What would you do?

[CoachS]

Long story short I had hail damage to my roof and they found some wood rot around my chimney. After work was completed I had a leak like I did before from the storm damage. After looking into it more I needed to have my chimney redone. It is stuccoed. So a guy that my cousin uses came out and started the tear off after I was quoted $2000. Today after the tear down the price jumped to $5,000. I need 4 pieces of plywood to replace and then they could wrap and restucco. I called my builder which I should’ve done in the first place and he told me he could have it done for roughly a grand. So I told the other guy not to come back tomorrow. He responded well I’m in this thing now for $1900. Which all he has done is tore the old stucco off and delivered 5 bags of Alamo cement, 2 containers of stucco and sand. His guys were here for 4 hours today nothing more. I don’t see $1900 in this. What are your thoughts?

[TxDispatcher]

Either he fixes it for $2k (fixed to industry standards) or he takes the loss for being a sleezy contractor and trying to jack up the price after the chimney was exposed to the elements, thinking that you would feel pressured to let him bend you over. I wouldn’t give him a dime over cost of materials (that would stay with me) and if you feel generous, pay the labor for the tear out. But I personally wouldn’t allow him to touch my house again, I have zero use for shady contractors. They give every contractor a bad rap with the public

[Walker]

Signed contract? Take lots of pics and communicate thru texts and save them.

[Rubberdown]

Ask for utilized bill for the $1900. Then tell him to puns and when he can’t produce that equaling that amount.

[Hogmauler]

He can itemize anything on paper and make it come out to $1,900.00. And you did give him permission to start the project. He could always put an M&M lean on your place for material and labor, or take you to small claims court , which really isn’t worth his time unless he can recoup “lost time” as well for that totaling $5,000.00. I think that is the limit in small claims. So, if you pay him and the home builder you’ve still saved $2,000.00 and you can use the material to have the cheaper guy do repairs. That may drop his price a little more since materials are on sight.

[Rubberdown]

How can he itemize 1900 for 4 guys for 4 hours and 4 bags of cement? Am I that far out of touch of labor prices? We Bill $190 an hour for highly trained techs. No way they could hit $1900 and be legitimate. I’m not arguing I’m just trying to figure out how he could easily get there.

[Hogmauler]

He can charge what he wants per hour and pay what he wants per hour. Apparently the owner authorized the repair. I’m not arguing as well, I’m not a contractor either. If I was I’d have some morals about be regarding truth in billing. Having said that , seems like the man is firm on what he’s into him far.

[Rubberdown]

I hope your wrong but you’re probably right. Lots of contractors are thieves these days.

[Hogmauler]

Correct. Now if your in business for yourself you need to make a profit. I said a profit, not a killing. And there is folks on here that will argue even that point. Very successful people. The point is wether he owes him what he’s into him for, or him owes him what he thinks he should be into him for. I wouldn’t hire a contractor without a contract. If he has one of those and agreed to the price he may have a hard time prevailing in court. Question for the attorneys on here. OP, I wish you well. You still payed for the material and it’s yours.

[Texas Stalker]

I’m a contractor. I would never stray away from my original estimate unless something was exposed that justified it. But even then I try to absorb some of it just to not be fair to the customer. You got a greedy one trying to take advantage. If your contract was for less you don’t have to let him continue work. As for his high bill tell him take a hike unless he can come up with legit items to justify it. 4 workers seems like a lot of guys for that job anyways.


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[CoachS]

No contract signed. I plan on asking him for an itemized bill. What gets me is his materials that are sitting at my house only equal 250 bucks. I’ve looked it all up. So you’re telling me I owe $1650 in labor for 1 day that BS. I’ve learned many lessons on this fiasco.

[TX03RUBI]

I’d offer him $500 on the condition he F off and never show his shady face around my place again. Otherwise he can pound sand.

[Czechfish]

No contract. Do it for the original agreed upon price or pound sand.