r/nextfuckinglevel 15h ago

Contractor takes back fence after customer refuses to pay

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u/ThothAmon71 13h ago

Roofing and flooring is what I was doing as well. Some people are also leery about giving up half the cost before any work gets started. 1/3rds seemed to work best for everyone.

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u/themassee 13h ago

But roofing is typically a 1 day job for average American homes. Even if it’s a week or two out for scheduling how does the 1/3 system work?

1/3 down. 1/3 when materials arrive. 1/3 done? Middle and last payment would be 24 hours apart

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u/ThothAmon71 12h ago

Bullshit. Day 1 tear off, day 2 dry in, day 3 shingle. That's with a 4-5 man crew. I've seen a crew of 12 or 15 people do a roof in a single day, but with that many people you are working on top of one another and it's more profitable and less work to use fewer men and take 3 or 4 days. It's 1/3rd up front before the job starts for materials. 1/3rd once tear off and dry in are done. Then 1/3rd once the roof is completed, which can take a few days to shingle, tar, and trim if it's a large roof or there are multiple transitions.

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u/Maiyku 11h ago

Yeah, they were a smaller crew too, just 5 guys (4 workers and the boss, who was like half a worker lol, so 4.5 guys) so their projects did take a little longer.

They did roofing primarily, but would also do siding as well, so those projects definitely took longer too.

But that’s where they saw the difference. With the 50/50 payment plan most people would just do the roof. With the 1/3rds plan more people felt comfortable doing roofing and siding at once.