Our home is about a hundred yrs old, it’s an awesome airy house but it definitely shows its age. We fairly recently renovated our basement and we experienced 3 contractors. It is not easy being a contractor’s customer, as we know too well. The first one came in, promised us the moon as well as the stars, each day he came in at least a couple of hours late and quite often he wouldn’t even show up. The second one gave us an ideal quote and then he tried to overcharge us. And the third one; while he carried out his job, he was always on time and he wasn’t overpriced. The job was, however poorly done so we weren’t impressed with the quality of his work. But he was the lesser evil.
Different people have different ideas on when to quit your contractor, but I say after having a full week of coping with incompetence it’s pretty safe to be aware of it’s just not going to work out. It’s always best to talk about the reasons why you will no longer be employing them (e.g. never on time, a great number of breaks, an excessive amount of an expense increase, etc.) than to dance around them. Be crystal clear and to the point when describing what’s on your mind, don’t get mad and guarantee them there aren’t any hard feelings between you, but that you aren’t used to dealing with people this way and you’d would rather have a much more enjoyable renovation process as the primary goal.
If you have signed an agreement it gets tough. Dependent on what’s mentioned on the contract maybe you have to take issue in the small claims court. Attempt to be as well mannered and serene as you can so the situation doesn’t worsen. Point out where he/she didn’t fill in his/her section of the contract and the reason why you would like to terminate it. If you do find someone responsible, friendly and not overpriced make sure to keep them happy.