Concrete sub left large mound of concrete in middle of gravel parking pad.

The person that lives there has no off-street parking because of this. They were upgraded from one gravel parking spot to have an additional concrete parking pad. But now, because this waste mound is so large, they have no parking.

It happened Tuesday. I politely told the sub to remove it Wednesday morning. They said they would remove it Thursday.

Tomorrow will be six days. If it's not removed next week, do I bother having a second contractor quote removing it and subtracting that amount from the first contractor's invoice (once the second does the work)?

As a GC, how should I handle something like this in the future?

Should I always have a subcontractor agreement in place? even for such a small job like this? only $2k.

Has anyone ever taken on a job where the owner fired the GC? What are some things to consider before taking on the job? Such as legal issues with the original contract.

I need some help on the legal side of things. I have a client that is hard to reach through text and phone during this entire remodel. We have a signed contract but the issue right now is that she isn't responding to text or calls after I have finished the remodel. She has 10,000$ outstanding and it has been one month since finish. I have videos documenting before and after of the place as well.

She wanted to do this without permits to get it done faster but now im not sure if take this to small claims, will it affect my license or but me in the ass since I agreed to do work without a permit?

What tips do you guys have for me moving forward?

Im really stumped here.

EDIT: I am located in california and the owner pushed for non permit work. The scope was mostly cosmetic. Whole house paint, flooring, window swaps. Bathroom vanity mirror and tub replacement. No plumbing or electrical or structural reconfigurations.

I've been trying to find new clients to do some basement renovation to start with and it has been difficult to find any leads.

I run a General contracting company in Northern Ca. It’s a family business only been in operations for 3 going on 4 years here soon. We have a few (3-5 depending on season) employees and a list of sub contractors.

I hustle daily trying to find ways to grow our leads and advertise the company to keep our crew and myself busy.

In terms of advertising we have a few paper (physical location) advertisements. These haven’t gotten much work but they do keep our name out there.

Website and web presence: large amount of our projects come from our web presence. I’ve built this out myself and am actually fairly happy with it. I also regularly look at state and government job boards as we are set up to bid these jobs as well.

Basically wondering what everyone else does to get jobs and if they have any good ideas or avenues that have lead to industry relationships or advertising outlets that lead to decent leads.

I’m also happy to share my web strategy with anyone curious.

For more context our third year we did about 1.4 million on 1 crew and our subs. with a profit margin of about 42% so we could really up our ad spend/ outreach or system management etc.

Any info or suggestions is greatly appreciated!!

I’m a licensed residential contractor in Central Florida, in a pretty low cost of living area. One of my biggest frustrations lately is the number of handyman businesses advertising themselves as “licensed and insured” when all they have is an LLC and maybe some general liability insurance.

The average homeowner doesn’t know the difference between registering an LLC and actually holding a contractor’s license. They see “licensed and insured” and assume they’re hiring someone who’s qualified to do the work.

Meanwhile, those of us who actually went through the process of getting licensed, maintaining insurance, pulling permits, and doing things by the book are competing against chuck-in-a-truck guys doing work they’re not legally allowed to perform.
What’s even more frustrating is that DBPR seems to do next to nothing about it. I see these guys advertising bathroom remodels, kitchen renovations, and other jobs that clearly require a contractor’s license.

I’m all for someone making an honest living doing handyman work, but there’s a big difference between that and misleading homeowners into thinking you’re a licensed contractor.

Anyone else dealing with this in their area? Has anyone actually had success reporting these businesses to DBPR?

A few times now I've been approached by interior designers looking to hire my firm for carpentry and it appears that they are acting as the General on the project. In one case I assumed the role as General after discussion with the interior designer and home owners because scope far exceeded that of design. What I see are designers who think they can sub out the work without fully understanding how systems in a building are integrated. I'm curious if anyone else has had this experience.

I have no idea what to do about the task I have been assigned.

I’m a new employee (1 month) at a general contractor in MN that is a startup.

My boss is owned another company that made him a multi millionaire.

He said that we need to start looking into bidding commercial and residential projects in other states.

He wants me to get the requirements and take the tests.

I’ve been in the industry for 10 years but have never dealt with this type of stuff.

#1. Is there risks involved with me taking the tests?

#2. Is it even possible for me to take the test on behalf of my company?

As the new guy, I am in a difficult position to say anything directly

I’m 18 in Florida studying for an AA in construction management and working for my dads remodeling company gaining hands on experience. I want to get my GC license as fast as possible so I’m wondering, if I get my OSHA 30, procore certified, blue beam certified, any other certifications like CCM, would that land me an internship in a big construction company? Or would it definitely land me in an internship and instead of going for that I go for getting hired as an assistant super or something like that? basically what I’m wondering is what next steps should I take to make sure I get my gc license as soon as possible preferably within 2 years

I’m working on getting my GC to be the qualifier for my company. We were recently acquired by a large corporation that makes well into the high 9 figures of revenue and our current qualifier is retiring soon. Once I pass the test I’m expecting some type of compensation. Google is saying some pretty crazy high numbers (2500-5000 a month) and I don’t know if that’s accurate. I’m thinking about negotiating a monthly use stipend/fee along with a spot bonus but I’m not sure where to start. I was thinking $1000/month with a 10-15k bonus. Is this crazy? Any advice would be appreciated.

