What’s the Cost of Hiring the Wrong Contractor?

This has been the week for hearing about the wrong contractor. We’ve been asked over and over this week to fix things that were already built or finished, but either built to wrong specs or finished with the wrong material. And, once we’ve determined the cost of repairing these unfortunate buildings, the client has remarked about the “extra” cost of the repair (when compared, I guess, to what the shoddy work cost)! So, not only are we performing the same general service as the prior contractor, before we do, we have to undo everything that the other guys did before we even get started-how can that ever be cost effective?? I’ve learned that when we build anything there is one chance to do everything the right way and be efficient- once mistakes are made everything gets harder and slower to move forward. That first chance to get things right is critical- and when we have to first undo something to get back to the beginning, that generally takes a lot of time and effort-there’s often something built in our way, or on top or underneath that needs to be protected or redone once our re-hash of the original job is performed. So, when I am asked why fixing a lot of these things is so costly, I often remind people about the adage- if you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur first!