Remodel Vent: Any Horror Stories to Share? :)

We did a major remodel in 2010, and actually moved out for 2 months (thank heavens). But even when we moved back in we still had lots of little punch list items to complete. So I never knew when work guys were going to show up. I could be sitting in my robe, having my first cup of coffee and hear the doorbell (grrrrr).

That's probably the thing that drove me the craziest was just never knowing when people would be here or not here.

I wish I had thought of the bucket full of cat liter to get us through our remodeling nightmare. I stupidly didn't hire a G/C, as we'd done many large home projects before and didn't need them. And we would have been fine, except the day my plumber was supposed to finish the plumbing work, he had a family emergency that took him out of town for 2 months. This was during deer hunting season, so trying to find another plumber to replace him was impossible. By the time we found a plumber who actually showed up, DH had gone into busy season at work and was no longer around to help finish up this 'weekend' project. I did as much as possible on my own, but then my busy season hit and we were left with a huge mess - all the while trying to show the house to prospective buyers. Very impressive I'm sure.

I finally found a handy man who swore he'd have the job done in 2 days. 6 WEEKS LATER, he finally finished. And it looks horrible. Literally needs to be all ripped out and re-done. I've never seen a door so out of square, a floor so sloped, panelling hung so poorly in my life. And then it took the electrician another MONTH to come out and finish hooking up our outlets and lights. Oh, and we had to hire a 3rd plumber because the 2nd plumber didn't put the toilet flange at the proper height. Even though I gave him specific measurements.

Yes, the simple weekend project ended up taking over 3 months to do and looks horrible. 95% of it needs to be re-done. I'm hoping for an active tornado season.

Let's see. I've had just about everything redone in this house, so a few things have gone wrong down through the years.

There was the painter I hired to paint the trim on my new windows - referred by the contractor. He was more interested in talking about his love life the whole time. I discovered too late that he slapped on a little primer, but never really completed the job. Learned from that one.

There was the plumber I hired to install an outdoor shower. It HAD to be done by a specific date (long story). Every week went by and every week there was a new story why the job had to be delayed. One week before the deadline, I had to call and threaten to contact the state unless the work was done. The secretary was very snotty and screamed that I was "over-reacting". Anyway, the work DID get done on time. Never used them again.

I had some water damage to my ceiling and the insurance company referred a contractor to re-do the entire ceiling. It looked great initially. Now, 7 years later, I can see that it is going to have to be completely redone and on my own dime. They did terrible prep-work and it really shows. Oh, and my insurance company dropped me for the claim - illegally, as it turned out. I just don't have much luck with painters.

Last one. I had a contractor who did a beautiful job on my basement a couple years back. He volunteered to do the laminate flooring for a reasonable cost. He laid the flooring in February. Come late July, it was buckling all over the place. Turns out, he didn't leave the recommended space around the walls/trim to accommodate for swelling. Fortunately, I did some online research and we were able to come up with an easy solution to solve the problem, which of course he did for free. He then proceeded to make the exact same mistake at a friend's house. Sigh. At least he makes up for his errors.

Best of luck with the remodel.

We were all set up to do our master bath remodel with a highly recommeded self-employed, fully licenses & bonded contractor, for a reasonable price. Then my oh so thoughtful (promise, that's not sarcastic, he really is thoughtful) BIL told my husband, "Oh no, that's too much. I've got a guy that has done work for us. He can do it for half that." Against my better judgment I acquiesced (sp?) and let hubby hire him.

So, the guy's nice enough, works his tail off, shows up on time and works full days and all, but there's a bit of a language barrier (that I didn't realize at the time, until later when we discovered things he misinterpreted), and he's not very experienced.

He walled up our shower before checking to see what kind of fixtures (showerhead and handle) we had bought, so when it came time to install it he told me he'd have to take off all the tile on the wall again to adjust the plumbing fittings to work with our new fixture. Ok, big annoyance, because he ended up just putting our old, broken handle back on, so our faucet doesn't even turn off all the way (which was the main reason we chose that bathroom to begin with).

Then, about 2 weeks later I was downstairs in our guest bathroom and I kept hearing a slow tapping sound. I thought it was the heat duct or something. Then I started finding drips all over the downstairs toilet, and kept reprimanding my son and husband for their poor aim. Then one day I was using the downstairs toilet and I got a huge drop of water on my head, from the exhaust fan. I touched the ceiling and my finger sunk in.

Turns out that he didn't properly seal the toilet, as he didn't get extra wax to account for the greater depth since we went from sheet linoleum to ceramic tile floors. So, lovely toilet water was dripping down, into our other bathroom. We had to tear out the ceiling in our guest bath, bring our original guy who was going to do it all properly seal the toilet, and are STILL waiting for him to have enough time to help us do the repairs. We've had no ceiling in the guest bath for over 2 months now.

Oh yeah, and the guy used too big of a drill bit when he was installing drywall anchors, so our towel bar fell down within days.

Last time we go with "I have this guy..." recommendations, no matter how cheap they are!

