Subcontractors - Hiring (cont., p.2)

 

Hiring And Dealing With Subcontractors

By following all of the rules for hiring subs, you eliminate a lot of the potentially bad ones.

I’ve gone through a lot of subcontractors over the years to find the good ones I have now.

The good subs are always in demand, meaning that they are busy and might not be able to start at your job when you want them to.

That is one reason building your house may take longer than you are hoping for.

Some subcontractors occasionally practice the art of “no call, no show.” 

 

Even subs that I consider to be among the good ones, can’t seem to shake the tendency not to show up at the job site on the day that they’ve agreed to.

 

 

Sometimes you get a call, sometimes you don’t.  That’s when I call them.

One builder acquaintance of mine, who was having trouble getting a particular roofer to show up, said about him, “A bird craps on the roof, he calls it a rainout.”

This is not to alarm you into expecting the worst. 

Just don’t take it personally when a sub gives you a start date or completion date and misses.

You are probably going to experience some of this problem.  We all do.

But neither should you accept it as business as usual.  I expect building subcontractors to be good for their word.

One tardy sub can disrupt the schedule of another.  That wastes time and money.  When you hire a sub, tell him upfront you expect timely performance.  If you get a “no call, no show,”  call him and keep calling until you get an answer.

Your time is just as valuable as his.  He should respect that.