You and Your Contractor…A Match Made in Heaven or Hell?
Volume 48, Issue 10
By Grace Corradino

Keeping a Fire Island home maintained is a daunting task. Most homeowners do not own tool belts, rakes, shovels, hammers or sets of wrenches. Owning tools is one thing; knowing what to do with them and when to use them is the other. I don’t know the difference between a ten penny common nail and a six penny finish nail. They may even be the same thing for all I know. Every time I need to go to East Islip Lumber, a local supplier of homebuilding materials, to pick something up for Brian, I am completely intimidated. In fact, every time I go there I threaten to retaliate and send Brian to Victoria’s Secret for some lingerie for me. I assure you that he would rather have his finger nails pulled out than have to make that trip.
When I do go to the lumber yard I have the same gnawing feeling in my stomach that I had when I disembarked the train in Florence, Italy for the first time. I was lost, couldn’t find our apartment and could not speak the language. All I wanted to do was go home. Who cared about Michaelangelo’s "David" anyway?
So if you experience the same gnawing discomfort at the prospect of doing maintenance work on your Fire Island home, I suspect that at some time or another, you have needed to locate, hire and develop a relationship with a Fire Island contractor.
If you have been a homeowner for some time you know that the wind and salt wreak havoc on every element of your home; the roof, furniture, furnishings, trees, shrubs, flowers and siding. For example, kitchen appliances, if they are not stainless steel, corrode, rust and pit. Door handles and hinges turn to dust over time because of the elements if they are not made of stainless steel. At the end of every season, worse when August is particularly wet and hot, there is mold and fungus on everything. Deterioration is all around us. In order to protect your home, you have to maintain it. No where is that more important than here on Fire Island.
In order to assist you, the Fire Island homeowner, in identifying and working with the best contractors I offer the following insights.

#1. Talk to your Fire Island Neighbors. Who do they use? You will get a wealth of useful information immediately. Does the contractor provide estimates for the work? Does the estimate come close to the actual bill when it arrives? If not, does the contractor explain what changed during the course of the work so that the costs went up? Is the contractor easy to communicate with? How do they communicate? Via telephone, e-mail, fax?

#2. There are knowledgeable contractors and then there are the hacks. How can you tell the difference? First, ask them to show you some of their work. How long have they been working on the beach? If quality is important to you, you will see it. If you are not a high end customer, do not look at a high end job. Look a something the contractor has done which is more modest. That way you can have an understanding of what the quality of your project will be.

#3. Communicating with your contractor. Do not expect to talk to your contractor during the week, during the season. The work on your house gets done during the week. The work crews are here, material is arriving, it is a zoo. Many contractors make appointments to see customers on the weekends. This is good for you and good for the contractor. Although contractors may at times seem unfriendly, generally it is because they are very, very busy trying to get your work done. If you think about the chaos you feel during a particularly high stress time at your job or business, then you can have some understanding of what the business people here are feeling too.
You will NEVER get a contractor on the telephone during the day. They are all out in the field, working. If they are in the office, they are not supervising your project.
Find out the best time and way to communicate. Some contractors prefer the phone, many more now communicate exclusively via email.

#4. Everything costs more on Fire Island…You just have to accept that as true. When the cost of a ferry ticket goes up, we all accept it as inevitable. If those ferry tickets have gone up, freight costs have gone up too. The time, fuel and labor required to get any sort of product or material here is significantly different than having a truck pull up to a building or a house anywhere else.
Getting around takes time. Time is money.
Last year, on a glorious summer evening, a customer of mine, who shall remain nameless, wanted to chat with me about a fee for cleaning service we had provided. This customer lives in a million dollar Fire Island home, we were being watered and fed at another million dollar home, and he wanted to chat with me about a $50 housecleaning bill. Don’t have this conversation with a contractor in a social environment. It is not good for you. You just need to accept that everything costs more on Fire Island.

#5. Why aren’t there more contractors? The answer is simple. It is hard. It is hard to start a new business anywhere. Here on Fire Island, the challenges are unique and daunting. The physical requirements of transporting materials in a difficult landscape and climate and locating, transporting and paying a more expensive labor force are the first obstacles to overcome. Most people don’t want to do it. It is too hard.
Then there is the bureaucratic quagmire associated with getting permits to operate a business here. I am the queen of bureaucracy. I lived and worked in Washington, DC for over twenty years. I get "it;" the systems and the mentality of a bureaucracy. However, even I find it impossible to keep up with the forms, fees and parameters of the ever changing licensure requirements of all the jurisdictions we need to satisfy simply to conduct business.
It tickles me when there is a new contractor. I see the same thing every time. First of all, they get the worst customers, the customers who are demanding, unreasonable and they don’t pay. Generally, if they can survive that and they are committed to understanding the Fire Island culture, they can succeed. There is so much work that needs to be done. But it takes a real commitment to working here.

#6. The key question…Ask a contractor, "What do you do?" As an example, if a plumber answers, "I am a plumber," you know you are dealing with a plumber. If, on the other hand, your plumber answers the question by responding, "I am in the plumbing
business," you are in very good hands. You will determine quickly, your contractors’ commitment to service, because they understand business.

#7. Paying your bills….It is the dirty little secret that every Fire Island contractor and business person knows. From one end of the beach to the other, if you do not pay your bills you will have a difficult time getting any contractor to do your work. There are too many reasonable Fire Island customers for a contractor to have to deal with someone who is demanding and unreasonable. Clearly, everyone has a right to question charges which seem unfair or unclear. Choosing not to pay is a mistake.
Feel like a hostage? You shouldn’t. If the relationship and communication is good, there shouldn’t be any surprises when the bill arrives. But if you fail to pay an undisputed bill, you will find that no one will return your phone calls….EVER. Word of a non- paying Fire Island homeowner spreads like wild fire.

#8. You need your contractor, but they need you too. Without you, they have no business. Without them, you have leaky roofs, broken pipes and a bad looking yard.
Grace Corradino and Brian Kerr live, year round, in Saltaire. Grace owns Fire island Living Real Estate and Brian owns Brian Kerr Landscaping.
Both Brian and Grace welcome your comments and questions about all things Fire Island. Send them an email either at Grace@FireIslandLiving.com or BrianKerr@BrianKerrLandscaping.com.