need a woodworker or antique restorer or???

CanuckBob wrote:I have had problems with him on a pool repair job as well. Nice guy but shitty workers and no management. Showed up to give the quote and once again to collect the money and was shown that he had to do the job all over again as the work fell apart in two days. He brought in two new guys and re-did the whole job. That work lasted about 6 months. Never again.

thanks for your comment.
S.

Sherman wrote:

hockables wrote:

Flamingo wrote:Thanks, but I really am not going to try this myself. Any ideas of a person I could hire to do this? My ancestors carried this across the US in a covered wagon and I would feel really bad if I ruined it?

I would suggest a construction maestro...  they know local tradespeople and would have a good idea who is best qualified to do your project.... as Lunateak suggested... might need a pilot hole, the possibility of the wood splitting is real... looks like maple...... ( hard as a rock )

RAYMUNDO BLAS PINEDA  (Speaks English)
Tel: 766 1456
045 331 141 5638

Hockables ....  I'm glad your work went well and you were happy with this guy.    That has been the case for others, but not in other situations.  In the 'other' situations where there have been problems, big and small, those people remain silent except in very closed discussions.

One of the problems for board posters is that you can account for your experience because it is positive, and you are not making yourself vulnerable or subject to a legal action.   Any other discussion that is negative about the quality of the work, serious construction defects that had to be torn out/redone by another contractor,  the problems with key workers, including drinking habits, and problems directly with the contractor cannot be addressed.  So, it looks like this guy walks on water because that is the only side that can be posted publicly.

Spencer is familiar with the 'non' contract this guy uses, which falls back on a labor complaint as his back up.   There's no discussion of structural issues, etc. that have to do with the work quality.   This basically leaves the 'customer' in a lose-lose situation if there is a problem.

Someone had suggested 'personal messages' but that is the same as the 'public posts' as far vulnerability to legal action.

S.

Understood.

I think we expose ourselves anytime we hire outside help.

Why not simply withhold payment until satisfied?

hockables wrote:

Sherman wrote:

hockables wrote:

Flamingo wrote:Thanks, but I really am not going to try this myself. Any ideas of a person I could hire to do this? My ancestors carried this across the US in a covered wagon and I would feel really bad if I ruined it?

I would suggest a construction maestro...  they know local tradespeople and would have a good idea who is best qualified to do your project.... as Lunateak suggested... might need a pilot hole, the possibility of the wood splitting is real... looks like maple...... ( hard as a rock )

RAYMUNDO BLAS PINEDA  (Speaks English)
Tel: 766 1456
045 331 141 5638

Hockables ....  I'm glad your work went well and you were happy with this guy.    That has been the case for others, but not in other situations.  In the 'other' situations where there have been problems, big and small, those people remain silent except in very closed discussions.

One of the problems for board posters is that you can account for your experience because it is positive, and you are not making yourself vulnerable or subject to a legal action.   Any other discussion that is negative about the quality of the work, serious construction defects that had to be torn out/redone by another contractor,  the problems with key workers, including drinking habits, and problems directly with the contractor cannot be addressed.  So, it looks like this guy walks on water because that is the only side that can be posted publicly.

Spencer is familiar with the 'non' contract this guy uses, which falls back on a labor complaint as his back up.   There's no discussion of structural issues, etc. that have to do with the work quality.   This basically leaves the 'customer' in a lose-lose situation if there is a problem.

Someone had suggested 'personal messages' but that is the same as the 'public posts' as far vulnerability to legal action.

S.

Understood.  

I think we expose ourselves anytime we hire outside help.

Why not simply withhold payment until satisfied?

Well, one of the reasons is that the majority of the crew was running off to a new contract .... they obviously had been 'stalling' (at least 8 work days, busy doing nothing) until that contract came through. The culmination of this all happened 3 days before cabinets were to be installed and it was going to take all of the crew to pull off the work that should have been done before the cabinets were installed. The offer from the 'boss' was to leave a person in charge, with one helper as the rest of the crew ran off.

So besides the deadline for the cabinets to be installed, the 'person to be in charge' was the person about whom there was a discussion as to what was being consumed during the work day. So, in stead of have 5 or 6 on the work crew, there was to be 'the person charge' -- who I did not want even working on the project and one junior helper.

In the end, this 'person who was to be in charge' put in a staircase that pulled away from the terrace within a few weeks of the project. I hired someone else to come in to take apart the staircase and found that the staircase had never been 'attached' to the main structure of the terrace/house. There was more of the same ... for which I paid to have torn and/or repaired.

And for management .... it was management by iphone. I'm not sure that the iphone was intended for that.

For me also, never again and now I am really concerned about who is hired to work here because it is not clear how vulnerable, legally, I really am. It was painful 'talking to Spencer.'

When hiring a contractor, they typically are nice and say 'yes' to everything. But, when that does not happen, especially when they are caught in the 'non-yes' responses, we have little protection here and not much recourse.

This guy is one of the smooth ones and I understand, he has another family member with the same contractural (non-contractural) processes.

Life lessons .....
Mexico lessons .....

S.

Yes, it does seem that instead of passing on a job, he hires whoever he can find (qualified or not) to do the job anyways. My job was quite small (replacing a bunch of pool tiles) and he should have passed on it versus putting unqualified people on it. He even told me "they didn't know what they were doing" when he seen that it had all come apart. He apparently fired them but I suspect they were only in his employ for my job anyways. To be fair though, I hear he is quite good on huge jobs where he has his best guys involved.

Just for fun. I'll tell you what should be done to fix it.

You get a piece of cherry where the grain matches and stain it to match.  Then you take a plug cutter and cut a plug, take a bandsaw and cut the plug out.

Then you take and drill a hole to match the plug size, orient the grain and drive it into place with just a small bit of hide glue.  Then you add whatever top coat you need to match the gloss.  Presto!!  The patch is almost invisible.

That's what you do for a big ding in a good table if you can't get it to pop out with steam.

Cigarette burns on a table are a whole nother story.  You have to put in a patch, then sand it down to shape and generally strip and refinish the whole piece.

If it is antique, you leave it.  A bad gouge will cost some value but refinishing it will cut 70% of the value.

To just replace the screw, cut a plug, drill a hole the right size, glue it in, drill a pilot hole and replace the screw.  Since it will be covered by a hinge, no one will ever see it.

As far as doors, if you're not living in the house a couple toothpicks and a bit of glue works fine.  If it is a house you are living in, a piece of 1/4" hardwood dowel and a 1/4" drill bit will fix it forever.

Thanks all. Fortunately I found an experienced furniture restoration person who is working on it as we speak. And just for the record, the underside of the table - when some of the screws are removed - is really fascinating. Clearly all done by hand.