Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The View From Cloud #13

>sigh<....O! how I dislike/distrust contractors...

As an Architect, I have had many dealings with shifty contractors not-of-my-choosing. This is not to say ALL contractors of the building trade are disreputable. I have worked with a number of professionals whose reputation is arguably beyond reproach (and I've learned quite a few things from them, too). But, there is a large enough population of knaves to leave me leery of entrusting someone to work on my house.

That said, I shall show you yet another expensive misdeed from contractor laziness/carelessness. This particular instance is from a PO's hire. The window you see is neither clouded by glare nor paint overspray, nor overzealous sneeze. The window has been pitted by sandblast. When this house was painted some time ago, a contractor chose to sandblast the exterior window frames/trim prior to repainting, rather than stripping them by hand. It appears that they didn't subscribe to the "95% preparation, 5% decoration" rule, thereby not bothering to mask the windows well beforehand. Besides, cutting time in half for painting, sandblasting does a good job at cutting the wood down, too. You sandblast engine blocks and steel ships, not wood windows! The exterior trim now has softened edges and I have counted some 13 panes of glass sofar that have sandblast damage, the one shown here being the largest (8'-0" x 3'-0"). This will be the most costly to replace, as I will have to HIRE SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR ME!!!

3 Comments:

At December 08, 2006 2:05 PM, Blogger merideth said...

aw that blows!! But you could replace the glass in your windows yourself. We did every window, every divided light pane in our house and if we can do it, I have confidence in you.

 
At December 08, 2006 2:16 PM, Blogger Oblio70 said...

I thank you for the vote of confidence, but as this is a rather large sheet of plate glass (worthy of a storefront), and ~15' from the ground, it would be a big undertaking for a homejob. At the moment, I'd feel more confident if someone with the proper tools/experience would do it instead. I, on the other hand, am experienced with the dropping of things. phhhhht.

 
At December 14, 2006 9:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Consider me your first rss feed subscriber. Will be looking forward to more reports on your house. I have been living in a brick handman (woman) "shotgun" for years and it is time to get going. I will probably be starting a blog after the first of the year myself. The few blogs I have read had already saved me some future grief.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home