I went to look at a job, and the woman had it all printed out, list of materials, time it would take etc
so I took the list away after having a good look
they were adding value to the house, re locating a kitchen to a downstairs room to make it 4 bed and worth more
I was not doing the electrical work, they wanted me to do the tiling in the new kitchen and the shower, and re use some secondhand laminate flooring ?
I pointed out that some stupid Gombeen had previously glued the flooring down ?? and the glue would need to be removed and the upper side planed level ( it was awful)
I had to start in 2 weeks time and be done in 3 days as they were having the house valeted and then then marketed
At the time I was short of work and a bit hard up
to carry out the work I estimated 2 off us would be needed and 8 days work
so I would be working for 75p per hour according to her calculation
her husband was in the building trade and knew all about building work she told me
In Actual fact her Husband is like her a social climber, and vain, and merely works for a ground-working company in the office, he is not even a surveyor, just books the lorries in and out
I wrote her a nice quote, with the correct times and the real world cost
she rang me back and said oh dont worry about working to your usual standard, you can cut corners,and do it much cheaper than that , we only want to sell it, you can then do all the work in our new much bigger house we are buying!!!
I never lower standards, also its a good way for the customer to avoid payment
and the old story about a bigger house with loads of work is a standard lie used to try to keep the price down
one client used that on me for night on 20 years, until I called his bluff, and told him I was now charging him double
the woman involved with the above house, had 2 Audis on the drive, one of which was 4 wheel drive ( very useful round here with our roads ?)
They sold the house and the new owners had all sorts of problems,including work that was not registered with the planning department, a faulty boiler that had been moved, dodgy wiring, and no fire doors between the garage and the house??
One thing I do keep an eye on is the Gazette
her and her husbands name came up a year later with lots of creditors !!
one of whom was a German car dealer, and several tradesmen ?
if you know what Audi stands for you would know why I avoid them like the plague