Laborers/Contractors unreliable? (flooring, pool, laminate, dining room)

[thatguydownsouth]

I wonder if I am just having a bad sting of luck or what but maybe you guys/gals can chime in. I bought a house a few years ago that was a rental and has needed a lot of work to get back into pristine condition. So I saved up money and have just started really hammering out the rehab work. But it seems like any contractor/laborer I use is completely unreliable. Have you guys run into this??

First I needed to have some tree work done so I contracted with a company that had decent reviews online, they were supposed to meet me on my property at 8AM before I went to work, at 9 they called and said one of their people didnt show to work then said "Well come tomorrow" like it was no big deal. The next day same thing. Finally a day later they showed. I was late to work 3 days in a row.

Then I hired a flooring guy that a neighbor recommended to put in laminate throughout the house. We have had the laminate in my dining room for a month because he just shows up whenever he can after his day job. About 1/5th of the job has been completed. Whats odd to me its a lot of people recommend him...

Then we hire a guy to pressure wash our pool deck and drive way and he texts me an hour after he is supposed to be there and said his machine wont start. Havent heard from him since Saturday.

Am I just in a string of bad luck or is this normal???

[Moby Hick]

Nobody but you has this problem.

[cargoman]

In my experience this seems to be the norm in my area. If I find one that actually shows up and does good work then I latch on to them for repeat business.

[SolaireSolstice]

I've had about a 50% reliability rate with contractors/handyman services/laborers. I assume that for smaller jobs, they schedule you into larger jobs, which puts you very low on priority list, and for larger jobs, they sometimes run into issues with a prior job that runs over time. But some just seem flaky. My handyman moonlights, has a full time contractor job with a realty company, so I know that he will get here when he can get here.