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Originally Posted by Rodney
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. :-)
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. ... 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.
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If anyone following this thread and its companion has been wondering why the state that a building is in would make a difference in construction and why some states are more litigious for general contractors, this is an excellent example. Rodney, you shouldn't have had to track down the subcontractors or really do anything other than let the GC/developer know when you be available for the sub to stop by to look at the problem and possibly fix it. As for your useless door, it obviously isn't going to harm the home or its value, but any GC who was paying attention at all would have either made the sub fix the problem or have them fill in the hole. It sounds like you ended up dealing with someone who is new to the process and doesn't take it seriously.
Sorry to spout off more insurance facts that no one other than myself is probably interested in, but the average insurance cost (cost of the workers compensation [workers injured on the job site] plus the general liability [protection from lawsuits brought by nonemployees]) to build a house in Illinois is roughly $12,000, which most of that coming from the workers comp. In California, the average cost is between $50,000 and $60,000 depending on where in the state it is. That number is evenly split. Part of the reason is that workers comp is a very expensive thing in CA, but it's also the most litigious state in the union right now.