newjerseynewsroom.com

BY WARREN BOROSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BOROSON ON MONEY

I used to believe that it's always wiser to pay someone by the hour. Not by the project.

If you pay someone by the project, he or she might do a hasty, careless job. Using cheap materials.

Not long ago, I hired someone to clean my chimney. Two guys came. One said, let me see your roof. We went outside, he checked, and concluded that some repair work had to be done. When we returned into the house, his associate said that he had already cleaned the chimney! in maybe five minutes. For $75 or so, as I recall. I wish I had seen him do it.

Anyway, if (for example) you pay someone to paint the trim on your house, he or she may do it as fast as possible — and carelessly. Not scraping the old paint off, not applying two coats. The fewer hours he or she spends on the project, the better compensated he or she winds up being.

You can't always win, of course. Lawyers, accountants, dentists, and physicians usually want to be paid by the project. If dentists were paid by the hour for root canal, for example, I think we would discover that they are charging $1,000 an hour. Or maybe more. (These days, dentists are getting as well paid as rock stars. If not better paid.)

But recently I learned the downside of paying by the hour.

Now, the trim on my house — the wood around the doors and windows — was peeling. Looked awful. I myself could paint whatever was near the ground, but I didn't want to climb up a ladder and paint wood that was high up. I am, after all, [illegible] years old.

So I hired this guy, who had come recommended. I bought really good paint for him to use. (Baer.) I told him to scrape off the old, peeling paint.

So I come home...and what has been painted? The garage door! A big garage door. Hell, I could have done that myself. I told the painter that I was surprised he had one it — I didn't think it needed painting. it look grungy, he said.

He introduced me to his assistant. Seemed like a high school kid.

So the next time I come, the side screen door has been painted. Hell, I could have done that, too. Yes, now some of the trim had been scraped. But a post had been painted – and not scraped. It looked terrible. The kid must have done it, while maybe the painter went off on another project. I will have to re-do it.

I gazed at the house. The really difficult stuff, the trim high up, still needed scraping and painting. The painter and his assistant were just futzing around -- to extend the length of project, I suppose.

I decided to fire him and hire another painter. To cut my losses. I told the painter I had run out of money. And now I’m looking for another painter.

Anyway, the lesson I learned was: if you pay by the hour, the person you pay may try to extend the project by doing the necessary stuff last...and busy himself with easy, unimportant stuff.

I should have told him exactly what to paint — and that i wanted him to do it himself, not some klutzy amateur. And had him estimate how long the job would take.

By the way, you should be wary when two workmen come visit you. As with those chimney sweeps.

Once I was selling a used car.

Two guys came. One of them chatted me up, at which point I wasn’t watching the other guy.