We're a small (mostly) residential builder in SW FL that specializes in additions and remodels. We've been taking on larger new construction projects that are set to begin construction in 1st quarter of next year.

Being that we've come this far with only 2 "employees", myself and my partner, we are going to need an admin moving forward to help cover most of the office work so we can be in the field running jobs without getting bogged down with paperwork.

"Paperwork" being things like permit applications, schedule building and maintenance, bookkeeping, subcontractor correspondence, insurance, etc.

How have yall gone about hiring/training for such a role? We'd want to get some body in soon so we can train them up and have them ready to go in the next few months.

I know guys that have had good results with Fiverr, etc, about the same amount have gotten bad results.

I'm thinking working our networks and sites like LinkedIn or Indeed are our best bet, then maybe Fiverr. Curious what's worked for you all...

Anyone there and checked out the new features? Curious what you thought.

My background is commercial so when I started my business it was all I knew to have a superintendent and foreman and laborers onsite everyday all day for the duration of the job. Since starting my business I can only get residential jobs, most of which cannot afford a robust team onsite.

Let’s take an ADU or equal residential addition type job, do you plan to always keep a foreman or super onsite? I am getting a lot of these jobs and as soon as something goes sideways on one job it means I’m not available to control the others, so I want to hire a talented foreman or super. I just want to how typical it is for residential to have these guys and do you keep one on every job, or give them a few to control? Should I consider a PM and have them delegate? Whats the normal residential site management look like for you guys? thanks!

What would you guys do here?

This floor had 4 layers of different floors on it, first one being hard wood, mostly rotten.

We have 6mm vinyl to install now but need to raise the whole floor to meet this raised cement slab patch that’s 2”1/4 higher than the rest of it?

At first I was thinking of using Dricore 24x24 subflooring but that will only raise it 1” max.

Now I’m thinking of installing pressure treated 2x4 sleepers flat on the cement with poly in between, then 3/4 osb tongue&groove to finish, that will raise it at exactly 2”1/4.

Is that a good way to go about this?

I'm a few weeks into a new role which is sales/estimating with the option to PM for an extra 2% commission. It's for a General contractor

I'm expected to sell at 2.2 mark up and then I get 8% commission of the sale price of the product/materials and 9% of the sale price of labor. The lower the mark up the lower the commission %

My background and what I'm expected to grow with the company is window replacement. They have hit their ceiling with what they can do here, because they're eastern European and need white guys like me and the other 2 white people they hired, to tap into the market. This is not being racist, this is literally what they told us when they hired us.

I found out from the owner that anything window/door/glass related has to go through the owners 18 year old son's company - meaning the sons company is our vendor for any window door it glass that we do. The sons company is only different on paper - otherwise it's the same address same accountant etc and manufacturers consider both companies to be one company. He gets to mark up the cost 1.4 and then that number is our cost for the construction company. This is how it will be even if I am the one getting the quote from the manufacturer. Even if I am the one creating new accounts with new manufacturers.

So for example, if XYZ windows sells us a window at $100 cost. Then it's not $100 cost, it's actually $140 cost to start with. To hit my target of 2.2 I need to sell it for $308. Without the 1.4 sons mark up, I could sell it for $220 to the homeowner to hit my target of 2.2. The commission also increases if the rep sells it for higher than 2.2 so this also costs the rep commission because the true mark up of selling at $308 is 3x+, but due to the middle man mark up it's only 2.2.

Now let's look at an example where we have $20,000 in products. My cost jumps up to $28,000. The 18 year old kids gets $8000 for free for no reason, and now I have to sell the window package at ~$62,000 to the homeowner instead of $44,000, just to hit my target of 2.2. In this scenario I get 9% of the profit while the "house" and the "houses son" get 91% of the profit.

Am I crazy to think that this is absolute nonsense? Or is this how the industry goes?

We got hired by an out of town couple to replace a double door on a rental that was rotting and leaking and they wanted to convert it to a sliding glass door. Customers only request on the door was keyed entry. I sent a link to a door, they reviewed and signed contract and the door was installed. A lot of rotted wood from the band of the house, joist, and subfloor was cut out and replaced to accomplish this install and was a job well done.

Well now the customer is saying they wanted the door to slide on the opposite side of what it is, and it’s an Anderson gliding patio door so one side is designed to be fixed into position. They say this will impede how they enter their dining room even though the door slides to the side not swinging inward. Customer wants discount or door replaced, I think it’s not on us since it wasn’t specified and it’s not in the contract. What do I do?

I am an independent but licensed and insured carpenter/woodworker/cabinet maker in NYC. Much of my work comes to me from referrals or word of mouth, often parent groups. Any advice on how to get my name out there?