How not to hire a contractor

My house with it’s unusual lack of interior walls definitely requires some structural engineering work. My architect told me that he talked with a structural engineer close to where I live – K. H. Davis Consulting. I looked them up and they seemed fine. Apparently they did do some work on HGTV‘s “Leave it to Bryan” and “Income Property“, two shows that I have watched frequently in the past. My architect had a brief talk with Ken Davis of K. H. Davis Consulting, sent him the current draft drawing of the project and Ken replied very prompted, telling us that they would charge $1400 + HST to provide structural markup for this type of project and site visits during construction are extra at $450 + HST. He also indicated to my architect that they have done a lot of residents like this. Seeing how he so proudly put the “Leave it to Bryan” and “Income Property” badge on this email, I figure we’ll give him a try. That’s where things start to fall apart.

On April 11th, we said yes let’s go ahead with the structural engineering work. Ken of K. H. Davis indicated that he will send us the contract form so he can get the work started. We waited, then we called, Ken promised the form will be emailed out, then we emailed, we waited, we called, we emailed. And a full week later, on April 18th, we still did not get any forms from Ken. Maybe Ken is very busy? Sure. I would like to imagine there’s are good reasons for Ken to make us to wait for a week sitting there waiting for forms. But that’s not now a professional should work. I have my guesses at why Ken suddenly no longer replies to his emails. He never really took a look at the files my architect have sent him, and he just throw that $1400 out. By the time we said let’s go head, he finally took a look at the files and realized that $1400 is just not doable.

Now let me say this, please all engineers (I am a computer engineer), please NEVER be like Mr. Ken Davis here. Engineers should always:

• Look at all the materials on hand carefully and make accurate estimates.
• And if the estimates are incorrect, then you should admit that it is your fault.
• And to correct that mistake, you can either do the work as is, or tell your client your estimate is incorrect and here’s the revised number.

Mr. Ken Davis here is not doing either. He refuses to acknowledge that it is his fault that he didn’t correctly estimate the cost of doing the project, and he refuses to admit that to his client. Instead he chooses to bury his head in the sand and pretend he does not hear our calls or see our emails.

So lesson of the day is, never hire a contractor who likes to talk big about whatever his has done in the past, likes to tell you he has done a lot of similar things (even though my house design is clearly a rare breed here), and likes to give out quick cheap quotes.