most costly mistake doing residential

[SQUEEKY 14]

hello out there

just curious what the biggest screw up the pro's made during there learning curve??

also what kinda material defects or poor workmanship by home builders have you been wrongly blamed for?

for example i read on some BB that recycled vinyl will dis-color if you use chems usually used for vinyl?

and most importantly do any of you (should i) have a clause in the contract stipulating a limit to liability due to defective materials or poor workmanship?

[Jeff Robison 14]

I put a surface cleaner to a stone walkway that had been coated with a sealer. Multi million dollar home, he wanted to keep the walkway looking perfect. It tore the stuff right off the surface. He told me on a later cleaning that it was $250.00 to fix, but did not make me pay for it. I had done a couple of other things that day and just told him not to worry about it. I am at his house every 6 months for a cleaning of something.

Jeff Robison

Titan Exterior

678-360-2518

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Hiring substandard labor!

Rod!~

[Paul Kassander 26]

Hiring substandard labor!

Rod!~

That is definately a big one. As well as keeping them on too long thinking they will change or get better.

[CCPC 26]

One biggie that I see a lot of inexperieced guys destroying is thermo pane windows. Be sure to use no more than a couple hundred psi on these, or you run the risk of blowing the seals and fogging up the window. I've been to houses where the last guy had ruined almost every window on the house and the homeowner had to spend thousands having them replaced.

[CLASSICPW 14]

on my second job ever I got sealer on the guy's oxidized aluminum siding. When he asked me to remove it, I used stripper. Grey turned to shiny aluminum real fast. Luckily he was contemplating on getting new vinyl siding and I was the deciding factor. BTW I also used 3000psi on his cedar deck. I sanded untill my hands bled.

[Richard 17]

I sent one of my guys to stain a deck. He got it all over the wall, satalite dish, window,pool pump,and concrete stones.Deck looked like crap, and even handed me his time sheet. That was his last paycheck. Cleaned as much as we could,finished the deck, and had to ask the customer if he could forgive me if I said the job was free. What a mess, and embarasment.

[jbruno 14]

Dripped Gutter Shock on a brand newly sealed driveway. ate the sealer right off. had t pay $250 for the re-seal. I had charged the guy 240 for the house wash. drove over 2 days later and gave him $10. He owned a body shop for 30 years and as I gave him the $10 he told me about learning the hard way and how many times in business he had learned it the hard way. It was a good experience in the end, but a little embarrasing.

[tbl141 14]

I spilled 12% on a customers driveway ,well drive way is not the word ,it should have its own interstate designation ended up cleaning the area for free . Should have seen the guys face when he got home and found his clean driveway the first words out of his mouth was this was not in the contract. I told him that the house wash came out so great that i felt cleaning the driveway would highlight the job. then i confessed. LESSON LEARNED DONT EVER PULL ON THE X-JET TRYING TO GET A LITTLE FARTHER, JUST REPOSITION IT.

[Celeste 341]

I guess we've been lucky so far (as I knock fiercely on my wooden desk) and not had an accident. BUT, this thread is a great way to show just why we carry INSURANCE!!!!

Celeste

[Jeff 232]

My almost most costly mistake was at the banks I do. We do several banks and some of them are fairly new construction. About 2 years ago the facility manager called and said the a branch office called and theres water all inside around the drivethrough and also their security camera isnt working. Im thinking OH crap. These cameras are little round things and just the outside lens parts are $1600.

I go to the bank and its wet inside, Im thinking how the heck did water get inside, the the camera company says the lense is bad from our chem. Facility Manager comes and we inspect. Well this new construction was CRAP. There was NO caulking at all around drivethrough window water just flowed in. NOT my fault thank you very much and then they checked camera and a couple days later facility manager calls and says they just fired camera company. The camera that was out side was an interior camera nad never should of been outside .

I learned to make sure we cover all cameras instead of just avoiding them and we check all new coonstruction banks for caulking.

Lucky on this one

[R L S 14]

I have had no major residentaial mishaps but have had one good industrial mishap. THANKGOODNESS for insurance.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

In the early years we had employees using their vehicles and one in particular had an oil leak which messed up a clients driveway.

The client was not at all nice with us in rectifying the situation and so once the issue was resolved, we fired the client.

Rod!~

[Rfitz 14]

I would have to agree with the earlier post about getting a really crappy ,lazy, sloppy worker, thinking, hoping they would get alot better, they usually get worse, so what I do now is tell, all new employees, they basically have a 2 week probation period, just to see if this is for them, really it is for me to see if they lied on their application, about how much experience they say they have, also the last lazy piece of crap I just fired a couple weeks ago I kept on 6 months too long, at least on evry call back he would have to do on his own time, he was getting to the point of working 10-15 hours a week for FREE,

keep in mind this clown has has 5 kids with 3 different women, now is married living with his mother, in her basement, and was always asking for time off, weekends off, getting off early at least 1 day a week etc.. I should have fired him in april or may, but like an idiot I felt sorry for this clown.. oh well , live and learn

[SQUEEKY 14]

really appreciate all of your experiences!!!

sorry for the late reply but been dealing with connectivity probs :lgkeyboar ??!!!

