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Rodney · 02-05-2006, 06:23 PM

Just a note about contractors and subs: our home wasn't built specifically for us, but it was new, and the developers were also the general contractors. And we walked through that thing and found problems hear and there and all we heard was, "Those darn subcontractors.... I just don't know what was wrong with them." And _no_ suggestion that they, the developers and GCs, might do anything about it. Until we pushed them. They simply tried to lay it all off on somebody else. We eventually hired a home inspector to go over the place to make up a laundry list of things for them to fix. And then _we_ had to make arrangements with the subs to come out and fix the problems, not the contractors. Never buy a new home from surfers, that's what I say. :-) But that's probably not a problem in Michigan!

So I would suggest that, if practical, you do have somebody walk through and make sure all is going well, before the particular sub who makes a bad mistake packs up and heads off on vacation for three months and the GC tries to you it'll have to wait until he returns. Moreover, the GCs who built our house did make changes to the plans on the fly (we have the plans, complete with corrections), resulting in some curious design features. And there's a door on the outside of the house that's not in the plans that leads into a utility enclosure that's not in the plans and serves no purpose. According to the GC, he just went to lunch one day and the subs had put in the door and enclosure for no good reason. Shrug.

So these are some of the things that can happen on a job. And I think it would behoove your or someone representing you to stay in close touch with what is going on so that 1) things that were supposed to be done, are done well, and 2) on-the-fly decisions that change the original plans are _not_ made without your consultation.

02-05-2006, 06:23 PM	#17 (permalink)
Rodney Observant Ruminant Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town	Just a note about contractors and subs: our home wasn't built specifically for us, but it was new, and the developers were also the general contractors. And we walked through that thing and found problems hear and there and all we heard was, "Those darn subcontractors.... I just don't know what was wrong with them." And _no_ suggestion that they, the developers and GCs, might do anything about it. Until we pushed them. They simply tried to lay it all off on somebody else. We eventually hired a home inspector to go over the place to make up a laundry list of things for them to fix. And then _we_ had to make arrangements with the subs to come out and fix the problems, not the contractors. Never buy a new home from surfers, that's what I say. :-) But that's probably not a problem in Michigan! So I would suggest that, if practical, you do have somebody walk through and make sure all is going well, before the particular sub who makes a bad mistake packs up and heads off on vacation for three months and the GC tries to you it'll have to wait until he returns. Moreover, the GCs who built our house did make changes to the plans on the fly (we have the plans, complete with corrections), resulting in some curious design features. And there's a door on the outside of the house that's not in the plans that leads into a utility enclosure that's not in the plans and serves no purpose. According to the GC, he just went to lunch one day and the subs had put in the door and enclosure for no good reason. Shrug. So these are some of the things that can happen on a job. And I think it would behoove your or someone representing you to stay in close touch with what is going on so that 1) things that were supposed to be done, are done well, and 2) on-the-fly decisions that change the original plans are _not_ made without your consultation.