The project started in September with a completion date of January 5th. We are still not in our house and it is May 5th. I fully expected some delays but this is getting ridiculous. A few weeks of delays were due to weather when our electrician couldn't work in -20 but the rest have not made sense to us. We are getting pretty frustrated with the continually changing completion date. Is there really no recourse for him being so overdue on the project?
well, depending on how far along you are in the project, the most obvious course is to fire him. Theres also holding back on any draws. Be careful what you do though because in the end you just want your house. You dont want to be left high and dry without a livable house and out a whole bunch of money
Hi Michelle,
I would personally ask to meet with your general contractor, not to be angry with him but to ask him to sit down and be honest about what is going on with the delays, and try to get a straight forward answer from him.
Coming from the general contractor's perspective on this, it's very tough sometimes when you get weather delays because the sub contractors we have hired were expecting a certain time frame for them to be working on our projects, if weather effects that time line, the sub contractors unfortunately won't just cancel all their other work they had lined up just to finish one project. For sub contractors it's about reputation as much as it is about making money, and to upset multiple customers compared to upsetting the one that was effected by the weather conditions in their minds is sometimes what they consider an "acceptable loss". It's an unfortunate practice that happens and us general contractors get caught in very tight corners when they do this to us.
From the customer perspective, I can tell you are obviously frustrated, and it sounds like it is because of lack of or poor communication on the general contractors behalf. This is why I am suggesting you ask him to sit down with you and be completely honest about what is going on. If it's because of something similar to what I have mentioned above, try and remember that it's sometimes something he can't control and ask him to layout a plan of action moving forward. If he needs to find new sub contractors, try to be patient with them as it will be tough to find someone who is available this instant because we are into busy season now for all of the sub trades.
I understand completely that this is a very frustrating position to be in, and I hope that you can get things resolved and moving forward. Demand communication and honesty from your builder, and allow them to create a new time frame if necessary, and ask them to stop changing the completion dates all the time, but instead ask them to sit down and come up with a new schedule from the point you are at to the finish and to give you a brand new schedule that he can be bound to legally.
I hope this kind of helps with your situation. I know it won't give you much in the way of a solution, but hopefully it will give you an idea of how to approach your builder to have your house completed and reduce the miscommunication.
Matthew Stranks
Project Manager
Stoneybrook Contracting
I would call another GC pay him 200 dollow for a walk through the whole house .Ask how long is going to take to finish the house .I think this GC is inexperience for this size of job .also call the building inspector and ask what is outstanding on this permit .once there is heat ,there is no delay for interior work .Alway cheek reference to size of project the GC had done.good luck.
Thanks for the input. Before we reached this point we had been trying to keep the lines of communication open with our contractor. We have now found out he is not licenced and is refusing to fix/pay for damage he caused. We are cancelling our contract with him and are attempting to get some of our money back.
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