Anonymous wrote:DH and I learned to do things ourselves. Seriously. Much easier.

We have done a lot of work ourselves but are doing a basement remodel and want to pay for the structural stuff. Takes too long to figure out the basics especially if you are pulling a permit - finish work, no problem.

DH and I learned to do things ourselves. Seriously. Much easier.

It was also very hard to get contractors to submit actual bids for us too-- and we had a basement/bathroom/kitchenette renovation that was probably $20k. I can't imagine getting anyone to come out for $5k that isn't a handyman. Sorry. We eventually got a few to come out (after repeated calls) -- and more than one said-- ok, if you are serious about using me, let me know and THEN I'll give you an estimate.
This is upper NW DC.

OP here -- so comforting to hear that others have this issue too. I thought maybe we had three heads or something! But I'm sorry to others dealing with it.

To the poster who mentioned ADHD, I wondered about that. I'm not sure how to help overcome that, though, other than being patient and following up several times, which I have done. If anyone has other ideas on ways to help folks who are maybe not naturally task completers, that would be helpful.

I had used Thumbtack to get contractors to bid on my job this most recent go round, in hopes that those folks would be more motivated. Of the seven or so people I was dealing with, I only got actual estimates from TWO!! The rest just wasted my time.

We are having the same issue. It would be nice if they'd just be honest and say they are not interested. We are doing a basement remodel.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous



I think a fair number of people who work in the trades have learning disabilities and/or ADHD. Some of the not following through is attributable to that. I say this as a parent of a child with those issues.

No, they do not follow up b/c they are not going to make money, the customer is going to be a pain to deal with or the job is too small(see not going to make money). In this area traffic, hiring and keeping good people drive up the cost.

Then TELL the customer that they're not interested in the first place rather than waste everyone's time!

Anonymous



I think a fair number of people who work in the trades have learning disabilities and/or ADHD. Some of the not following through is attributable to that. I say this as a parent of a child with those issues.

No, they do not follow up b/c they are not going to make money, the customer is going to be a pain to deal with or the job is too small(see not going to make money). In this area traffic, hiring and keeping good people drive up the cost.

It's really frustrating. Same thing here.

I think a fair number of people who work in the trades have learning disabilities and/or ADHD. Some of the not following through is attributable to that. I say this as a parent of a child with those issues.

I needed about 35k worth of work and it was REALLY hard to find someone legit that wanted to do it. We ended up hiring a someone who was willing to take it on as weekend/night work...aka extra cash and not his main project. The good thing is we got excellent work within our price point, the bad thing is my master bedroom and bathroom were completely unusable for about 4-5times as long as I would of liked since he worked on it 1.5 days a week instead of 5.

Yep. I find it ridiculous. Why waste the time to come out in the first place??

I'm dealing with the same thing-- can't get contractors or landscapers to take my money--very frustrating.

Just too much demand in the area. We were trying to do a $50K job and had the same thing happen. Very frustrating.

They want to do larger jobs

We want to have some work done on our house, and I cannot get anyone to actually show up and do it. One guy gave us an estimate, spent hours on it with us, and then dropped off the face of the earth. Another guy came out and was here an hour working on estimate but never sent it to us. We are nice normal people and the job is probably $2-5k. Why are contractors so flaky? I would think they would want the business.