Drywall contractor wants to bankrupt me!

[ovrszd]

Exactly... change the filters and no harm. It's what they're for... And, a good drywall finisher doesn't need to sand that much...

The really good ones finish with a damp cloth.

 

[Redlands Okie]

The general contractors time mentioned might very likely be for several of the trades. Not just the drywall.

Humidity and moisture from finishing the sheetrock and painting has to go somewhere. Remember a gallon of latex paint is about a gallon of water. Those processes and the cabinet, trim work and many types of flooring all need a controlled environment. Once the insulation is up what is the issue with providing heat. Many materials need to acclimatize to the homes environment anyway. Most people and homes are going to need the HVAC running for the next few decades. Might as well get started on controlling the homes environment to help ensure nice work. A couple months of bills before you move in should not matter that much overall to help get nice results.

The comments on concrete or subfloors being trashed by various construction trades is something to really keep in mind.

 

[plowhog]

The comments on concrete or subfloors being trashed by various construction trades is something to really keep in mind.

I am meeting with the GC tomorrow. Will ask about why the conditioned temps are needed until April, and what procedures are in place so the drywall crew doesn't trash my property like they did to my neighbor's.

 

[4570Man]

Drywall crews are slobs. Just getting one to show up is a real problem here. The last drywall job I had actually didn’t make a huge mess. The spray texture guys covered everything though. Don’t think I got that lucky though. They hung the drywall and then put me off over 2 weeks on a time sensitive project before the finisher showed up. Then the finisher quit after a 1/2 day of work. He claimed he hurt his back. I think he decided it was too big of a job for him to do by himself. And if time is important demand they work on the job at good pace. My experience is they go between jobs working a day or less at a time to secure more jobs than they’re capable of doing.

 

[ovrszd]

My builder crew is my drywall crew. Their concern is that I am going to live on my sealed concrete. They are concerned about protecting the concrete and have said they'll cover it once they get the walls up.

As soon as they get the structure insulated and windowed/doored, I'll crank up the heat. They don't need to tell me to do that. I prefer it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Drywall crews are slobs. ...

This reminded me of a crew that I had to deal with about a dozen years ago, give or take. The home owner was acting as the GC and I was charging her by the hour to do what she wanted, and to fix what was done wrong. She saved a buck finding the cheapest crews to do things, they spent what she saved, and then some, paying me to fix what they did. She was going to get rich flipping houses, but never came in on budget and eventually her husband lost too much money on her flips to support her on it anymore, and then they moved away.

This one sheetrock crew that I'm remembering was really bad. They rarely nailed all their sheetrock up, so I had to come in after they had left to finish it with screws. I don't like nails in sheetrock. They would nail the edges, and maybe a couple of nails in the middle, but nowhere near enough to consider it done. After three days of hanging sheetrock, they where done and we never saw them again. The tapers showed up and it was a crew of about 10. They where everywhere, with half of them looking like teenagers. That's probably where the problems came from. Somebody must have thought it was funny to fill in the outlet boxes with mud and float the opening so that it was impossible to see where they where once they where done. Sadly, I didn't catch this until they where all gone, the walls where textured and painted.

When the electrician couldn't get power to all the outlets, we realized what had happened and had to hunt for the boxes that where covered over. The owner of the company denied that his people did this, and refused to compensate my client for causing such a huge delay and expense. For years, I badmouthed that company and told everyone that I knew who was wanting to hire a sheetrock contractor not to use them. I have no idea how effective I was, or if their reputation continued to get worse over the years, but after awhile, I saw that the building that they where using was up for sale and I've never heard of that business again.

 

[plowhog]

Somebody must have thought it was funny to fill in the outlet boxes with mud and float the opening so that it was impossible to see where they where once they where done.

That's criminal mischief at the least.

My rule for contractors: always keep the work ahead of the money.

 

[Beltzington]

Drywall crews are slobs. Just getting one to show up is a real problem here. The last drywall job I had actually didn稚 make a huge mess. The spray texture guys covered everything though. Don稚 think I got that lucky though. They hung the drywall and then put me off over 2 weeks on a time sensitive project before the finisher showed up. Then the finisher quit after a 1/2 day of work. He claimed he hurt his back. I think he decided it was too big of a job for him to do by himself. And if time is important demand they work on the job at good pace. My experience is they go between jobs working a day or less at a time to secure more jobs than theyæ±*e capable of doing.

This is a side note to the OP concerns but I am at a loss to what is going on in the construction/remodel world. It seems to me from the half dozen jobs I hired out in the last 5-years sub-contractors are using more effort to steal from the homeowner than would be needed to do the job they were hired for. One job I specifically requested green board for the bathroom and he told me that was not necessary, I said I hear you but please use green board. When the drywall was delivered it was standard board and when I asked the delivery guy what happened they said that was what was ordered. Really, had I not been onsite when the delivery arrived they would have installed standard drywall and taken the huge savings to buy a 12-pack.

On the other end of the spectrum a tile guy I have been using has tripled his prices, no reason other than he can. Why price yourself out of an easy (for his crew) job? $2200 for a two day job and I supply all the materials? Maybe he is just that much in demand but five years ago he charged me $800 for basically the same amount of work. My gut feeling is he has started being ridicules with his bids and most folks pay. I'll offer him $1600 dollars and if he doesn't need the money I will learn how to tile a bathroom.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I once hired this real looser drywaller to do my basement. We got off on the wrong foot on the phone already, and I wished I had just forgot about him then.

They made a mess of the finished part of the house. I heard water running and found the guys father standing in my shower cleaning his stucco gun! I got them out as quick as I could, paid them (just to get rid of them) and they made a mad dash for the liquor store, not before getting their van stuck and splattering my garage door with mud! I went out and bought drywall tools to finish the job.

The sad thing is, there are two drywallers with the same name. One is great and then there is this one. Probably the good guy suffers, loosing business and the looser gets work from unsuspecting people, thinking they are hiring the good one!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Exactly... change the filters and no harm. It's what they're for... And, a good drywall finisher doesn't need to sand that much...

Thats true, and how i know I'm not a good one.