Welcome to Part One of our When to Fire a Contractor blog post series! We’re taking you on a bathroom renovation project journey (with a few other stories thrown in for good measure) to share with you tips, advice, and warning signs of when you should consider firing a contractor.

(And yes – this does really happen!) 

Let’s set the scene… You’ve done your homework, you’ve searched high and low, and finally decided to move forward with your renovation, remodel or refresh project. You signed on the dotted line, plopped down the deposit, and are excited and nervous for your renovation to begin! It is an exciting time when a renovation project has been finalized – all you need now is the work to begin and to start seeing the final result take shape.

Before your project starts, make sure you have cleared the area of all your belongings. Pack them away in boxes or use this as an opportunity to have a clear out.

The first thing to take place is Demo Day.

Depending on your project, the Demo Day will involve a lot of demolishing and stripping back of the space. Be prepared for a lot of dust and noise!

Your contractor will use the day to strip back the whole space… This may be one area or gutting the entire room depending on the project. But it’s demo day and your Gold Star contractor isn’t there at the scheduled time. He said 8am, but it’s 8:15am. Your Zoom meeting starts in fifteen minutes for work, but where is he? Ok, ok, maybe we should just breathe and give him a break. He’ll get the work done, right? 

Partway through a Zoom call, the contractor shows up – not really apologizing for his tardiness, but he has a box of doughnuts for you as a gift. You would have rather had him been on time, but you feel a sense of relief knowing the project is starting. After your call, (I mean you showed up to work on time – who cares if that means commuting to your kitchen table…), you check-in. Everything is smiles and roses. Phew – that was a close one. 

Or was it?

Sometimes tradespeople need to visit the hardware store before they come to the site and there are reasons for their lateness – fair enough. On Day One this can leave a bad first impression. Especially as there’s a lot of prep work that needs to happen before anything else. Plus – most hardware stores open early to allow for tradesmen to shop before the day starts so there’s no real reason why this should impact the start time. This alone isn’t a good reason to fire a contractor. 

While your home (or room in question) may look scary after the first day or two of the project – stick with it! And trust the process!

If a situation similar to this one occurs for you too, make sure you make it clear to your contractor that you are working from home and have calls throughout your “work day” and would appreciate the heads up as to when they will arrive. Setting boundaries on Day One is extremely important (especially if you are still working from home) and learn from the contractor what you can expect in terms of their timings (start and finish times).

At least the first day of this bathroom renovation project is underway, the contractor arrived (at last!) and started ripping out the old fixtures and tile.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be posting about various contractor mishaps and help you know what’s par for the course, and when it’s time to fire your contractor. To illustrate and explain the process of a project in more detail that is true to reality, everything will be inspired by projects we’ve seen or heard about from others in the industry.

Check back next week to see how Day Two of this Bathroom Renovation went…