One more on side-jobbers...JohnNY

JohnNY

I recently almost lost a good-size radiant heat job because the client told me that radiant heat "doesn't work".

His friend has it in his big house up the street and had to have baseboard fitted in after the first winter they lived in the house because they were freezing.

Turns out some over-confident moonlighter installed it and hadn't any clue how to set it up properly.

This guy tells everyone within earshot what a FARCE radiant floor heating is.

I finally convinced him, with a little help from his wife, to let me install it and he could either pay me later or not. Depending on how happy he was.

Long story short: I got paid.

Long story even longer: When an unlicensed, non-taxed, non-insured moonlighter is working for a homeowner, very often they know they are virtually held unaccountable for their actions and very often their work reflects that attitude. What looks good to a typical homeowner may not be acceptable practice at all to a professional. Even if a plumbing or heating system seems to work well at the initial start-up, a homeowner has no recourse to be compensated for problems that are associated with poor workmanship that tend to present themselves in time.

That being said, I don’t try to stop my guys from moonlighting because I can’t. It just makes for bad blood. I make it very clear, and I remind them often, they can borrow my basin wrench to change the neighbor’s faucet or take a tank flap off the truck if they must. But, I will report my van stolen and have them locked up if, at any time, my van is somewhere I didn’t authorize it to be. They are not to use my vehicles or my stationary, without my permission ever.


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Mark Hunt

Good post


One other thing that homeowners should consider.

If a "moonlighter" gets hurt while they are working in your home, YOU can be held liable for his comp. payments.

A homeowner is protected when a contractor works in the home, but NOT when a "side-jobber" does.

Mark H

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Dave Yates (PAH)

our written policy

Which they sign, states that if they choose to moonlight for one of our customers, they lose their job. That would make them a direct competitor!

True story: An employee discretly dropped a newspaper ad on my desk. In it, there was an offer of 24-hour emergency service for PHVAC work and a phone number. A check in the reverse directory & it turned out to be another employee's home phone number. When I confronted him about the ad and that at least 8 out of the 24 hours he'd promised were already committed to our company, he responded: "Hey, I'm trying to start up a business here!". I helped him take that step by assisting him in unloading his tools from our truck. He lasted about three years on his own.

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masterplumb

I agree

John, I agree with you. I allow my guy(s) to take material and tools off the truck as long as they pay me the cost of the material(my price) and return the tools, as long as they are not stealing my clients. If you dont allow them to pay you for the material, chances are they will steal it. As far as I see it, if you are not licensed and insured you wouldnt do work in my house. But there are people who hire these guys. I was not one of these guys, when I moonlighted I had a Westchester County Master Plumbing License and NYC license, with adequate insurance. My guy is good, and one day he will leave me to start his own company, I am not afraid of him leaving and being a competitor, nor am I afraid of any other competitor because I am good at what I do. Tim

Steve Eayrs

Sorry Tim about the honest guy comments, in the last post. I evidently was not talking about you when I wrote it. I don't have a clue who you are, and should not of assumed I did.

My comments were point towards the other 99% of the side-jobbers. We both know you are the exception to the rule, if you had lisc's, insurance, etc. while doing side jobs.


I hope you understand I am not threatened by these guys, since I can only take on so much work at a time, and too busy most of the year. I just get real tired of mopping up after the bad jobs most of these guys do. AND THEN it always costs the home owners more, than if it was done right the first time. Have even seen where the inital bad install cost more than I would have charged for a better system. (if a guys doesn't know where hes going, he will sometimes take the long way around to get there, and some of these guys have gone a l-o-n-g way to get there, if you get what I mean)


Don't take all the comments so personal. We all know the nature of the common side-jobber is not to be compared with what you evidently are talking about.


Steve

Tim T

No problem

Its good to hear that I was the exception to the rule. No offense taken