In a message dated 6/8/00 6:30:13 AM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> And (at great personal risk in this forum), since when do contractors get
to work only with materials they like?

John,

Forget about our choosing materials. You give us too many challenges at one
time.

I'm still working on a goal of only working with people that I like -- too
bad some of my friends keep moving. At one time the criteria was to not work
for anyone that could not read the backside of a cement bag.

Then there are choices, not mine particularly, in places like Manhattan, to
only contract work that can be reached in an hour by bycycle or on foot.

I'm well aware that customers when looking for contractors do not understand
the complexity of how contractors filter the assortment of projects that they
will, or will not, work on. The prevailing attitude appears to be that a
customer assumes that if they are willing to pay the money that there is no
other criteria. You go to the store, you pay your money, you have a brief
interaction with the teller, and you go on your way. Contracting requires
relationships, and that goes further than a simple consideration of pay and
perform.

Recently I was asked to give a budget price, within one week, to clean a
building on Wall Street from top to bottom. This would be a really nice job
if I could get it and I was flattered to be asked. No drawings, suspect
specification. Go down to Wall Street, look at building, roughly estimate SF
area from site and pacing the sidewalk. Cogitate, pull number out of bun
crack, stand on head, consult a subcontractor, add $100,000 for CYA hurry up
fee. I came up with a budget of $600,000 that I felt was fairly tight for the
fact that there was an incredible amount of information that I did not have.
We aways are bidding in the dark and required to look as if we really do know
what we are doing -- I think it best if everyone admit right out that they
have no clue. I was then asked to provide a proposal (hurry up, hurry up, you
are taking too long) -- this is a bit more serious of a commitement. Well,
sorry, no can do. Is this a waste of time, or what? I then countered with a
three page letter, a list of the information that I needed to go further.
First on the list was that we meet at the site and have lunch together in
order for us to decide if we really want to work together. I'm really at a
point with customers that if they are not human enough to want to sit down
and have a meal with me then why should I bother about their problems? Eating
together is an important aspect of building up positive attitudes toward
working together as a project team. I find it best if everything but the
particular project be talked about during lunch. Let us not be in such a
hurry to not know each other, tell me about your children, tell me your life
story. I love stories, I am easy to entertain. My three page list went into
other particulars, like getting access to the roofs of the building in order
to determine scaffolding, figuring out where the water would go to (in NYC it
is against the environmental law to allow water run out of a hose onto a
building, for the purposes of cleaning, to flow into the street storm drain
and the water needs to be diverted into the internal drainage system of the
building, regardless of if you are using cleaning chemicals, or not, and
regardless if the water all ends up flowing into the same world environment
-- and regardless of the fact that cleaning water is run into the streets all
over NYC daily, you can still get caught and given a violation and fine), and
ending with a request to know the name of the individual, not of the design
company, but of the individual who wrote the cleaning specification... as to
WHO it is decides what "clean" is conditions my willingness to bid the work,
and conditions my price. There are design professionals that I refuse to get
involved with ever again. Will I say their names in public? No.

Seriously, picky contractors. I refuse to work on a project that will not
supply a bathroom and/or will not allow us to supply a portable toilet to the
site. We have had customers refuse to supply a bathroom, with the expectation
that the workers would use other unspecified facilities ("That's your problem
if you want the job.), such as the restaurant down the street, and there
being no room on the site to stage a toilet. Usually such a deal ends up with
a management headache for the contractor to explain the odiferous stains in
secluded corners of the roof -- but this is not an opening conversation a
contractor really likes to have when introducing themselves to a potential
new customer.

My friend, our fellow BP'r, I think most reasonably operates on a basis of
only working on projects that he can reach in an hour in his Suburban, a
splendid vehicle that is comparible to an office away from home. A pleasant
morning can be spent with him while he drives around, and around, and around
the West Village looking for a parking space. The meetings offer attractive
surroundings, fresh air, lots of stops and starts, jerking sideways in the
seat, discussions of literature and philosophy, various levels of vehicular
blasphemy, and an ever changing panorama of scenery.

][<en