Carpenter..is this normal?!

[Kmward36]

We’ve had a carpenter in to panel our hallway, stairs and landing. We’ve had him work for us plenty of times before and he’s quirky but work is good so no problems.

hes driving me a bit mad this time but I am 38 weeks pregnant and unsure if I’m being ridiculous?!

1. said the job would take 2 days, we’re currently on day 6.
2. he spent the first ‘day’ drawing the plans on the wall and then went to MOT his car at 11am and did not return that day.
3. he arrives at 10am because the school traffic around him is awful. He lives 1/2 from us. He has an hour and a half lunch break and finishes at 4. I don’t really feel like that’s a full days work..
4. He keeps sending us back to the shop for supplies. As in we went to screwfix Saturday morning and when we arrived home (it is sadly 40mins away) he asked us to go back. None of his day is taken up picking up supplies as we do that.
5. he was meant to turn up on Friday but couldn’t as he forgot he needed to file his tax returns. He told us at 10am.
6. he was 3 hours late on Saturday as he didn’t realise it was the first of the month and needed to tax his car. Couldn’t find slip/log book etc 🤦🏻‍♀️
7. we feel we can’t really leave him to it as he has so many coffees a day (8 on Saturday) and rings constantly asking questions.

am I being hormonal?! My husband says I am but it’s not helping as I’m keep to get things in order for the baby (3rd baby) and it’s just a bit chaotic with the mess and 2 other children. Or is this ok and I’m being annoying??

In that case I'd suggest a message along the lines of:

"I'm not sure if you're aware, but each day you're coming here to work on the panelling I'm having to take annual leave from work. I'd only expected to have to use 2 days holiday based on your original quote but have now taken 6, and can't now take any more time off due to my impending maternity leave.

Please let me have a definitive date of when you'll be finished and a list of what more you'll need from us to finish. Outside of this, if you need anything more materials wise, you will need to collect it yourself as I am unable to keep spending so much time on this."

Wait until he starts with the sick relative emergency or uncle/mum/dog has died excuses.

That's ridiculous. The last carpenter I used didn't ask for any materials - he's picky on quality and also like to spray paint pieces as it give a smoother finish. He will come a couple times to discuss and measure up, comes back again (and he lives other side of London) with drawings and to figure out any tweaks and to do final measurements. Then he's always prompt. Takes a short lunch break, maybe a cup of tea at some point maybe not, and leaves things very tidy when he goes. He's on the expensive side but takes so much pride in his work and no messing around once in sure.
I hope you aren't paying a day rate but by the job.

Thanks everyone, he finally finished this evening! Unfortunately he invoiced us double the agreed price as it took much longer than he anticipated 👀🤦🏻‍♀️. Will be replying with a very long email tonight!

Cheeky fucker. I was about to say tell him you're having a homebirth and he needs to be done by x date but obviously he's gone now. Work out his hours and say if you did normal days you'd have been done in x days.

He's a CF!!!

My ex was a carpenter. Every fucking thing he did took at least 4 times longer than it would take a normal person (except for sex, sadly). He took a week off from his regular job to fit our kitchen, it took him six months in the end. If he went to Tescos, he'd be gone for at least 2 hours.

If you agreed a price for the job, that's what you should pay him. If you agreed a day rate, treat some of those very short days as half-days, and pay him accordingly.

I thought you were paying him by the job?

That was what was agreed but an email this evening from him said he’s changed his mind due to the time it took. We’ve sent him a detailed breakdown of the hours he actually worked (which was a day and an half) . We are awaiting a reply.

I hope you've also included in your reply the amount you are deducting off for running around collecting supplies, cost of fuel etc. and the extra annual leave.

He sounds an absolute nightmare to deal with.

I'm SO pleased to hear that you didn't just roll over and pay this CF!! We recently had some work done, and due to my being disabled, and finding it difficult to get up early in the morning, I asked the guy if he really HAD to start at 8am, as the work was being done in my bedroom. To my surprise, he came back and said, 'No, that's fine, I'm happy to start at 10am if that's better for you?' I emailed back and said how much I appreciated it, and then the CF, tried to charge me for 2 hours extra. When I queried it, he said he'd had to pay his workmen for 2 hours, when they hadn't actually done any work. He got short shrift I can tell you, and also cut off his nose to spite his face, as we'd already asked him to quote for doing another much bigger job. I told him via email that I wasn't paying the additional 2 hours because if he'd said it would cost extra for them to start late, I would have said, it's fine, just come at 8am then. I also told him that because he'd tried to con me, I wouldn't be requiring him for the bigger job that he'd quoted for. He then rang my DH, all apologetic, expecting no doubt for him to say 'oh, don't worry about her mate, we still want you to do the job', but instead, my DH said, 'well what did you expect, if you try to con people, they're not going to give you a second chance. We'll be paying you the agreed rate from the quote, and nothing more. Goodbye'!

Good for you @RoastDinnerSmellsNice , this is the way to deal with that level of cheek.

@Kmward36 He can't change the terms after completing the job. If it was all arranged verbally it's harder for you to enforce the original terms, but the terms were what you agreed. Otherwise any tradesmen could quote a price for a job and double it afterwards for any number of made up reasons.

He is quite clearly taking the complete and utter piss.

Did you get a written quote before he started?

Do not pay him extra! You agreed a price, that's the contract. He should be reducing that price for the stress he has caused you by failing to properly plan the work.

Good on you - absolutely do not pay this CF a penny more than agreed. In fact, tell him you should invoice him for your costs but as a gesture of goodwill won’t.

Are his initials GR by any chance? I swear to god I know him.... 😂

If you want the job done properly why expect them to rush?.

Your the narky one. Maybe have a word with yourself.

My dad is a carpenter and still works for himself part time at 70.

What a CF he is. I'm so glad you've kept track of his hours - did you suggest in the email that if he prefers to be paid by the hour you can pay him for 1.5 days 😂

This isn’t not “rushing”, it’s fucking about.

There is nothing about going to get your car MOT’d when you had agreed to work that improves the quality of your project. Ditto “forgetting” you have to file your taxes, or taking another 3 hours when you’d agreed to work to tax your car. And sending someone back to get more supplies because you didn’t know what they needed to get the first time you sent them is, equally, not the sign of a quality workman. If carpentry is your hobby you can have shitty service skills. But if it’s your business and you pull this sort of thing you aren’t a good carpenter and nothing about this sort of behaviour is about producing good work.

Did the CF ever respond to your breakdown of how long he actually spent?

He did but but claimed he had worked more than he had. Luckily we had doorbell footage of arrival and leaving times. We paid him the original amount after showing him that. He will not be returning!

I would be raging at this and sending him that list of times he buggered off. He wouldn’t be getting more than the amount agreed.

I think it’s the carpenter that’s unrealistic!

Perhaps if your dad had worked smarter, he wouldn’t still be working at age 70.