John wrote:
>
> This is still puzzling to me. I have heard it from others too. But in my
> experience over the past two decades I have found clients to whom this
was
> important. At first it was just a part of my trades work. In my trades
work
> investigation and documentation (etc.) supported itself because it made
me
> more effecient and made my proposals more refined. The hands-on contracts
paid
> for it all. But them clients were willing to pay me more than I could get
for
> trades work just  to do these very things: investigate, research, plan,
etc.
> It amazed me for about the first 15 years, that they were willing to pay
> someone just to explain things to them and educate them so they could
make
> good decissions. I doubt if it is happenstance that I just lucked into
such a
> long series of clients. These past 5 years I accept it and suspect it has
more
> to do with marketing. Exactly what with marketing, I'm not sure. Still a
> puzzle. Psyco-analysis may be needed to solve this one.
>

I'd like to suggest that it was just the result of my practicing my trade
back in the (around here, at least) preservationally benighted early and
mid 70s, but I am still hearing the same things happening to pals who are
still in it.

One friend was recently upbraided by a client for being billed for time
spent by a crew-member taking photographs. The client didn't think that he
ought to "carry the financial burden for your publicity materials". When it
was pointed out that the contract called for documentation the client
argued that he had never expected it to be anything but a written report,
prepared, of course, by the GC without charge over and above his
percentage.

In another example the GC failed to convince the client that the logical
order was to replace the compromised roof before doing interior plastering
and painting. Her position was "I'm paying the bills. I'll decide what gets
done when". The contract specified the scope of work, but not the order of
priorities. He did manage to get her to sign a waiver of responsibility,
but that didn't make him feel much better.

My favorite tale from my active days as a GC was a job that I lost because
I refused to accept the owner's terms. It involved removing two partition
walls and the bathroom between them to restore the space of three rooms
created in a 50s renovation to its original condition as a "keeping" room.
Photos existed of the pre-renovation room showing plaster over wainscoting
on the outside and feather-edge sheathing making up the two side wall
partitions, with "borning room" and larder on the other sides. (Some day it
might be nice to explore the terminology of architectural interior spaces
in Colonial and Federal period houses. Are there any contemporary records
using terms like Keeping Room and Borning room and Hired Man's room? I
suspect that they are figments of the imagination of authors of the
Centennial period.) Miraculously, the paneled wall and even the fireplace
had remained intact on the long interior wall (which made for one hell of
an interesting  bathroom, 12' long with a 5' fireplace in it).
My job was to replace the two partition walls, patch and recolor the
paneled room-end and replace the plaster and wainscoting on the outside
wall.

The rub was that the outside wall was, for a good part of its length,
hanging over thin air. The house was sited about 100 feet from a river with
very strong tidal flow. While it was sited high enough above mean high tide
that there had never been any flooding of the house itself,  over the
course of 200 years the  earth that separated the house from the river had
been subjected to a number of 100 year, 50 year and 20 year tides that had
resulted in the slippage of the soil toward the river. Combined with the
effect of frost on saturated blue clay soil, this had resulted in the
granite-on-dry-laid-rubble foundation  arcing  out from the house so that
at its furthest deflection it was no longer under the house. Meanwhile, the
grip of friction had caused the sills to be dragged outward so that the
center of the wall was about 6" east of where it started out. The granite
slabs were about 12" thick. Simple math therefore informed us that the
foundation, at its greatest point of travel, had moved more than 18".
Reason indicated that the peripatetic foundation had probably not completed
its voyage and that the hanging wall was probably to be subject to further
stresses. I suggested as politely as possible that it was an act of
foolishness to "restore" the room, especially the plaster and wainscoted
wall, without first dealing with the problem. I also pointed out that the
eaves were already seriously sagging and would do so further if the problem
wasn't addressed.  The owner had his priorities and giving over half his
budget to dealing with the problem wasn't one of them. I was offered the
job of restoration but with no provision made for repairing the foundation
and providing drainage to prevent further problems. The owner opined that
the situation had existed for 100 years and probably wouldn't cause any
"serious" problems until long after he was gone. It didn't help that I
pointed out where the new interior sheetrocked stud partition walls, only
20 years old, had pulled away at their bases from the outside wall.

Ten years later, when the plaster was all shot through with crevices , the
granite had toppled forward toward the river, the roof had failed at the
eaves, the feather-edge sheathing had gaps in it wide enough to pass a roll
of toilet paper through (The 1/2 bath had been relocated to one of the
"offices") and the pipes kept bursting due to unstoppable infiltration of
cold air (its kind of hard to seal up the chinks in a foundation that is,
mostly, lying on its side), I was able to politely turn down the reoffered
job, since I was no longer in the business. The owner was thankful enough
that I never once even hinted at "I told you so" that he has ordered a
goodly number of pieces of furniture from me and hired me to replace the
original doorway that had been taken out in the 50's renovation and not
replaced (again, against my advice, though this time offered on historical
grounds) in the 70s go round.

Anyway, I haven't told a story on BP in a while. It feels good to be back.

Bruce