Jeff Robison>> surface cleaner? what kind was it ? what kinda seal did it adversely affect?

Rod>> good advice. wont have to worry about that till i can train someone.must train myself first.

Paul Kassander>> thanks Paul really appreciate your generosity and experience!

CCPC>> wow! that's a biggie. prolly just saved me from stress and loosing $$ thanks!

CLASSICPW>> lol! don't know what you look like but could imagine the look on your face as it got shinier. so what is your method for cleaning aluminum siding? and what is the max. psi for cedar decks?

Richard>> holy sh**! final paycheck!! more like final destination for that guy..... good business practice offering the work for free.

thanks for the experience.

jbruno>> gutter shock and seal don't mix huh.. or was it that it was newly sealed? thanks

tbl141>> so how did the 12% react with drive way?LESSON LEARNED DONT EVER PULL ON THE X-JET TRYING TO GET A LITTLE FARTHER, JUST REPOSITION IT. i'm sorry too green to understand?? thanks!

CarolinaProWash>> thanks Celeste. don't worry i believe strongly in insurance.

Jeff>> thanks Jeff. you musta been trippin pretty hard when they called back and had water inside!! it seams in your situation the the customer had enough comen sense to understand that it was poor workmanship by the camera contractor. but what if he/she were a pin head and went after you? would you have to hire an inspector to determine whose at fault? which brings me to my question about stipulating such a thing in your contract? do you or anyone else have any kinda language in your contract to cover your a$$ in this kinda situation???

R L S>> i've seen a flex lance @ 10,000 psi enter and exit 6 times through both legs of this poor fella.. hope it was not that bad!

Rod>> funny you show up to clean ans your soiling the place! if you cleaned it up what was the H.O. prob?

Rfitz>> that sucks man, poor kids huh.. look at it this way at least you got karma points for puttin a little food in the kids mouth as long as you could...

thanks!!

anybody care to share a sample contract with me?

[tbl141 14]

a lot of water dilluted it before any extreme discoloration. I had already dilluted it for my house wash so it was more of a pain in the butt factor, than the possiability of damage occuring.

[SQUEEKY 14]

thanks tbl

[john@AEC 37]

Wasn't laughing at the time....

Recently washing a big/multi level house to clean it up as it was for sale. While washing the first wall/eaves/facia some water got into a light mounted on the eaves, usually nothing happens as it is fixed firmly and sometimes a little water gets in and short circuits the lights or whole house, but this time it was a DIY light fitting that on closer inspection, wasn't fixed securely to the eaves - so lots of water got in and it caught fire, flames about 1 foot long and a big black soot stain and of course melted fitting and wires.

The owner saw it happen and didn't seen concerned, but I told her to get an electrician to remove and inspect the fitting and wiring. But she didn't.

Later, the electricity went out again, this time the husband lost half an hours work on the computer. This may have had something to do with the electricity meter/fuse box, on close inspection, hanging a quarter inch off the wall - only held in place by the electrical wires.

The husband wanted to know what I was going to do about the burnt light. I attempted to explain that it wasn't fitted properly and he should call the electrician who fitted it. I had to restate several times that it wasn't my fault, if anyones it was the electricians (but they could't remember his name) and as for the power going off, the electricity box wasn't mounted properly or some water got between wall planks or around window frames or...

While he accepted it wasn't negligence on my part he looked like he was prepared to make a scene so I got in first and offered him $50 off, which he accepted, initally. He still hadn't called an electrician. Later he decided that we should go halves in the cost of repair as it wasn't his fault so why should he have to pay. I could only repeat that it was his house and he hired the electrician and it wasn't my fault either, and some times these things happen; and restate that the $50 was for the inconvenience.

He paid in cash and I left with him threatening to sue for the repairs and his lost work time, which he informed me was more than the what he paid me. To which I could only say "You do what you think you have to."

And that is the last I heard from them. The house is for sale and they moved overseas a few days later.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Now, maybe you'll appreciate the inspection process a bit more. I do. It was a lesson learned after having someones exterior electrical sockets short out after doing a house wash. Inspecting these items helps to identify any "Pre-existing Conditions". These should be noted in the contract before work is begun in order to assure liability is on the homeowner.

As John put it to his client, "It is your home, you hired the contractor". Just because we as the 'cleaning people' become the messengers, doesn't mean we should get the shot for the bill. My opinion. I went into business to provide a service, not to pay for peoples negligence.

Rod!~