Your contract should say that changes must be agreed in writing. Check. If so, you need to put the breaks on this IMMEDIATELY. Otherwise your contractor will know that he is in the driver's seat with you and he'll pull this sort of thing repeatedly.

Tell him IMMEDIATELY to stop work on ALL the "changes" because you have not yet approved them in writing. Furthermore, tell him immediately that you do not intend to approve the changes to the bathroom because you don't like it. Thus, any and all work that he has done on that suggested change will have to be UNDONE at his cost. Let him know that there are some of his suggested changes that you probably will approve - once you know what those changes will cost. But that he SHOULD NOT go forward on any changes until he gets approval from you in writing as per your contract.

No doubt your contractor will get mad. He may throw a temper tantrum and try to claim that you misled him. Simply point out (repeatedly if necessary) that your contract calls for all changes to be agreed to in writing before they are carried out and that the reason for the clause is to avoid this kind of misunderstanding. You did not create this problem. Your contractor did because he ignored the contract. If you stay calm and keep referring to the written agreement which governs your relationship, he will eventually give in. He knows he has no choice.

Remember, as the client, you ARE the boss. Stand your ground. If you give in, you will have a much harder time taking back the reins in the future.

Ultimately, when he finally seems to be coming around, ask him to detail exactly what extra costs he has already incurred related to the changes that you don't want to keep. Note that except for the cost of tearing down the initial framing and reframing, he probably has actually spent very little at this point. He probably hasn't even ordered the extra tile yet and even if he has, the order can be changed if it has not yet shipped. So, don't let him "pad" his numbers too much. Once you have a reasonable number in hand, you can soften the blow and repair your relationship by little bit by agreeing that, because his mistake was unintentional, you will reimburse him HALF of that extra cost - AT THE END OF THE BUILD AND ONLY IF HE DOES NOT EVER DO THIS SORT OF THING AGAIN. But be clear that your offer to reimburse half is contingent on him following the contract from this point forward.

Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback BEV. will keep you posted on what happens when we meet him on Sunday.

Don't let him buffalo you. If it isn't in writing, anything he has done is on him, not you! True, additional tile is not cheap, but if the bathroom is not to your liking make sure he changes it to what you want, not what he likes. Let him know that any changes have to be in writing before he can proceed on any future work. You have to be happy, not him.

After a small remodel (2 houses ago), our contractor gave us a final bill that was 80% MORE than the original price. We had changed nothing in the plans and had a clause that if anything that was to be changed, we would put it in writing for all to agree. We told him, NO, we were not paying it. We would never have gone with this contractor if his bid was this much more up front. We based our decision on the bid, compared to others'. Needless to say, the friendship ended (he was a neighbor) and we learned that we would never have a "friend" do work for us again.

So update: we held our ground; The contractor agreed we are keeping the changes and he is modifying the layout of the bathrooms at no charge and promised to not make any other changes without signed changed order per contract.

Glad to hear things worked out well. Good luck with the rest of your build.

We just ran into a similar problem. Our contractor began excavating (in January 2011) and told us that our lot was filled with "unclean" fill. He then told us that they would have to dig out the entire lot then back-fill it with clean fill. He never had us sign anything, never told us it would be an additional fee, basically said, "it is what it is, we have to do this to build" So they proceeded on the build.

We now have our foundation poured and framing has begun. We received a phone call this AM from our builder telling us we owed him , $14,000 for the back-fill work, as he received the bill we were required to pay for it.

Any advice? How do we handle this? We have signed nothing! Is it time to hire a lawyer?

Buckle up. There are myriad ways your builder can and will increase his margin and make you pay for standing your ground. Change orders will be one. Allowances are another. Accept that you will be buffaloed. He's a pro at what he does. Remember though that there's not much you can do to prevent this entirely and do the best you can.

"Any advice? How do we handle this? We have signed nothing! Is it time to hire a lawyer?"

in this case i think you will have to pay. the contractor cant be expected to know what is inderground before he starts.

Frankly, it sounds to me like your builder is giving you a cock & bull story. It is one thing to begin excavating (in a rocky area) and discover that there are large bolders underground that have to be removed. It is another thing entirely to be told that the lot had been filled with "unclean fill" that had to be removed and replaced with clean fill.

So first off, I have to ask, how big is your lot and is it an "infill" city lot or in a relativly new development or out in the country on "virgin soil" which has only been farmed/ranched previously?

If your lot had "unclean fill", it had to come from somewhere! I assume you're not building on an old dump site!

If you are building in the city, have any of your neighbors ever been told their property was covered with "unclean fill"? I would find it impossible to believe that a single city lot would have so much "unclean fill" on it that it had to be entirely dug out and back-filled while none of the other lots around it have any problems what-so-ever!!! If several lots in the area have had unclean fill dumped on them, then you and your neighbors need to go in together on a "mass action" lawsuit against whoever did the dumping.

If you are in a new development, I suppose it might be possible that the developers dumped unclean fill on the lots, covered them over with a layer of soil, then sold them as a buildable lots. But if so, you would have a case against the developer!

Otherwise I find it difficult to believe that you would be able to buy a lot where illegal dumping had taken place without SEEING evidence on the surface of such dumping. Illegal dumpers don't take the time/effort to cover up their dumps with soil and grass! Okay, it is true that illegal dumpers might pour chemicals and other liquids on the surface and you wouldn't be able to see them when you bought - but it is unlikely that your builder would have noticed the chemicals either! If he is compaining about "unclean fill" then he is probably talking about stuff you would SEE when you started digging. Old asphalt/building materials/rusty old cars and stuff like that - not liquids! And if enough had been dumped that the entire lot needed to be dug up and refilled, you SHOULD HAVE SEEN SOMETHING ON THE SURFACE when you bought the property.

Thus, if you are building on virgin soil (previousl farmed or ranched or left fallow) there is almost no chance that the lot was covered with "unclean fill." Maybe there was an old rusty fridge half-buried somewhere - but certainly nothing that would require a complete dig out and refill!

I'd insist that my builder provide proof that there really was significant amounts of "unclean fill" that he had to remove. IF he removed unclean fill from your property, he would have had to dump it somewhere and to do so legally, he will have had to pay dumping fees AND the dump site will have records of what he dumped and how much. If there are no such records, then your builder is pulling a fast one.

Next, if he proves to your satisfaction that there really was unclean fill that had to be removed, check your contract. I assume you have a fixed price contract? Look for contingency clauses regarding unexpected excavation costs. Some fixed price contracts allow builders to charge extra for "unexpected excavation costs". Some don't mention it. Usually you see the contingency clauses in areas that are rocky where it is, in fact, impossible to predict what is underground.

But, in MOST areas, one lot tends to be very similar to the next and you shouldn't run into anything too unusual so there will be nothing in the contract allowing the builder to charge extra without a signed change order. If there is no contingency clause and no signed change order, you have every right to refuse to pay.

That said, you might want to negotiate paying HALF and having the builder eat half with the proviso that, if you can locate the original dumper and win a suit against him (with builder's assistance), builder will get half the proceeds.

But, if you're left with any doubt as to whether there really was a problem to begin with or whether builder is pulling a fast one to jack up his profit margin, I would seriously suggest putting a stop to the build immediately. You don't want to go forward with a builder who is dishonest. It will only get worse and worse. Better to cut your losses now if at all possible.