We were in the process of remodeling our bathroom a couple of months before I gave birth. My brother (a GC), agreed to have his subs do it, but it had to be when they weren't involved w/ his own jobs. We agreed, to keep costs down, but I didn't realize how freaking long it would take going that route. By the time I had our daughter, the work STILL wasn't done. I came home with an infant and started putting the pressure on my bro to have it finished up. We have a small house and I had to hole myself up in our bedroom daily w/ our baby because I didn't want her to breathe any dust or paint fumes. I also lost a pint of blood post-delivery and my doctor forbid me to drive anywhere myself for a minimum of a month as I was super weak. And you know how you feel right after giving birth. You don't want to see anyone, let alone strange workmen pounding away right outside your bedroom door. Then post-partum depression hit me.

OH JOY. Yeah, I never want to go through that whole process again. BUT ... hey, the bathroom's grand!!

HANG IN THERE!

As a designer, I have never seen a remodel go well. They are always twice over budget and take twice as long as predicted. The worst remodel horror story for me was when my client was diagnosed with cancer. We halted construction while he dealt with it, then just before the cabinet install, his cabinets burned in one of CA worst forest fires on history. His kitchen took 12 months to finish.

Our remodeling horror story isn't too much of a horror story, but it turned out to be more than we'd bargained for going in.

We decided to replace the upstairs toilet. Bought the toilet and took the old one out. However, it wasn't until after we had the toilet out that we discovered that the toilet ring had a crack in it so that water had gotten into the floor. Luckily, the leak was slow and we were able to take up the subfloor and replace that.

But in order to replace the subfloor, we had to take out the vanity/sink cabinet. My husband went to take off what he thought was floorboard off the bottom of the cabinet (so that it would blend in with the rest of the bathroom) only to have the cabinet completely disintegrate! Wow, it was really something. Then, after we got the old cabinet out of the bathroom, we discovered that the builder of the home (who wasn't really a builder but rather a handyman/remodeler who "decided" he should build a home. Yeah. We're continuously finding issues and problems. Housebuilding is definitely NOT his calling.) had left a gaping hole in the wall that the cabinet had covered up! So then we had to buy a sheet of green drywall and patch up the wall, which we weren't expecting.

Then when we went to Menards and Home Depot to buy a vanity/sink cabinet to replace the one that had shattered, we discovered that the size we needed to fit where the old one had been--they barely make anything that size anymore! And we really only had, like, one or two extra inches we could go before we ran into problems of the cabinet being hit by the bathroom door opening and closing. We finally managed to find a cabinet that we liked and that would fit the spot, but we almost ended up having to special order one. And we really didn't have a special order item calculated in our remodeling budget.

So finally, after a new subfloor, new ceramic floor tile, new vanity/sink cabinet, and new wall paint, what should have been a project that cost the price of a toilet ended up being just a bit over $1000.

And we still need to go through our master bedroom and cut out the wall so that we can put an emergency on/off switch on the pipes leading to the bath/shower water (builder didn't put any of these anywhere in the house) so that we can replace the bath and shower fixtures, which is getting more and more critical, as the old ones are, well, getting gross. We're just terrified, though, that the job, while very dirty (cutting through drywall) and cramped (working in the closet) is going to end up being way more than we bargained for.

Then again, every remodeling job we do on this house ends up catching us unawares and being more of a job than we'd anticipated. It gets annoying after awhile.

My husbands "six month/nine months tops" remodel...went on for 3.5 years!! I still don't have baseboards or countertops in some rooms...I have unfinished floors and unfinished siding...no lights in the back yard...so I guess technically it is still going on...but I can live in it, so I am living with it...

We hired a contractor to do the drywall, tape float and texture...the five day job took over five weeks...and I had a very scary guy who would talk my ear off for hours if I was at home...so for five weeks I had to leave home, so he would work and not talk...argh!!

Oh and the budget was a total joke...we are so over budget, it isn't even funny...oh wait, now I am a bit depressed...

Ah H., poor thing. I can't imagine going into the walls and dealing with 1930's plumbing!

Perhaps you should rent the movie "The Money Pit". The workers ate her food, drank her coffee, tried to peep while she dressed, and between them and the house, almost kept her from marrying her fiance.

Many years ago my husband and I decided to tile our bathroom, and of course, I thought I was "helping" my husband by pointing out the tiles that weren't quite "straight". He didn't like it very much! (He's actually very good at stuff, having done it with his dad when he was young.) Many years later, I hire stuff out and don't have him do things and it's much better all the way around, LOL!

Dawn

Oh..these stories all sound bad. Makes me not want to do any future remodels.

We hired out some remodeling a couple summers ago. It went fairly well and quickly. We chose to do it in the summer so we could pretty much play and cook outside while all the men were in the house. I set up a tent in the backyard so the kids could escape the California heat/sunshine....and I think our swimming pool turned into the kids' toilet.(number one of course)

Good luck and best wishes...breathe...one..two...three. Go hide in a closet for a bit to get some peace and quiet...I know what you mean about "just shut up please".

I must be the luckiest person in the world. Never have had an issue but I admit that most of the work we have had done, was done by my dad and brother who are General Contractors. We have hired other contractors though without any issues but I typically never go with the cheapest guy. Seeing what various friends have gone through, I know that you get what you pay for.