Hypothetical question

Maybe I am missing something here.

If someone hires a contractor to build something, such as a wall and/or floor, does it need to be specified that the item needs to be plumb, square and straight? If one of the specifications on said construction might cause it to be crooked by, oh let's imagine 3 inches, is it reasonable to expect the contractor to call and verify before going forward with constructing it? And is it customary for the contractor to blame the homeowner when it is pointed out that everything he constructed is not plumb, square and straight? In such situations, is it unreasonable to expect the contractor to redo the item(s) to be plumb, square and straight rather than just scab on some nailers?

:help: :help: :help:

Hypothetically, yes a wall should be plumb, square & straight. It would not be unreasonable to ask the contractor to make corrections but, I think you already knew the answer to all these questions.

Dionysia said:

Maybe I am missing something here.

. . . . . If one of the specifications on said construction might cause it to be crooked by, oh let's imagine 3 inches, is it reasonable to expect the contractor to call and verify before going forward with constructing it? . . . .

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I'm having trouble visualizing how "a specification" can cause something (anything) to be 3" out of whack. Unless you're talking about a bust in the plans. Care to elaborate?

A lot depends on the house that it being worked on. If the rest of the house is straight and level there should be nothing to talk about. If the house has a lean to it, it should be descussed before or during construction. Hypothetically speaking!!

BridgeMan said:

I'm having trouble visualizing how "a specification" can cause something (anything) to be 3" out of whack. Unless you're talking about a bust in the plans. Care to elaborate?

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Yeah, well I should have titled my post "Ranty rant" because I am mega frustrated.

The "specification" was that the new floor joists for the attic should butt end to end above the 2x6 support wall rather than overlap at the sides like the original joists did. Rather than call and say they couldn't figure out how to do that, they just stuck the boards next to where the original boards were [on the outside, no less] and then angled them over to butt... that is just the tip of the iceberg on what went wrong, hypothetically of course.

nealtw said:

A lot depends on the house that it being worked on. If the rest of the house is straight and level there should be nothing to talk about. If the house has a lean to it, it should be descussed before or during construction. Hypothetically speaking!!

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There is a certain amount of lean involved - it is an old house. However, everything in the interior was gone, so the only adjustments would be made at the exterior walls. [Warning - begin rant] A 2x6 support wall with everything wracked and leaning, plus no headers above the doorways, the two adjoining walls put in the wrong place, thus throwing off the spacing of the doorways, a 2x4 non-support wall also wracked, floor joists installed above said walls not square or level, a 5 ft opening cut in exterior load bearing wall with minimally sized header, and failure to follow very specific instructions on replacing 2 other joists, including toenailing the heck on the center of my LVL beam when there was a joist hanger sitting right there ready to use, makes Mama NOT happy

I gave the guy the chance to fix it and he just made things worse. Obviously he doesn't want to put forth the effort to do it right, he just wants to put up nailers to hang drywall on and leave everything underneath wrong, and then act like I am being unreasonable.

I really don't want to end up in court over this. I really don't want a lien on my house because the guy wants the rest of his money. This has been going on for too long. I expected to have wiring and plumbing in by now and getting started on drywall. I have begun wishing for a strategically placed [hypothetical] tornado. The sad thing is he came well recommended.

First check your lien laws, ours have been change so that after putting a lien on he would have a certain amount of time to start a law suite where you may have a chance beating him.
I would right him a letter telling him the things that need to be fixed and include ; if he dosn't want to fix it ,you will have it fixed by others and deduct the cost from his final.
Hypothetically speaking!! If you have a permit, the inspector should catch the structural stuff. Most time the lvls have 3 3inch nails 16" on center, a five foot opening most times have 66" header, usually two 2x10s unless an engineer or building inspector has called for more. If the interior wall has the end of the floor joist landing on them it should have a header in the doorway but if it is not supported from below it is not a bearing wall and should not have joist ending on it. That would need a beam under it or across the top. Sometimes you have hangers and things left over, perhaps it wasn't needed.
The job is not finnished until you are happy. I would be pissed.

Hate to say it, but I think you'll be headed for Small Claims Court on this one. BTW, what ever happened to Hubby doing all of this structural stuff? Did he get burned out?

If the gyppo contractor refuses to make things right, it's definitely time to shop around for quotes from someone who's willing to do it correctly. Pay them to do the work, then first send their invoices to gyppo, followed by a Small Claims notice of damages (total amount you had to pay to get the screw-ups corrected). If you've properly documented everything, you shouldn't have much of a problem in achieving justice on this one.

Unfortunately, we live in a rural area where permits are not required. So no mandatory inspection to fall back on. Since it is a rural area, most of the tradespeople are firmly entrenched in the "good ole boy" network and it is hard to find anyone that will go against their buddy and say it is messed up.

The only reason the Mr. is not doing this work is that we got a small grant that requires us to use a third party contractor, so we decided to have the contractor do some stuff that would be really difficult for one person to complete. In retrospect, I should have insisted on a new roof instead...

I am waiting to hear from an engineer/home inspector on rates. I will look up lien laws today or tomorrow, and then I need to send the guy a letter. I don't need this - I should be working! ... and this is a really lousy time for me to take off of work, again, to deal with this mess.

Thanks for your sympathies.

Get a quote and stick to it. Do not make changes. Be strait and up front!