I’m writing this on Thanksgiving. I’m not sitting in comfort, surrounded by friends and relatives. Instead, I’m sweaty, dirty, and wet, and tracking mud around the house.
The pies will have to wait
I’ve got my wife and her family in my house, but I’ve just come from doing yard work. Why? Because I hired a cheap lawn irrigation contractor, who set up the system but forgot to turn on the sprinkler timer. I turned it on myself, but it did not water one big section, which I just did manually.
So what’s my point? It’s to share the lesson I’ve just re-learnt: if you buy a service and it comes cheap, don’t trust it; rather, go with the best or be prepared to verify (and possibly redo) what you got.
The Cheap Services Conundrum
In my experience, not all cheap services (or goods) are bad. Sometimes, you have people who are very smart, ambitious, and hardworking, but are just getting started and don’t yet have a reputation or extensive experience. Since they’re not well-known or established, they may have to charge lower rates in order to get work.
Other times, however, people have to sell their work for less because it’s simply worth less; this can be the case with contractors that are incompetent or unreliable, for example.
In the first case, you can get a great deal. You can usually identify these people by their telltale traits: they are responsive, respectful, and well-organized. They are usually either just starting out in their fields, or recently went out on their own and set up their own business. Other times, they have impostor syndrome and undervalue their work.
These are the kind of people that say “I’ll be at your house on Monday at 10:00”, and will show up at 9:55, eager to work. These are the kind of people who can do great work for less.
The second case is the bad one: they don’t come when they say they will, take a long time to call you back and require several follow-ups, and sometimes even look disheveled and unprofessional. These are the kind of people you don’t want.
How I Chose the Bad Kind for A Sprinkler System Repair
So after Hurricane Irma messed up my front yard (I live in Miami), my wife and I decided to get some landscaping done. To protect that landscaping, we needed to get the sprinkler system repaired (which the hurricane also damaged). We got a quote from an established irrigation contractor, and were about to accept it.
Then, our landscaping guy said “no, I’ll get someone to do it for less”. Being squeezed for cash, we relented, and accepted this cheaper option (around $100 cheaper).
What a nightmare. The guy failed to show up three times in a row, with all manner of excuses (including that his wife didn’t let him leave the house). I had to spend about $40 on a long hose, and manually watered my lawn each day.
Finally, yesterday (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) he came and did the lawn irrigation job, and told me that the sprinkler system was all set and that he put on the sprinkler timer, such that I had to do nothing further.
Ha! The next morning, I woke up expecting an easy breezy Thanksgiving. Instead, I looked out my front windows, and found a lawn irrigation emergency in-the-making:
I don’t think it’s dead (I’m a first-time homeowner and learning as I go), but in need of TLC.
How did this happen? Because the sprinkler system guy forgot to put the sprinkler timer on “auto”. He configured the lawn irrigation system, but forgot to actually turn it on!
So, I went out and took care of it, and that’s why I’m all wet, sweaty, and pouting on Thanksgiving.
Lesson Learned: Double-Check It, Especially If You Go Cheap
Here’s what I got out of this sprinkler timer fiasco: if you want a service done well, either go with established, reputable people (who’ll probably be expensive) or find those ambitious young’uns who are competent but can’t yet charge a lot because they’re just starting out.
If, for one reason or another, you find yourself in my situation and hire a slacker, make sure to check the work both as it’s being done, and after it’s done. Go over it with a fine-toothed comb. Otherwise, be prepared to redo it yourself, or pay for someone else to come fix it.
What experiences have you had with cheap landscaping, or cheap work in general?
Gotta love home ownership, right man?!? I know I’ve been a victim of “get what you pay for”… It sucks, and you wind up either hiring out someone else or dealing with the original “less than” contractor until he gets it right.
Curious – Is xera scaping becoming more prevalent in South Florida these days? Some folks do like half their yard so they still have some green still.
Hey man, it’s definitely one big adventure. Before moving into this house, I’d literally slept in a ground-level house less than 10 nights in my life (I grew up in a city apartment). So this was all totally new to me, though I’m much preferring it to apartment living.
I had to look up xera scaping to find out what it was. As far as I can see, it’s made no inroads in South Florida. Though I’m told that my sprinkler system draws water from a well, so I think that mitigates the water use? But yeah, “lush, green, and tropical” seems to be prevalent in South Florida.
Definitely pay for quality! Inexpensive is good. Cheap is not!
Our HOA technically mandates that we install an irrigation system as well (even if you don’t use it) so I’ve got to get on that in the springtime. I’ll have to keep this post in mind 🙂
Glad to be helpful 🙂
Dang that sounds frustrating. I do think it is important to spend money when it is worth it for quality and to avoid future annoyances in your life. Home ownership can be a PITA like that sometimes, hope you still had a great Thanksgiving.
Yes, quality is definitely worth it! I’m always looking for quality at a lower cost, but it’s not possible every time 🙂
Hey, Miguel. Here’s one for you. We had some porch issues that I thought I could handle myself. Well, the price was certainly right. About a $100 in material and a day’s work. But my patch job began to fray after a couple months. Time for the pros. Found a good guy and he and his crew took a few days to replace all the rotted wood. It cost $2K, but it was worth it. I don’t need my double front porch collapsing anytime soon, especially since we’re looking to sell our house next spring. So you’re definitely right, my friend. It doesn’t always pay to go cheap. Thanks for sharing your somewhat marred Thanksgiving.
Hey Mr. Groovy! Definitely, sometimes the best way is with a good pro.
That’s the route I usually take, at least until I learn more about it (I’m gradually getting “handier”, but still have a long way to go). Right now, my skills are pretty much at the IKEA furniture-assembly level 🙂
Glad to hear that your front porch turned out well!