Wildly inaccurate estimates from sub contractor

enola1986

Doing a house build with direct labor. Guy that is doing civil and ground works and did foundation charges by the hour. We paid him up to date once foundation was done. He then gave us an estiamte (both time and money) that his remaining work would take. Turned out to be more than double what he estimated. There were no unforeseen issues and don't think he was really time wasting either so he's just s**t at estimating his time.

How should I proceed? Obviously I want to pay him for the hours he's put in however he really threw our budget out with the inaccurate estimate? Should explain this to him, pay him what he had estimated and tell him he'll have to wait for the rest or any other way to deal with it?

Rows Grower

He charges by the hour and you know how many hours he has done so if you're happy with the quality of the work you should just pay him.

Brace yourself for more of these little surprises as you go down the direct labor route but if you are on the ball it should all balance out and in the long run you should save money as opposed to going with a main contractor.

Mellor

Agreed to pay him an hourly rates, the hours invoiced are accurate, the work is good quality and he wasn't been taking the piss. If all that is accurate you should pay him.

I appreciate it's way over the estimate, but the agreement was hourly rates. Look at it on the other way. If work moved well and it took him a lot less time than the estimate. But he sent an invoice for the estimated hours, you'd instantly pull him up on it and pay the hours worked as agreed. You can't have it both ways.

The estimate is only an estimate. It's kind of irrelevant. Had he been better at estimating his time, and got it spot on. You'd be in the same spot now. His bad estimate hasn't actually cost you anything. The time to raise it was probably when he was halfway through the estimated hours with less than half the work done.