Good morning,
Please report, I’m interested.
What are you doing regarding the alleged theft?
Gritting my teeth and just accepting it for now, then at the end charging it back. The boss was visibly embarrassed and it also gave him a headache. But he can’t just ask every one of his people either, since they would all deny it anyway. We’ll surely come to an agreement. :-/
that you might have to get more involved and make appropriate announcements on the construction site. Working with craftsmen and on construction sites it’s not enough to just draw up a contract hoping that will suffice. Someone has to be responsible for the big picture, which goes beyond the commissioned services and takes the interactions (sequence) with other trades into account.
If I get any more involved, I’ll be laying tiles myself or they’ll just bail on me. I’m on site every day besides my regular work. Just as a small example:
Nice granite slabs, a package was delivered later and shows some different brightness (discussion with the craftsman, who thinks that with natural stone there can’t be different batches, I explained to him that this is possible if the slabs come from a completely different piece of granite from the same quarry, for example). No problem, they can be laid where the kitchen units will stand, some slabs have “damn” chipped corners, of course no one did it, it was already there … but whatever:
Day 1, first row laid, I come to the site and one laid slab has a crack, I’m like “dude, didn’t you see that? Looks dumb, get it out, redo it”
Days 2-3-4, the craftsman thinks, I’ll leave it half done and put in the windows upstairs first (halfway done kind of)
Day 5, 4th row laid, one slab is completely dark, I’m like “I told you, what is this supposed to be? Looks dumb,” craftsman explains the slabs soak through the adhesive and after drying they’ll be as bright as the others, I don’t quite buy that
Days 6-7, finish laying, but only half grouted, slab is still horribly dark and stands out completely, could puke
If a 60-year-old door is important, then you should take the door leaf off and protect the frame. Or as the client buy exactly this service ;) At least you have to make it clear with the people on site that they have to protect the door from now on. Otherwise the craftsmen thoughtlessly assume the door will be replaced later anyway. Or they have no material to protect it because the people on site didn’t know about a door.
Well, I’m of the opinion that I’ve bought that with it if I commission something like that. A painter wouldn’t say to me “painting 500 € and all the masking will cost 2000 € then.”
Due to scheduling the parquet sander was already upstairs. Old school, the parquet looks damn cool *happy*. The bathroom isn’t finished yet though. Craftsman warned the parquet guy x times to only enter after drying and curing. I think I saw tiles upstairs that weren’t there before. A scrape at the door in the parquet where there is no sealing either … hmmm … of course it wasn’t upstairs … warned again to cover everything or he’ll lose the rework payment. Put down thick foil myself, fetched old floor coverings from the basement and covered the path with them. Next day I come, the foil is gone (was apparently too slippery) and dumb again. Almost not covered at all, see picture:
