Bath Remodeling
Can you imagine what life was like just 100 years ago? There were still many houses that didn't have real indoor plumbing and most definitely multiple bathrooms. I know this for a fact because I purchased a 10 unit apartment building just 15 years ago that still had hallway toilets shared by two apartments!
If you do research about plumbing and plumbers, you will quickly find out that approximately 100 to 125 years ago plumbers were considered as knowledgeable and revered as medical doctors. Plumbers were responsible for maintaining public health by minimizing the spread of disease. They achieved this by implementing innovative changes in how people got clean drinking water and disposed of both grey and black waste water. Bathrooms were part of this radical change in how people lived. To say the very least, bathrooms are very much taken for granted in today's world. If you are fortunate and have a very elderly relative, ask them what it was like when they were a kid!
Tight Schedules
I have remodeled many a bathroom in my day. It is a stressful job for all involved. If the family doesn't have alternative bathroom facilities in the house, you often have to create temporary ones, even if that means a Portolet in the driveway! Creating a temporary shower in a garage or basement is easy. It is the toilet that causes problems.
I have turned a bathroom around in as little as five days This was a total gut job and it took every bit of skill and planning to make the job happen that fast. I am sure it can be done faster, but much of the work I did myself with one helper. Heck, I have seen entire homes built in a day, so I am sure a group of real pros can do a bathroom from start to finish in 12 hours or less!
Paying a Pro
If you are going to have your bathroom remodeled, you might want to pay attention to how the contractor gets paid. One of the biggest problems I see, based upon stories told to me by folks like you, is that people tend to pay the contractor in advance for work yet to be performed.
Read the following language I have extracted from one of my handy Checklist products. See if it doesn't make sense to you:
"Excessive advance or periodic payments before or during the work is completed often put a homeowner at risk. The homeowner basically becomes a lender. This is especially true if the job does not require any special or custom ordered materials at the beginning of the job. A fair payment schedule is one that allows the homeowner to pay only for labor and material that has been completed in a satisfactory manner. Periodic payments can occur every three to four days for small jobs or each week or month for large jobs. On large jobs, the amount of money paid out at any given time should not exceed the total sum of the items listed in the above cost breakdown plus a proportionate amount of contractors overhead and profit for completed in-place work. A homeowner should not have to pay full price for work that is unsatisfactory or incomplete. Do you agree with this philosophy? Yes _____ No ____ If "Yes", please complete the Payment Schedule below:"
I think you get the point. Protect yourself by making sure you always have enough money to finish the job in case the contractor disappears.
Permitted Payments
Some jobs do require some advance payments. Perhaps your bathroom job will have custom-ordered cabinets, tops, plumbing fixtures, tile, marble, granite, etc. It is unfair for the remodeler to advance his own money to pay for these materials or to pay for the required good faith payment the fabricators request. If you feel uncomfortable giving the money to the contractor, ask if you can make the check a two party check or even pay the fabricator directly. If you need to do this, it is a danger signal - meaning the bridge of trust between you and the contractor is not yet complete. Trust is important in every relationship, especially building and remodeling!
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