It’s been pretty bad. We hired contractors in June 2020 for a deck replacement, excavation, patio, finished basement with bathroom, and patio door egress. Things started ok, the deck work and excavation got done within a year, but we heard a lot about the costs going up. The trex decking took a while, but it got here. Pavers were not an issue.

The bigger problem was my contractor is from the area that got it by that hurricane a year or 2 ago, and he got all kinds of government contracts to fix the damage. He kinda ghosted me, and the quotes from the local guys to finish what was left were insane. 1 guy quoted us 10k for a half split when the basement already had 4 heat ducts he just missed. We owed the contractor maybe 30k of the 95k we contracted for, and estimated ran 60-120k. It was pretty depressing. Especially with the hole cut out of the foundation/basement wall for the patio doors being covered with a plastic tarp for almost 2 years…

I wanted to redo the pavers around the pool, so I basically rehired my first contractor to do that job to match the patio. He doubled the price on me, but it came with the caveat that he also finish the basement, which is now about 95% done. Just waiting on a plumber any day now for that basement bathroom. My guy has used a lot of subcontractors. It seems like the same sub crew never show up, but his regular guys are solid.

My town recently contacted me because the building permits are 2.5 years old and we haven’t called for final inspections. The guy that came said there are a lot of places where the contractors bailed or the owners ran out of money. As a lawyer, I can tell you we study how to sue contractors in property class- a mandatory core class for all first year law students- because it happens so often.