I’m not the kind of contractor who likes to give or hear excuses, but here are a few of them that I have heard, during my career as a general contractor. I hope you enjoyed reading them, because I enjoyed finding them.
1. I didn’t do it. Some contractors find the need to blame their problems on other people or even their workers.
2. I’ll be right over. How many times have you heard this?
3. The checks in the mail. I don’t even want to talk about this one.
4. I can start on your job tomorrow. Until you sign a contract or later on that evening when the contractor tells you something different.
5. I am licensed and insured, when they really aren’t.
6. I have over 25 years of experience, they’re just not telling you what they have 25 years of experience in.
7. My partner has the contractor’s license. This one doesn’t work very well with intelligent people.
8. I got pulled over this morning by a policeman. Ask them to show you the ticket, this usually confuses them.
9. The lumberyard messed my order up. Did the lumberyard make a mistake or did the contractor, you might not ever know.
10. Of course I have testimonials. They’re going to need to go home, because they can’t remember their friends and relatives phone numbers and address..
11. My contractor’s license will be reinstated soon. I love this one, it doesn’t matter whether they’re telling the truth or not, it doesn’t sound good.
12. What time did I say I was going to be there? Some contractors confuse Eastern, Pacific and Standard Time Zones. Find out which time zone you’re contractors set their clocks to and hold them to it.
13. The building inspector doesn’t know what he’s doing. Often the contractor is the expert and not the city building department.
14. We can use something else. Often contractors choose to replace items specified by engineers and architects, because they know better and have more experience.
15. Who ordered the wrong windows? It’s rarely the contractor’s fault for any mistakes like these.
16. The doughnut shop didn’t open on time. If this becomes a regular problem with your contractor, find out what kind of doughnuts he likes and your problem is solved.
17. We had to sit in traffic this morning. You could always suggest that your contractor leaves their house or office a little earlier the next time.
18. Don’t worry about that, we didn’t need it anyway. They are usually referring to important structural hardware that actually is important, they just forgot to install it.
19. I will get that done by the end of the day. Wishful thinking most of the time, but every once in a while they tend to pull it off.
20. Who broke what? If you’re only working with one contractor, it’s not going to be difficult to figure out who broke your dishes.
21. My all-time favorite and last but not least. I never said that. This is my ultimate favorite and I don’t know how many times I heard it from other contractors and even some homeowners.
I hope you had fun reading these 21 lame excuses that contractors tell homeowners.
