One very valuable (and expensive) lesson I have recently learnt is understanding the language of the tradesmen on the 4 house development. Being aware of companies quoting square metre rates on the walls Vs floor. For example I got quoted $14m2 to gib fix on the floor rate for Unit 1 and 2, then the fixers turn up to do the job, does half an day and make excuses the following day. Overall just muck me around and wasted everyone’s time. So, I cancelled him and got another one in. We agreed on a rate of $14m2 and he did the work. He assumed I was talking wall square metre and I assumed he knew I was talking floor square metre. Well the difference at the end was 3x!! We negotiated a rate of $8.50m2 which I honoured but it did end up costing me 2X what I should have paid.
I then ended up getting another lot of jib fixers for Unit 3 / 4 and let me tell you they were a breath of fresh air. Quoted $16m2 on the floor came to site, did a great job, and left the site 3 days later with both units completed.
