Our GC told us that our reno would be done in 6 months and it sorta kinda was. We moved back into the house on Sept 15 and he said the deficiency list would be finished by Thanksgiving - that is Canadian Thanksgiving which is the second Monday in October - it is now Feb,23 and we're still waiting for door hardware to be replaced which was missed, painting to be finished, mirrors to be replaced as they are warped, interior railings finally went in last week, etc, etc, etc.

2 week remodel of guest bath took 12 weeks.
Meanwhile we had a leak in our bathroom and had to use daughter's bath for the holidays.
I think the "dog-years" analogy is correct.

I do admit that about 2 weeks of the delay is my fault. Saw the accent tile in place and realized that I had chosen wrong. More tiles ordered to make the accent area symetrical = two weeks.

The way to prevent projects dragging on and on is to withhold the final payment till the job is completely done. The contractor will want payment something like, 33% to start, 33% in the middle and 34% when the building inspector signs off.

DO NOT SIGN such a contract make it 30, 30, 30 and 10. They will hop for that last 10 because it is their profit.

I am a newbie as far as kitchens are concerned, but I work for an electrical contractor and the 30, 30, 30, 10 is standard for big commercial jobs. We try to get homeowners to sign the 33, 33, 34 contracts but we will accept the other contract too, if the homeowner stands firm.

My boss is a great guy and never tries to screw anyone, but sometimes someone's little thing slips by, it happens. However, if they are holding money, well, that little thing gets done quick.

Well we've heard stucco should take 2 weeks, took 1 1/2 months.
Painters should take 1 1/2 weeks, took 3 weeks.
House should take 6 months to build, actual timeline more like 9 months.

Our last build 5 years ago we were told 6 months took 19 months. I think builders and contractors have their own time, when they feel like it. Whatever job pays more or is easier is where they are at. Which is understandable but they should also keep their word and be realistic when they say the timeline when agreeing to do the work. It really not fair to everyone who expects a business to keep their word and be professional.

Being married to a GC, I, think time does apply to them. I, do not think a contractor, wants to be at a job, any longer than they have to. My husband, once told a lady, if she, wanted him, to rush the job that she, had the wrong contractor, because he, would not cut corners just to get it done. Good work sometimes takes longer. Some times things come up that are not seen until the contractor, gets into the job.

Good work should take longer, but it should be included in the original timeline a contractor gives for work to be done in the beginning. I think I see people upset more when jobs take way longer then originally agreed and the work still ends up shoddy.

I hate seeing a contractor start my job and then ditch mine for a new one weeks after the work was already agreed to be done. The contractor should also inform the client of any changes or things that come up. Too many times they just don't bother to inform the client and we wonder why they haven't shown up for a week or two.......

I've built a few times and dealt with many many contractors and find this to be a very normal practice. :(

I have done many remodels and if I just did what was requested in the beginning, it may have taken a couple of days extra, but would have been finished very close to the time stated.
That being said, while I can't speak to any other contractors, what usually extends the completion time is the homeowner requesting 'this little job extra or that little job to fix something not in the original contract'. I don't have a problem doing anything extra as long as it isn't expected to be done for free and instantaneously. Everything that is changed, frequently changes everything. For me quality work is a given and additional time from what is stated in the contract should not be required.
Again, the contractor should be up front and let the homeowner know if there will be delays for unforseen circumstances. Everyone wants their work done immediately, including contractors. There is a natural order to things and all good things take time. Not 3 times as long as orginally promised though.

I was beyond lucky in that my carpenter said a month and it was a month for my kitchen gut/remodel. When he got to the bathroom however......I got fit in when there was time. Total let down. I realize there was "drying time" with the walk in shower but it went a bit beyond that. Still, it was a short time out of my life and the bathroom is wonderful. I think the Boy Scout motto applies to build/remodel.

Oh Lordy, I could write a book on contractor time. As we got deeper and deeper into a six-month remodel that actually took 22 months (from permit issuance to final signoffs), it really started to annoy me how almost everyone on the job would look at their part of the job and give a totally ridiculous estimate of how long it would take. It was like a knee-jerk reaction, a compulsive lie, and the subtext running through their minds was "clients always want to hear a short time frame, so I'll tell them that." Memo to all contractors - what we want to be told is the truth. If it'll take six weeks, tell me six weeks. DON'T tell me two weeks. I might be disappointed to hear that what looks to me like a little tiling job will take six weeks, but I'll be beyond furious if your guys are still trooping in on Week 5 and telling me "he told you two weeks? The layout alone takes a week and a half".

My sympathies. We withheld 10% from everyone and, sad to stay, are still holding that 10% from a couple of contractors (one carpenter, the a/c guy) who never did their punchlist.

Sorry, no. You don't improve quality by not showing up.These delays have nothing to do with refusing to cut corners or having to deal with change orders. Contractors are frankly the biggest crybabies I have ever met in my adult life--nothing is ever their fault.

This all has to do with contractors shoving all their business risk onto homeowners. They accept and start jobs so you are stuck with them--now, your job is in their pocket. They can't lose it, because your kitchen is half done and you can't go anywhere else. Once they've got you, they are free to go start another job, and shove that one in their pocket, too. Now they have less business risk, because they have all these signed contracts, and all the risk--of not delivering and not finishing--rests on you. Pretty neat trick if people allow you to get away with it.

Other major reason for delays is that many contractors don't know how to run their businesses and are very shady with their finances. You make a payment, but the contractor uses that money to pay for somebody else's materials. Now he doesn't have the money to pay the subs on your job, and they're not coming back until he catches them up. Unethical and often illegal, but it's standard practice.

What is interesting to me is that no one twisted his arm on HIS estimate of the time it would take. He said 8 weeks and in my head I automatically adjusted and said "12". I expected to have delays, unforseen, unexpected. I did not expect 26+ weeks with no end in sight. He is clearly balancing too many jobs and we are suffering for it. Probably with a lot of his other clients. I just wish vendors and contractors would give HONEST estimates of the time involved, hell, even go on the outside with the longest estimate you think it MIGHT take you. Then when you come in under or at time estimated I am surprised and happy. Under promise and then you can easily over deliver. That would be a good motto for these folks to live by. I have been a business person. I estimated my time to the best of my ability and did everything necessary to come in under budget and under time. It's just good business practice. Why is that so hard for people to understand.

As to some of the other comments, I understand that change orders would be a hold up but through the entire job we have had two changes, we added some electrical to our garage and we patterned and stamped the small slab of concrete outside our back door. These portions are already done and the subs are long gone. They are NOT the reason for delay in our particular case. Absence is the issue here. No contractor = no work done.

I have to say doggonegardener, that the rest of our project has gone pretty smoothly. I learned in the beginning that 1 week usually meant 3. I learned to be pleasantly surprised when that 1 week turned out to be 2. LOL

Weather, good or bad, tends to be a factor in the time issue. Doing something sort of new is as well. We had bamboo floors put in 1400 square feet of our house. Our contractor had put in wood floors, but not bamboo. When they got in and saw the floors more closely, they decided to put a thin layer of concrete over the floor before they could lay the bamboo. All of these additions added to the time that it took to finish the job.

Now tile? Boy, can these guys do tile. They do it fast and they do it well, IMHO.

I try to have realistic expectations on a job, but some of these time estimates are just ways to get the job, I think.