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May 25, 2009
Sweating the Small Stuff: Doing it Right, or Facing the Consequences
When you build something, no one is closer to it than you. Indeed, even though you're building it for someone else, deploying your effort and tools to a piece of wood imbues the work with some kind of far-out-right-on-Birkenstock-ish tacit ownership. I suppose you could say that your actions and the piece of wood become the same -- and no one owns you. So there you have it, from my moon- child file.
And the result of this is that if a paint job needs re-painting or a drywall corner didn't get sanded quite flat or you didn't squeeze those cabinet face frames as dead flush and seamless as you wanted to -- you see it.
If you're working on your own house, like so many of us do, you live with seeing it!!!
Problem is, sometimes you don't see it until you've painted and drywalled it or put on the siding or framed the stair stringers. Some mistakes you can live with. Others, not so much.
And if it's a mistake a customer will surely see or experience, then it's almost always worth pulling down whatever you've put up and doing it right. It'll take less time than trying to skate by, getting caught, having an argument, then having to remove and replace it anyway. Then being seen as a liar. That's the worst move you can make. How much is your integrity worth?
Then there are the mistakes you make that probably no one will see -- but they'll dog you, like framing something out of square for example will haunt you from framing to tile.
So there's no question that some of the jobsite wisdom covering mistakes -- "high work is eye work, low work is show work;" "good 'nuff for government work;" "good 'nuff for who it's for" have their place. Nothing's perfect for sure. That's why trim guys make lousy framers -- they spend all day trying to get dead on when being within 1/4-inch is usually as good as you can make it -- and vice versa. But some stuff has to be on, no doubt.
So bring me the war stories. Tell me about being all the way there, then seeing a mistake and falling into the one-step-forward-two-steps-back snare. Or tell me about problems that turned into solutions, or teachable moments for crew members. I'd like to hear about building solutions and business solutions from the trade and from the client end of the spectrum. In fact I'd really like to get some insight from any clients who might be looking over our shoulders here. We need to know what you think of us. After all, using information to solve problems is a huge part of what we do.
Mark Clement is a remodeler and is the author of The Carpenter's Notebook, A Novel.
You can also visit Mark's website at FormalFarmHouse.com.
Posted by Mark Clement at May 25, 2009 10:32 AM
Comments
As a contractor, i think you have to follow the code no matter what the customer wants. Or it may come to bite you one day. Also get all the information you can on the person thats signing your contract. D.L.# , Address, PH#, who owns the property, when do they plan on paying you, etc.
Posted by: jim at May 20, 2009 6:08 PM
