Adding Features
Posted by matteverard on July 12, 2006
When I had my basement finished, I outsourced the drywall. I’d done it myself once before and vowed to never again spend 80 hours sanding paste and breathing dust. Turned out to be a great investment. I spec’d out the project and hired a good crew. One of the finishers decided to add to my spec by joining the new ceiling to an exposed I-beam because it was “nicer.” When I inspected their work before payout, the ceiling and I-beam joint was a mess (steel and drywall don’t like each other, I guess). When I pointed to this hideous bit of work, the team said “well, we did that b/c we thought it would look better than what you described.” “Yes, yes, but it looks awful. Can you fix it…Please?”
You see what happened? They made a better solution than I asked for (my idea would have been really ugly), but they (1) didn’t get my buy-in so I wasn’t emotionally invested in their decision, (2) didn’t warn me that of the risks.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit it–their solution was a lot better than mine, but that didn’t matter at close out. The only that counts at the end of a project is scope, timeline, and money.
These guys gold-plated my basement ceiling and regretted it.
