Know Your Subcontractor

It’s been hard to find a concrete contractor for the footings and stem walls because people have been so busy in construction. So, I ended up seeing a referral to this one contractor reached out to him and he gave a good bid. I also met a plumber who said he would meet me and my concrete guy onsite and could work alongside the concrete contractor. On the morning we were supposed to start, my GC, Barry Howard came by and started asking some questions.

The first problem was that the concrete contractor, this Hawaiian fellow, said he was only doing the footings, not the stem walls. Barry was immediately skeptical. That certainly wasn’t the deal I had anticipated. When asked why he couldn’t do the stem walls as he had promised, he had admitted he didn’t have the “forms” that are used to create the stem walls. Those forms are about $10K, not incredibly expensive for a working contractor. The Hawaiian offered to complete the footings and suggested we find someone else for the stem walls. Barry explained to me that the second concrete contractor would be hard to find, because he would assume that there had been an issue with the footings and thus the second contractor wouldn’t want to have his work be judged by what the first person had done or failed to do. Basically, he wouldn’t want to install his stem wall on some flawed foundation. Or he might think that we got into a payment dispute with the footings contractor and that might happen to him. Also, the stem is a smaller job than doing the entire footings and stem, so to find something to do just half the job would be hard because the profit wouldn’t be there.

Barry also asked me whether I had noticed that the backhoe brought by the Hawaiian looked brand new. I had. That made me understand what Barry was saying: maybe this guy had just rented the small backhoe because he had no money and besides couldn’t afford the forms. In short, maybe he wasn’t a very good contractor. No idea, but I decided not to use him.

Likewise, the plumber I found also didn’t have a backhoe or trencher. Barry thinks it is important to have the sewer lines exactly right and believes the machinery is needed for that. The plumber said that he and his sons hand-dig the trenches. Again, Barry was like, “Why is that?” So, he, too, was put off for a bit while I figure things out. Now, I do think I have two excellent new contractors set for the concrete and plumbing, but it’s delayed things by a month. Well, better to delay a month and get the footings, stem wall, and plumbing 100% right than do it wrong and have lots of regrets later.