Nice job on that fence. The finished product looks great and everyone appreciates that. What they don't see is all it took to get you there.
That homeowner architect did created a situation that caused the job to take more time, by her own mistakes. Then she comes after me for not meeting her pie in the sky deadline? Uh uh, don't even try. I had done a few jobs for Stewart, her fiance and owner of the house. I knew nothing of her until this deck came up. She is much younger than Stewart and she was in some other career before going into architecture.
This picture shows how I framed the left side over the areaway differently to allow headroom she overlooked. rather than the joists resting on the beams, they run into the beam. or the beam is raised up to joist elevation, and it triple 2 x8 rather than double 2 x 10 which she called for. I don't need to stinkin' plans. Just tell me what you want
I don't know how these jobs I hear about get into too much money laid out, then contractor disappears. More money than sense? Then you hear people say, "Don't pay a dime until the work is completed". Yeah right. We contractors are not financial institutions. we get ripped off, too, and we aren't making money off of our customer's money like banks. We make money from actually working and producing a product. I take the down payment amount my state allows, 1/3. Next third comes at a midway point that is clearly defined, then final third upon completion. I refuse to take more than 1/3 when offered, and small jobs (like one day) I just do, then get paid.
I did a job for a guy who was very anal. The job was to replace all the exterior trim from wood to Azek. He required me to do it with zero caulk. He had the notion, as most do, that it would never need to be painting. Not true and not to worry. People get tired of paining wood and go for "maintenance-free". No such thing. Azek is porous and will end up being stained. but painting isn't like it is with wood. More like with your truck. You don't have moisture passing through from inside to out, which is what causes blistering and peeling that people hate with painted wood. I'm sure he'll end up painting it if he already hasn't, but I gave him what he wanted