Remodeling Horror Story Not Just For Halloween

Remodeling Horror Story: Trick Or Treat?

The title of this blog is seasonal, but unfortunately, a “Trick or Treat” remodeling horror story happens year ’round. It’s not limited to one type of remodeling project. Here  is a  remodeling “horror” story list, bad experiences that were avoidable:

• A D-I-Y basement renovation that got out of hand.
• A master bathroom project that was totally bungled by a designer who acted as the general contractor.
• A D-I-Y master bedroom expansion into an adjoining bedroom; taking out a bearing wall is a NO-NO!
• A bad deck replacement done by an unlicensed contractor that left the Homeowners with no legal recourse.
• A new home that had all of the hot and cold lines swapped by the plumber.
• A D-I-Y floor refinishing project that ended up with the floor being replaced after the sanding drum was installed backwards, chewing up the floor.
• Homeowners who had purchased appliances ten years before the actual remodeling, and ended up donating the appliances because they wouldn’t fit in the new kitchen.

• Homeowners who didn’t buy enough slabs for their bathroom walls, because the marble they selected was no longer being imported.
• Homeowners who didn’t give themselves enough time to finish their major remodeling before the holidays. Their family had to stay in local hotels.
• Homeowners who demanded to start their major addition project in October, and the rain storms ruined their wood floors and furnace.
• The Homeowners hired their own electrician, whose communication skills sucked. He didn’t tell the contractor that he’d made major holes in the roof and ceiling, right before a rainstorm that got all of the new cabinets wet and disintegrated the drywall.
• The cabinet maker who hired his regular employees to hang heavily-textured vinyl wallpaper in a client’s bathroom. They assumed that the wallpaper was pre-pasted. It wasn’t. When the water evaporated, the wallpaper slid down the wall in puddles.
• The contractor who started work on a project before permits were issued, before he had given the Homeowners a final detailed estimate of their investment. The project, when finished, was double his verbal guesstimate.
• The contractor who started a bathroom project and left after demolition for two weeks to go hunting.
• The D-I-Y partial kitchen update that included a professional (un-insulated) range and hood. Wood cabinets were installed so they touched the potentially hot range (a fire hazard). But the worst problem was the hood duct stopped in the attic, leaving a coat of grease all over the roof framing and insulation.

It’s reasonable for you to ask, “How can I/we avoid a similar remodeling horror story? How could these problems have been avoided?” My friend, the answer is easy:  If everyone had taken responsibility for due diligence, done appropriate research, asked questions, COMMUNICATED, and followed advice of experienced professionals, their project wouldn’t be — and yours won’t be — a remodeling horror story.

If you didn’t read enough about others’ woes in this article, a Google search for “remodeling horror stories“ yielded 114,000 results. This is probably the tip of the iceberg!

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