Stories like these are why I'm content to rent forever

Hey Mate,

I think any contractor who relies heavily on sub-contractors is a little shady by default. At that point they aren't paying for a good job, just for someone to "put tiles on the bathroom wall." If anything slows that person down, they don't get paid. So the sub-contractor has no incentive to call out flaws, or termite damage, or any order of operations issues that might stop them from finishing that day. Sub-contractors just want to get in, get done, and get paid.

It's better to find a contractor who does the work themselves, or at least one you trust as a partner to inspect the work of their crews. But here's the catch here... time is money. Someone has to absorb the cost of delays. Those days don't just get refunded. That's why the relationship is so important. You need to make it clear you're willing to pay for things to be done right. If that message doesn't reach every person who walks onto the job, corners will get cut.

But to even recognize when corners are being cut, you need some basic knowledge of building techniques. Knowing the "right way" to do a job makes all the difference.

When the big freeze hit Austin a few years ago, a lot of pipes burst around town. Some of my neighbors had flooding too, but their stories sound nothing like mine. Most of them just say, "Hey, I got a remodeled bathroom!" or "Hey, I got new floors out of it." I don't think every contractor is shady. But I did get a shady contractor. Another way to spot them... anyone willing to do "insurance prices" is usually looking for ways to cut every corner. Insurance is really a scam that forces you to use the worst contractors for the job... it's unfortunate.

The contractor wasn't just shady with me -- they were shady with the insurance company too. Honestly, I'd call it attempted fraud. At first I didn't catch on. For example, they told me, "Your laundry room doesn't have a drain. We can add one to bring it up to code, and the insurance company will pay for it." That sounds good to a homeowner to hear the insurance company will pay for it, but it should have been a giant red flag. If they're looking to pad the bills that they send a supposed partner, you can be sure they'll play games with you too.

Another example: they said I needed a brand-new subfloor to fix a few "soft spots" and creaks in a 20-year-old second-story floor. The upcharge was about $8,000. What they should have done was tighten the existing boards in the bad spots and spread self-leveling compound across the whole thing. Instead, they just dropped new plywood on top of the old plywood. Later, another contractor told me this wasn't even a fix. The floor still had the same soft spots and creaks. (Seriously WTF!) And then the top step was the wrong height; it's more dangerous than I would have imagined -- everyone tripped on it. Fixing it after the fact was expensive.

Live and learn!

For the record, the standard process is straightforward: rip up the old floor, tighten the subfloor down (because after 20 years it will have shifted), apply self-leveling compound, wait a day for it to dry, then lay the new floor. That's it. But I suspect they tried to add another layer of plywood because there's no "wait a day" step there; if they do it the wrong way, they don't have to have a crew come back out. But there shouldn't have been an upcharge or anything special needed. The contractor just took advantage of the fact that I'd asked about the soft spots, knew I didn't know the right fix, and made up something expensive.

Anyway, I don't share this story to scare anyone away from homeownership. Owning a house can be great. The real lesson is: educate yourself. Learn how homes are built and repaired. Watch a few "inspection gone wrong" videos on YouTube. Try small projects -- replace trim, hang a door, tile a bathroom, or even just build a birdhouse. Once you know the basics, you'll be able to tell when a contractor is cutting corners or upselling you on nonsense.

(So many good videos that show you how to do this work yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvo-n2AYZnA )

Knowledge is your best defense against shady folks and Mickey Mouse workmanship.