BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 05:37 PM

If any of you ever have probs with vermiculite insulation, PM me. They tried to rip me off on that one... the young engineer initiated that... idiot.

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 05:34 PM

I am not familiar with those terms. Do either equate with, "The money is in my ass pocket and if you want it, do your fucking job."?

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 05:29 PM

Which is why I try to deal with reputable people. Helps that my wife's a lawyer, too. She lays a big ol' "res ipsa loquitor" and a "de minimis non curat lex" on 'em and they shape right up.

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 05:18 PM

The best one is, "There's only $x left to do. Give me a cheque for $X (ususally 90% + of the balance) and we'll get the rest done right away.... with so little left to do, I need to see you come through with the payment so I know I can trust you."

My answer is, if there is that little left to do, come and do it so I don't have to write two cheques.

As soon as you pay over 64% of the total contract value, you do not have the upper hand anymore. Money talks and bullshit walks.

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: Amos
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 04:37 PM

YEah--that ten grand hanging at the end of the stick made them want to do right...


A

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 03:56 PM

When we moved here we asked our realtor and she gave us GOOD leads. Some we still use.

When we needed the roof replaced early last year we asked a woman who turned out to be our insurance claim inspector. "Get Steve Rigby, if you can," she said. We could and we did and he did a magnificent job.

It doesn't cost anything to ask others. And check the company out via your local Better Business Bureau, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 03:05 PM

Ahhh... nothing yells louder than money. You get paid when it's done. And, NEVER pay them any more than 50% "in good faith" if they work that scam on you.

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: Amos
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 02:59 PM

We just had solar put in by a competent team. I had to ride them hard to get through the little stuff after the install, such as passing inspection and so on, mostly administrative stuff. Maybe a dozen phone calls. But fundamentally sound and honest once you yelled in their ear a little--just under-organized.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 02:26 PM

Don Koppen in Bancroft, Ontario is honest, competent and successful. Find him on the web or on facebook. He may know others of his calibre. I've known him almost 30 years. For solar, my benchmark is Steve Abbott on Salt Spring Island. Electrician, my brother George in Chester County, PA.

That's about it for this lifetime.

Subject: BS: Home Renos, energy upgrades, etc
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 02:09 PM

I cannot tell you how MANY times I have seen horror stories since I got into the "Home Inspection" business. I had to get out because there were too many crooks. But this last bit of crookery has me shaking my head yet again. I will TRY to be brief in this initial post.

The Province of New Brunswick and the Canuck government have energy upgrade programs. Example... new $4000 oil furnace that qualifies can get you $1125 back from the governments.

Get an energy audit by a certfied company, get the recommended work done, get another audit, get the coin. The audits cost $50 and the governments pay the rest.

So, I got one done at Mum's and at my house.

Holy crap! The incompetency of the young makeanickel engineer was apalling. The guy didn't even bring a ladder for inspecting the attic. Told me to lower my water heater temp to 120F... when I attempted to help the lad by explaining that anything below 140F could be a problem as it's the pasteurization point, he got a puzzled look on his face. The boy had never heard of Louis pasteur. And it got worse from there! Seriously worse. I even had to get him to rewrite one audit report because he messed it up so bad.

Skip ahead.

I had 4 insulation contractors quote on the attic upgrades. One guy knew what he was doing and gave me a reasonable price. One guy was an idiot. Two were crooks... oh, we'll have to do this too and then, because of this, we will have to do that and then, well, we can't guarantee that this and that.... arrrgggghhhhh! And, it was all crap to begin with.

Example.... well, if we don't do this and that, no sense of doing that and this, so we'll just blow in the insulation and it won't matter if it covers the soffits because you won't be able to provide proper ventilation in the future because you won't be able to access the soffits to install ventilation.

That's when I said, "Oh. Okay. Thanks for explaining that. I guess I just didn't understand. I hope you can get those price quotations to me soon so we can schedule the work." And away he went in his 2010 Ford Super Duty King Ranch Super Crew pickup truck.

What I wanted to say was, "See that case over there. It has a new technically innovative power tool in it... it's called a drill you fucking asshole... get out of my house you crook!" I wouldn't have told him about the ladder, tho. No need of showing off, eh?

I have an 11 year old Ford extended cab scratched up hole in the catalyctic converter transmission making a scarey noise truck... but I sleep well at night knowing I am an honest man.

But, it WAS a nice truck. >;-)

So, anyone else got any unusual stories about finding ONE competent, honest man?