takes the draw with no intentions of actually doing the work they'll often string clients along saying that they can't source materials or workers are sick or vehicles are broken down in some instances they'll just stop taking phone calls and they'll trust that their clients are so timid they'll just cut their losses and walk away this is outright robbery to avoid this problem make sure that you're working with contractors who are legitimate you want people that have a work record in your area they have an online presence and they have a local reputation to keep because there's a chance that if your contract just has a phone number and an out-of-town address your material draw isn't buying you anything number two material swapping this is more difficult for most clients to identify the material swap is when a contractor draws up an agreement to use a certain type of material for a job but then uses a cheaper inferior product instead they're usually relying on the idea that the client can't spot the difference or that they won't see it before it's covered up or painted over insist on seeing your contractors materials before a job starts you don't have to be rude about it just say is this the hardiplank siding or is this the PVC trim that you said we are going to use good contractors will be happy to show off a quality product and explain why it's superior and if you don't feel confident in your ability to identify these products have a friend with some construction experience look things over take a picture and send it to them if need be materials are very easy to tell apart for anybody who's worked with them before and of course you can always use us as an outside resources at the honest Carkner comm if you don't have anybody like this that's one of the services that we offer number three estimate changing this is probably the most overused trick in the construction industry in this example the contractor looks at a repair job or remodel and they throw out a decent price they then carry out the early demolition phase of the project and surprise find out that it's going to be far more extensive than they originally thought a full repair is going to be much pricier than estimated this puts the client in a real bind the house is partly demolished the old contract is moved and things won't be back to normal until everything is fixed then the contractor starts leaning on them they use scare tactics they say that the house is compromised that it's dangerous that no one else is going to come in and do the work for any less and they always fall back on an old argument we didn't know how bad it was gonna be until we opened up the walls and the problem is they're technically telling the truth tradesmen don't have x-ray vision we can't see through your walls houses hide their damage but what makes this situation so dishonest is that the contractor didn't properly warn the client of what they were getting into they just threw out a number that they knew the client would say yes to then they started the job knowing that one way or another they'd find a way to drive up costs to avoid this problem especially on repairs I would always put in something that I called an excavation clause or an exploration big this is an estimate for a small controlled demolition that will let us see the extent of the problem once we have a better grasp on things a second bit can come into play occasionally it's built into the
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