Installing a clean out at home

WTP-GC wrote:
Customer involvement is required to have a successful project. Of course you want (and need) to satisfy the customer. The customer is part of the project and needs to feel that way. However, customer meddling into the means and methods of the contractor, especially when the customer knows nothing of the work being performed, is problematic. If you're using white pipe instead of black pipe, it's reasonable for the customer to ask why you chose those materials, but it's unreasonable for the customer to demand that you use black pipe because the Internet says so.

Ski Pro 3 wrote:


Maybe in a perfect world, but contractors are notorious for doing shoddy work, skipping out half way through a job, not being there when things go wrong.
As far as 'to code', just remember that is the MINIMUM quality that is acceptable by a government bureaucracy, written by politicians who have NO mechanical, engineering or construction skills and lobbied by unions that are paid only to protect their members, not the clients who hire them.

I know that every state is different, but licensed contractors in my state have statutory requirements to not do shoddy work, skip out on the job or go away when things go wrong. In FL, they do that and it gets reported, leading to an investigation and then license censure. Now unlicensed contractors are a different story. Most people agree that you should always hire a licensed contractor...until they get sticker shock and choose a guy without a license. Then they cry when things go wrong.

Funny thing is that you'll hear more stories about the customer not paying their bill than you will about the contractor skipping out on the job. I currenty have multiple customers that are way late on payments.

Your statement about the code being written by people who don't have a clue is flat out wrong. The code is developed and maintained/updated by industry professionals who have the proper accreditations. That's not to say that they don't have influence from lobbyists or politicians, but to say that it's written by politicians is incredibly false. Now, as a contractor, I don't always agree with the code and often wonder how it was determined, but that doesn't mean that the author was clueless.

As a licensed contractor of 25 years and in the business for over 30, I couldn't have said it better myself. Fortunately in my time I have only had couple jobs that went sideways and they didn't amount to much. I will always take the time explain how something will be done, take pictures, show them if I run into something before I fix it and how and why I chose to do it a certain way before doing it, etc. My fellow builder friends when I hear them complain about a customer it isn't necessarily their fault if they have a problem but didn't take the time to explain or keep them up to date, they just assume. Communication is key.

Every once in a blue moon I'll come across a customer who is demanding and think they know everything that needs to happen and how it needs to be done and sometimes you realize they don't have a clue. They learned their misinformation from friends who are also clueless but they trust them more than the professional.
Most of the time I will take a pass in these projects before I even get involved.

The majority of contractors are hard working and want to do the best job possible and keep their customers happy, after all positive word of mouth is your best marketing.

Where I see homeowners getting burned is when they don't want to pay a fair price for work done and hire some hack on the side. It often ends up costing them more in the long run.

Dan