Reply With QuoteThis thread was way too long for me to read.
Good luck though....I think your in the right
~NORD~
I'll come back and read it in a bit.
A little background (or maybe a lot of background):
I finally got a year-round space at the Islander RV resort this past summer & wanted to put in a block retaining wall at the back of my site. A lot of my neighbors have had them put in over the years for various reasons, the main one being to stop soil erosion from under their concrete slabs. My space is on a berm that overlooks the main access road through the resort and for the last couple of months the site below me has been empty, so I thought this would be an appropriate time to get the wall put in.
I went to the office & reviewed the resort's policy on concrete & retaining walls and noticed that they only had 1 contractor listed that met their 'criteria'. I called him & made an appointment to have him come over to my site to get an idea of what I wanted. I drew up plans, got the office's approval & then FAX'd them to the contractor. I checked with my neighbors on what they had been paying for walls and the range went from $1200 - 1800.
Imagine my shock when I got an estimate for $4400! I noticed that the estimate called out that I needed to send in a deposit for $2000 to start work, so I just ignored it & figured I'd get estimates from contractors that had previously done work for the resort & then speak to the office about allowing them to do the work.
This was 1 month ago. I've been busy with other projects & had forgotten about this whole mess, when I go a message on my cellphone this morning. It was the contractor in Havasu calling to say that my wall was complete & he'd appreciate receiving a check for the work he did. When I called him back, the first thing I said was that this isn't April Fool's day, so I hoped his call to me had been a joke......dead silence on his end.....
He went on to say that his crews just finished the job & to him the wall came out looking very nicely. I told him that I had never authorized him to begin work & I had never sent him a deposit. He said that was correct, but he just thought I'd like to have it done. I said that Yes, I'd like to get it done, but thought his estimate was a little insulting for it's high price. He said he could cut a couple of bucks off the job becuase he had mis-estimated the cost of the pavers to do the wall. He calculated that he would need 340 pavers for the job at a cost of $5.00 each and that he actually purchased them for $2.00 each, so he'd knock that cost difference off. I told him that I had only budgeted $2000 for the entire job & that I did not have $4400 laying around to pay him. So he said that he'd take the $2000 & we'd then be square.
Huh? Estimating $4400, then settling for $2000? Did I just get lucky today, or do all contractors in Havasu have that much room to budge on their quotes?
Maybe I should go to Vegas & play some blackjack with LadyLuck looking over my shoulder.....
Robert
This thread was way too long for me to read.
Good luck though....I think your in the right
~NORD~
I'll come back and read it in a bit.
I think he relized he fed up and to get 2k vs nothing is a good dea lfor him. Ask him for the permit. The building dept could ask you to take it down if he did not pull a permit.
I think he relized he fed up and to get 2k vs nothing is a good dea lfor him. Ask him for the permit. The building dept could ask you to take it down if he did not pull a permit.
I agree.
Ask him for the permit. The building dept could ask you to take it down if he did not pull a permit.
Negative ghost rider, retaining walls under 30" tall require no permit. It should be done to the minimum std adopted by the city but does not need a permit. I'd say he realizes he screwed up and probably had the matrls and man power available so he gambled it. If you're ok with it for 2000.00 and it's the job you wanted, there you go, otherwise it's his mistake. Not all of us Havasu contractors are unreliable, theives or idiots I've done work for a few ***boat members and recommended other subs to some ***boat members, in the future use your network. Oh and my understanding is alot of contractors just don't want to deal with the head ache of working in some of the parks, Islander included.
Chuck
Just another thread encouraging me to open a block wall company in havasu. The ones there have monopolized the entire market and are getting 2-3 times the going rate from phoenix or IE.
Negative ghost rider, retaining walls under 30" tall require no permit. It should be done to the minimum std adopted by the city but does not need a permit. I'd say he realizes he screwed up and probably had the matrls and man power available so he gambled it. If you're ok with it for 2000.00 and it's the job you wanted, there you go, otherwise it's his mistake. Not all of us Havasu contractors are unreliable, theives or idiots I've done work for a few ***boat members and recommended other subs to some ***boat members, in the future use your network. Oh and my understanding is alot of contractors just don't want to deal with the head ache of working in some of the parks, Islander included.
Chuck
I never intended to slam Havasu contractors and in the future I will use the HB network when I buy a place in town. The Islander is just a little different. Had I known he was going to just do the wall without authorization, I would have asked him to not do it......
Everything appears cool - he didn't have a problem cutting the price (he didn't raise any objection on the phone), so I feel everything will be OK. I'm driving to Havasu tomorrow afternoon, so the first I'll look at when I get to the resort is that wall.....I'm dying of curiosity to see how it came out.
Robert
I never intended to slam Havasu contractors and in the future I will use the HB network when I buy a place in town. The Islander is just a little different. Had I known he was going to just do the wall without authorization, I would have asked him to not do it......
Everything appears cool - he didn't have a problem cutting the price (he didn't raise any objection on the phone), so I feel everything will be OK. I'm driving to Havasu tomorrow afternoon, so the first I'll look at when I get to the resort is that wall.....I'm dying of curiosity to see how it came out.
Robert
Can I get his number? I would like him to bid a addition to my place there.....
You should have a couple more contractors come out and bid the job he did with his materials and then offer him that price. Make up a story about why they are bidding on a wall that is already built. If it is less and he doesn't want to take it, have him tear it out and go with the lower priced contractor. Seems to me he is risking getting paid at all. If you guys didn't have a contract to do the work and he did it anyways, then it sounds like he did it for free to me.
It's almost impossible to get anyone call you back, let alone come out and do small jobs. You got it done without asking and for 1/2 price. If it was a decent job on top of that you must be in some river vortex or something
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