Vent: My recycled lumber cabinet turned out strong, but the repair job feels shady

I just finished a wall unit using old beams from a demo job. To fix some splits, I used epoxy without telling the client, which made it sturdy but now I feel bad. Do you ever hide small fixes to save a project?

4 comments

4 Comments

leehall1mo ago

Yeah, the_drew's point about seeing it written out rings true. I heard a carpenter say once that being up front about repairs always pays off later.

the_drew1mo ago

Man, I used to do that too. Honestly, seeing it written out makes it feel way more wrong now.

susansingh1mo ago

Wait, hold on... it's not the writing it down part that's bad. It's what you're writing. Like when shops list "shop supplies fee" without saying what that even covers... or use super vague descriptions so you can't tell what they actually fixed. That's the sketchy stuff. Writing things out clearly is what we should be doing.

murray.cora18d ago

But come on, is a vague line item really that big of a deal? @susansingh, shops have always had weird fees, it's just how some businesses work. Customers get the main work done and that's what matters most. Getting too hung up on every single word on an invoice seems like looking for problems.