The complaint compartment.

[paulsharvey]

BTW, Many many contractors are great, and sometimes the complaints are outside of their control.

 

[paulsharvey]

We used to get in arguments with contractors on the "unforseen circumstances" vs "unforeseeable circumstances"; and there is a Big difference. Yes, you didn't Foresee water problems in the pipe trench next to a wet-ponf, However, that's not an Unforseeable circumstance...

3 back to back hurricanes in 3 months, unforeseeable; it rains 4 days a week during the summer; you should have Foreseen that.

 

[TractorGunn]

Tractorgunn beat me to it.

Was that a complaint?

 

[Darth_DMack]

BTW, Many many contractors are great, and sometimes the complaints are outside of their control.

Understood, and I agree. In my case though, that's not it. Case in point... Air Conditioner Return Vent, ceiling mounted, right by my front door. When the house was in framing, I noticed that the vent was not square with the wall, it was a good 10-15 degrees off. I brought it up to the builder, and he said "no worries, they will fix it before drywall goes up."

Well, I kept watching it... drywall goes up, vent was STILL crooked. Brought it up again... same thing... "No worries, we'll fix it."

Final paint... vent was still crooked. Told the builder about it FIVE times... well, guess what... we are living in the house now, vent is STILL crooked.

That is just one thing. I have a list a double arm's length long. I would expect shoddy workmanship from a bargain cookie cutter house builder, but at the price point of this house, and it being completely custom... that was unacceptable. I have a final punch list a mile long, and I'm holding him to the fire.. but we had to close due to other issues, so he's not even returning calls now.

Sorry for the digression... but it chaps my ass. No excuse for stuff like that. Let's not even talk about my main propane line running from my buried tank to my house only being 2" below the surface... I could write pages on the crap that they messed up on. One of the selling points choosing this guy, was 30 years in the area, using the SAME crews for years.

Just another for instance... I paid to have my garage fully insulated. Blown in insulation in the attic over the garage, full insulation in the walls, insulated garage doors, vent in the ceiling so I could open / close it depending if I wanted it cool or not... we are getting ready to move in, I get up in the attic, ZERO blown in insulation over the garage. I raised HELL! Made the insulation guy come back out and fix it. Brought it up with the builder, he just shook his head. It was IN THE CONTRACT... this is one issue of many.

Ok, back to the thread... sorry for the derail. All I have ever asked for by people who agree to do a job for me, is communication. If you are running late, or have an issue, talk to me. Don't make me have to chase you down.

 

[paulsharvey]

To give an example of "outside their control", I knew a residential contractor, scatter lot, guess we would call it semi custom, but lower-middle end. He was building a fairly typical 3/2/2 for a couple from Ohio in FLa. Get 95% done, doing punch/owners walk, ecr, and the owner thought a Wholehouse generator should be included, although not on plans or in contract " because FLa can have power outages during storms". No idea if this client was oxygen dependent or something; but if it's not on plans/contract, it's not included.

Most contractors I personally know, do a pretty good job, and luckily almost all of them I've worked for, have generally tried to do good. Now, yes, they All cut some corners, hide stuff, and also make mistakes. I've joked with people, each and everyone of those $5m mini mansions on the beach, there is a 40 oz big gulp of pee drywalled up in a wall somewhere, and yes, someone Has peed in your dishwasher.

 

[WinterDeere]

We used to get in arguments with contractors on the "unforseen circumstances" vs "unforeseeable circumstances"; and there is a Big difference.

Excellent point. The difference between "unforeseen" and "unforeseeable" is some combination of:

1. Laziness
2. Imagination
3. Experience

It's almost like that "quick, cheap, right" triangle, pick any two.

 

[Fixastuff]

I have zero complaints to put in the compartment about how this thread is going.

 

[scootr]

My complaint is reading about people complaining.

 

[dadohead]

Wow, reading about these bad house building stories is quite unsettling.

We built our dream house in 2016 when I retired. My wife found the contractor. The project went great! He did fantastic design work and showed her upfront wonderful CAD images with fly-throughs. He was responsive to our changes. He had great subs that met dates and costs. No surprises.

I was on the job site every day. Funny thing though, on the job-site, he treated me like crap! I swear, every day his first statement was "move your truck". Pretty soon he was taking all 10 acres of pasture AND my shed. I used to work construction years ago too... enough! I started pushing back "no, move your trucks... you don't need to be parking all your crap out there!" When my wife showed up... he turned into 'Sweet Jay'. When she left I got 'Job-site Jay'. Yikes! Became a joke. He did a great job though!

 

[paulsharvey]

Excellent point. The difference between "unforeseen" and "unforeseeable" is some combination of:

1. Laziness
2. Imagination
3. Experience

It's almost like that "quick, cheap, right" triangle, pick any two.

A LOT of that has gotten worse with the Google earth bidding. "Clearing those trees is going to be higher than bid, they didn't look that big on the aerials" kinda stuff.