Quote:
Originally Posted by special-K
Sure thing. I built that for an architect. The only drawing was for the footer placement. She put one post in a basement window well. Also, the joist size she called for made for very little headspace at the steps and areaway. So, I went down in size, tripled the beams, and raised the elevation to under the door. I also came up with a way to cover the ugly ends of the cables at the corners and the way I made the guard at the 2nd floor door to match the deck railing.
She gave me a completion date, which went in one ear and out the other. They wanted this to have their wedding on and all I knew is I'd have it done in time. BTW, I had to hump all materials around the house, which was a fairly long truck. It got to a couple days before 'her' deadline and she spoke to me about that. "The 9th is Monday and you won't be done. What are we going to do about this?". I just said, "I'll keep working until your deck is done". "But that will be after the deadline." I asked her, "Do you want your deck done or do you want me to stop on the 9th? This isn't reality TV and what's important to me is I do the best job possible and that you will be happy with the results for many years to come. It will be done well ahead of your wedding and I hope it will be a wonderful day for you two". Then I got back to work
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It's cool that you got pictures while the structure of the stairs was at that stage. Nice looking finished product, but the cut and placement of those stair stringers was its own thing of beauty. Some architects know that working together is what pulls a project together best. Others need to learn that what they were taught about assertiveness is often misplaced. To be fair, probably many of them have worked with contractors that don't take pride in their work or productivity. I have a buddy who's a painter and is working on a hotel renovation job where the general contractor exited after being paid 80%. They had more work left than they felt it was worth to bill that less 20%, so they just quit. Unbelievable.