Diaries of a Contractor: What Happens When Complications Arise

Diaries of a Contractor: What Happens When Complications Arise

Tom the cat stands in the hallway outside of Jerry's hole. He is lighting dynamite.

When you’re working with more than one company, complications can pop up. It would be nice if everyone could work together with no issues. But that’s not how it goes sometimes. Things can occur that are beyond your control.

But you try to do the best you can for your customer. They’re important and we need to do what we can to help them at Houston Remodel Service. We treat all homes we work on like they’re our grandmother’s. If we see an issue, we report it and come up with a plan to fix it, if possible.

The Project

A homeowner wanted to remodel her kitchen. This involved putting in an octagonal floor pattern, as well as installing new kitchen cabinets. The homeowner also wanted to convert a pantry into a nook for the refrigerator.

This was an old home that was built either in the 40s or 50s and you never know what you’ll find when you show up to work on a project.

The Problems

When choosing kitchen cabinets, the homeowner went with a much bigger company to purchase and install them. When installed, the cabinets weren’t set up per the homeowner’s specifications.

Instead of fixing the problem, the workmen packed up and left, telling the homeowner to call the office to resolve everything.

 

When it came to converting the pantry into a nook for the refrigerator, we told the homeowner it wouldn’t be a problem. The cabinet company said differently, however.

They told her she needed to wall up the pantry and to put the refrigerator in a different spot. This would be a spot with less capacity to preserve the walkway.

By the time we found out, the work had already been completed and signed off. To make the changes would’ve cost a lot more money.

Sometimes the problems extend beyond a specific room. You can find them throughout the house.

One problem we found was that the wastewater drain was corroded and clogged. The opening for that drain was about the size of a quarter.

The octagonal floor pattern was also a challenge to install. Not to mention that when we worked on it, we found mouse droppings in the floor joists.

We also came across an exhaust fan for a basement bathroom in which the exhaust was set up to leave on the patio. That meant any exhaust would go out to anyone sitting on the patio.

The good news for the homeowner was the exhaust fan wasn’t connected. But the vent exhaust led to a perfectly sized mouse hole opening at the ground level.

The Solutions

Sometimes you can’t solve every problem when it’s completed and beyond your control. But we still try to fix everything possible.

For the wastewater drain, we expected that might be an issue and included that in our estimate.

For the mouse hole problem, we fixed it, and it was only $100 extra on our estimate.

The only real issue the homeowner said she had was working with the big company. She expressed feeling abandoned by the company and wishes she would’ve called Houston when the company told her they couldn’t convert the pantry into a nook.

But the homeowner said she was thrilled with Houston’s service and was going to tell her book club all about it when she got to show off her new kitchen. We always love getting free advertisement, especially from book clubs.

Contact Houston to keep your project simple

Sometimes the best solution is to talk with your contractor. It’s the simplest solution. If you want a good home remodeling contractor, then you should chat with us here at Houston Remodeling Service. Contact us today.