusted etc...you get the picture.

We also state that in order to have another person present to remove belongings it costs extra and we assume no liability for any thing that ends up broken or damaged that we have no way of knowing the condition beforehand.

If we pull up to a job and the deck is still occupied by various belongings, then we add a trip fee and phone the customer to let us know when they will have the deck cleared for the wash and seal processes to begin.

I have had a number of people ask us why we didnt just move them anyway and that they wouldnt have minded...to which I would usually reply with "I'm sorry but, we are not a moving company and most jobs require only one man on the site to do the work. We dont find it cost effective to bring another person who will stand around for most of the time while the other works. For this reason, we charge additional to remove and replace belongings. This is something to which you have not agreed to in advance so we point out our policy on the proposal instruction sheet."

We tend to have a couple of extra jobs on stand-by in these cases so that the schedule stays full.

Yeah, we face the possibility that the customer will not use us in the future because we didnt waste manhours on their behalf, but I dont think they would appreciate it either if we charged them for something we didnt do!

Labor costs arent cheap and we arent profitable by having people to stand around.

How many others honor 'squatters rights'? What I mean by this is-first contractor on the job gets the benefit of working unhindered.

Rod~

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

We have also had construction company superintendants crack the whip on the other tradesmen to get them off the site when we roll up. Redirtying the area keeps us there longer and costs the prime more. It's pretty funny to see the others ordered off site so we can wrap the job up for prime so they can turn over the property.

Beth

[CCPC 26]

How many others honor 'squatters rights'? What I mean by this is-first contractor on the job gets the benefit of working unhindered.

Rod~

I do, but in my experience the pressure washing contractor is always the most expendable. If there's a conflict of scheduling, I'm always the first to go, or first to wait on whomever. It's uncommon to be interupted by any contractor that will be there for a long period of time. If I show up and the landscaper/lawn maintainance guys are there, I just wait a few minutes until the're done. Lawn guys usually seem to be the most respectful to my work space and will usually plan to come back later when I'm working.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

If we are there working, in full swing, and the landscapers show up, we have had them come back in most cases.

Planting is not a good idea when you are washing or sealing

Cutting grass is a pain if the grass is sopping wet

Weed and fertilizer likewise...washed away...

mulching - never run into that.

We have been sealing while the grass was cut, not too big an issue, we move the tarps...

If we are working, hoses unrolled and in the middle of the process, we are going to finish the work. If we are sealing, completely masked up and draped, job part way done, we are going to finish the work. If another tradesman has not even started yet, nothing has been interrupted for them. Dig in your heels.

If we are on a construction site, we often talk to the other tradesmen to see how long they will be in an area, and we clean around them. Works fine.

Beth

[Mike 64]

I think alot of these problems have to do with the homeownwer wanting to take 1 day off and schedule EVERYTHING on that same day that they want done around the house. I would explain to them that you need exclusive access to the property you are working on, and if it happens again you will have to charge them a service charge. Your time is worth money and it does not need to be wasted like that.

[CCPC 26]

I think alot of these problems have to do with the homeownwer wanting to take 1 day off and schedule EVERYTHING on that same day that they want done around the house. I would explain to them that you need exclusive access to the property you are working on, and if it happens again you will have to charge them a service charge. Your time is worth money and it does not need to be wasted like that.

Definitely can happen a lot if you don't bring it up intially. I think everbody here has experienced the "Home owner schedule everything in one day situation". The worst one I had was when cleaning a house and driveway, the home owner scheduled carpet cleaning, AC system check up, estimate on doing somthing to the exterior of the house, and had a few friends over (4 cars). We worked around each other, but I still had a lot of wasted time because the AC guy needed water to clean the outside fan, and the carpet cleaner needed the water to fill his tank, and I kept having to ask people to move their vehicles. After that day I was going to ad somthing to my proposals to help prevent that from happening in the future, but just like a lot of things, I have'nt gotten around to it yet. Now I'm definitely going to get right on it.

[Jim Carroll 14]

I also clean on construction sites and one way to get people out of the way is to put on a white Tyvek suit(the one with a hood and footies) and then put on a respirator and face shield. People will stay far away and not bother you with "I got a pressure washer story". As Beth said most of the time if a general contractor has you scheduled to clean you trump the other subs.