How to deal with a bad contractor?

Question

I hired a contractor who left his workers unsupervised, they painted the whole house but did a terrible job because the paint didn’t stick. The contractor tells me I should’ve gotten better quality materials and wants to be paid for the paint. 95% of the project is still left. I’ve lost time & money. How would you guys deal with this? I can’t afford to pay him for a lousy job and stay on budget.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

a) What does your Contract say about how to deal with sub-standard work? Usually when paint 'doesn't stick', it is because someone applied water based paint over oil based without priming first. Is this what happened? Did the painter spec out this in the proposal?b) Did you buy the paint? (Hopefully not) Was it top quality? (Hopefully) If it was not top quality then he will have a point.Customers should NEVER buy any materials or products. This comes up all the time, and this is just another reason why it should not be done. It gives the Contractor an excuse/reason. "Oh the customer insisted on buying the materials, it's not my fault"

Kevin Sobilo · Answer

A few thoughts:1. First I would try to determine what happened. The contractor says poor quality materials but that doesn't mean that was true. Perhaps the prep work was at fault. For example when painting over a high gloss surface things tend not to stick. So, if the surface was high gloss it may need to be lightly sanded or to use a product to take the sheen off of it. Maybe get a professional painter in for a quote and explain what happened and see what they think went wrong. 2. If I believe the prep work as at fault and can show that then I just would refuse to pay until it gets corrected. They can eat the cost. 3. If I cannot determine why there was an issue, I would negotiate with them about it. They are the professional and should have told me what products were acceptable and what were not so they need to accept at least some responsibility. So, I would be willing to eat some cost, but not all of it. 4. You say things like "I've lost time and money" and "I can't afford to pay for a lousy job and stay on budget"You need to work on those issues yourself! You should not expect things to go smoothly. If your deal is only a good deal if things go according to plan, then IT ISN'T A GOOD DEAL! Most times things don't go to plan in one way or another.You need to develop your project management skills because that is how you eat a loss on one area and manage the project to success. For example, you may eat a loss like this and adjust the scope of work by changing the type of flooring you use in parts of the house. Maybe you refinish the existing wood floors in the bedrooms rather than install new flooring. You want to know where you have flexibility and options to change so you can make decisions as you go to stay on track. It could be hiring day laborers rather than a landscaper to do some of the exterior work to save money. There are many ways to manage projects to keep them on track.

Daniel Hill · Answer

If they are a licensed Contractor in most states that means they have insurance and a bond. I am a licensed GC in WA state and I am required to maintain a $30,000 bond which is for instances just like this. I also carry $1M of insurance to protect in these instances as well. You should have signed a disclosure statement with them at the beginning of the job that stated how much their bond is and how to access it in the event you need to. If they didn't give you this they broke the law and you could take them to court if that's your thing. I would however give them the benefit of the doubt at first and try to come to some sort of peaceful resolution first.

Rehaan Khan · Answer

Unfortunately, the contract does not state anything about sub-standard work but if you have any recommendations, please let me know I’ll add it to future contracts.Kilz 2 primer was applied before the paint. I got the materials after asking the contractor if they are okay & he said he prefers Kilz 3 but this will be fine. Then instead of trying a little portion and letting me know so we could change it, he had the whole house painted and told me 4 days later, the paint is not good. I’ve lost time, money & materials. I want to give them a chance to provide a fair resolution and improve the work before I terminate the contract & fire them.