I live in a low cost of living area, and small guys don't do written bids with all the details you mention. Off course, that's the way to go, but only major GC's do that in this area (I've lived here 32 years and remodeled multiple times so I know!) and they have no interest in small jobs and if they do agree, they charge an arm and a leg. Most of the small guys live out in the country - business models are not part of their vocabulary. One just makes the best of what one has available. I have no idea who I can get to do this now. All the good small guys are getting old and having health problems and retiring; no young ones coming along and if they do, they only speak Spanish and prefer to work for a GC.

My mom lives in the country, two hours away from a major city. She kept hiring and getting burned by these local people she would hire.....no matter how many times I asked her to please call us first before hiring anyone from there so that I could do a little research. She still keeps hiring...and getting burned.

Is there perhaps someone you trust that can work on your behalf to write up a contract? Then do you have an attorney that can review it?

It's not only bad for you, but for who you hire as well, to not have everything in writing.

If you do hire someone else and they produce a contract for you to sign, have someone trusted look over it with you before signing. Always best to have more than one set of eyes looking out for your benefit.

Perhaps some professionals here can give you some advice on the matter.

If you had a 10 page contract it wouldn't make those guys do good work. Don't worry about the mechanic's lien,you will be notified and have opertunity to respond before lien is recorded. Worst case both of you would appear before a magsitrate and you would prevail hands down.

I live in a low cost of living area, and small guys don't do written bids with all the details you mention. Off course, that's the way to go,

"Of course that's the way to go"

This is the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard.

This shows me you want to job done for the cheapest possible price.I feel bad about your situation and the contractor was a POS but it could have turned out different if you were to due diligence and not try and get something for nothing.

From your post that is all I can assume.

As I said ,it is a shame and the contractor is a scumbag but you probably got what you paid for in price and foolishness.

When I had my backsplash installed this year, I called three different people for bids.

The first guy never showed.

The second guy was more interested in telling me I shouldn't get subway tile and wouldn't give a written bid, but gave me a verbal bid.

The third guy was very thorough and gave me a written bid/contract.

Obviously I hired the third, and all turned out very well. The nature of his business doesn't always mean that jobs can be finished exactly when expected. Things happen and I understood that. But, he was able to start the job the week after I was expecting him to be here, and he did call ahead to let me know.

You can always go buy what you are wanting installed and just hire someone for the labor and any miscellaneous product used for the install. They, of course, need to know that before they bid.

Get a contract for the job....not by the hour. Pay when it's finished and ask for a lien waiver. They should be supplying one anyway.

If someone will not give you a written bid, say bye bye.

When there is a contract, everything is spelled out....including what product is to be used. You weren't expecting wood beadboard. However, you did say you wanted them to paint it, so obviously it would be wood. But, there was no contract, so nothing was specified. Specifics get lost when the only mode of communication is verbal.

I did not intend to be harsh in my post but what I picked up from the op after 40 years as a contractor is that she was wanting this done cheaply and was probably very picky.Maybe I was wrong.

Still does not excuse what happened to her by the crew she hired but after 40 years of qualifying potential customers I probably would have passed on the job to begin with.Not because it was small .I would just like to hear the other side of the story and I imagine there is one..

I wish you the best and you were done wrong.I would just like to here the whole story.

Shortly after I wrote this, the doorbell rang - it was the contractor - the father. He came in and asked "What the hell happened here this morning". He couldn't get a straight answer out of his son. I told him that I had asked how they solved the "paint bubbling" problem and they said it was sap from the knotty pine and which point I freaked out. That when I saw it, there was sap still seeping through and discolorations all over the boards. A bit of "touch up" was not going to solve this problem! I said they were to take it back and use the proper primer for knotty wood - BIN, a shellac base primer. It seals the wood and does a great job. They had used Kilz. I then asked them to go pick up the vinyl and put it up today.

Contractor/dad said that they just came back to his workshop and said I told them to leave - not the truth at all. He admitted he has a temper and that's why he told me they would not be doing the job. After he cooled down, he realized that there were two problems here: he'd hired his older brother to do the painting and he had done a terrible job, and his son really didn't want to do the job at all. His older brother should have known better - he was a helper for my long-time painter, and they both painted my daughter's knotty pine study and that's when I learned about BIN.

He said he had looked at the wood again and agreed it was totally unacceptable. Of course, he now has $800 in the wood and painting. I told him I felt badly about that but I could not pay him $800 for wood that was now a mess, and that he was refusing to install - I don't even have room to store that much wood. We talked about it further and he's going to talk to the manager at a local paint store and ask him if BIN will still work if he puts it on now. If he can, he'll do that, install the bead board and then paint it yet again.

I told him that I had been totally surprised that he was quitting on me as he had done a good job before and was an honest workman. I also told him that his brother and son were going to quickly put him out of business with their attitudes. He knows that - his wife is making him employ the son as he has a baby on the way and needs a job and appears to not be good at anything. My painter was injured severely in a fall and so his older brother is also out of a job. In my part of the country, taking care of family is a value but often a poor decision as they often bring down the guy trying to do a good job and earn a living.

Was I looking for the cheapest possible price? NO! But I cannot pay what a GC would charge which would be in the thousands. I've used people like this for decades now - a great tile man, my painter, a handyman for small jobs. All are good, honest, hardworking people who are very independent and like to work for themselves. Since they also always want to be paid in cash, I think they are also looking for some tax-free income. All could best be described as the "working poor". At least they're working!

I'm not a novice at hiring people. I've been my own GC on the last two remodeling jobs I've done and it's worked very well. I do have to realize that they don't do business like companies do - that's just a fact of life. Several lawyers in my neighborhood use all these people - and no, there is no written contract when they hire them either. A neighbor whose husband is a lawyer, balked at this and insisted his wife hire a prominent remodeling firm to redo their guest upstairs bathroom. He had a contract, but even that guy would not commit to a completion date. So, what did he get? The big name contractor sent in his D-team of subs, they did a lousy job and took forever. His job was not big enough to get the A-team.

I'm a pretty good judge of character and I felt the boss/dad was an honest man and he has proven to be so. He said if the lumber is ruined, he'll eat the cost and I don't owe him anything. He said he also realized that he should have had me go buy the materials myself and he'd pick them up - that would have been fine with me. I know what I want and need and know what questions to ask.

I'm hoping for both our sakes that the lumber can be salvaged and the job done. God knows when he'll get it done, though, and it must be done before mid-Oct when all the plants on the terrace come back in on the sun porch!

It is very hard to find good contractors, no matter what you pay, when you only do an occasional job. I have used very high priced plumbers and on one job they did great work and on another they never showed up? That is why I do most of the "grunt work" myself. Good luck ophelia