GC says All I do is complain... UUUGGG Frustrated

13 years ago

I am less than a month closing on my new home. My GC and I got in a big argument with him stating all i do is complain.. Thats not true. I have complined becuase what I ask for has not been done. The brick on one side of my house is messed up, the 2 pours of my drive way do not match, paint color is not what I ask for, grout lines are not 1/16 the size i asked for, my bathroom tile is messed up which is the most expensive room beside the kitchen, lights are hung that I did not approve. It just seems everyday I go out to the house something is wrong or that I did not ask for and I have to say something about it, I know it seems like all I am doing is complaining but I want my house done right. My GC is a very very nice person and will also be a neighbor of mine. But he even says "why cant you just pay the bills why do you have to question ALL THE bills" He said he is only getting paid minium wage for building the house. I am frustrated, my house is going to be very nice but i also want the work done right.

anyone else have this problem

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Comments (9)

dyno
13 years ago
I opened up this post and got furnace blasted in the face. Sounds like there is some communication breakdown, either because your GC isn't very organized or is purposely avoiding you. We were fairly active in ensuring items required for construction were confirmed and ordered in time for installation. There were lots of issues during the build so keeping things in perspective was a challenge.
shoelvr
13 years ago
WTH, how dare he make a comment like that to you when you are the one paying him tens of thousands to build your home. That is pretty ballsy of him!

For all the things he has done wrong, you should be compensated. Our builder is not organized either and we've told him flat out..if he orders something wrong he is the one that will pay for it not us (we are cost +). Still, I'm always on him asking to verify everything even before he orders. Every day I wonder why I am paying him, when it seems like I'm the supervisor here. I've already contacted one of the subs directly because when I asked our builder for more details he couldn't answer and never got back to me. So annoying!

It seems like you are cost + too. I hope you deducted for all his mistakes. Our builder hired a sub that did some pretty bad damage to the existing landscaping and he knows full well he is on notice and if he doesn't correct it we will go after the sub, him, or both. I wouldn't be such a b*tch about it if he admitted his error and that he wasn't there supervising..instead lied because we have witnesses that have already agreed to testify to what they saw and heard that day. All we got from the GC was a I'm sorry..sorry, but that's not good enough when your sub damaged approximately two thousand worth of landscaping and the irreplaceable cost of antique trees. All dead.

Don't let this contractor push you around and treat you like that. You are the one writing the checks..it is YOUR money he is working for you. So funny he is telling you he is getting paid minimum wage..what a character!

So sorry you are dealing with this.
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hi everyone! thanks for all your responses. It's a long story, but I'll try to be brief. For 3 months we tried to get the GC to the bank. They had 2 meetings set up w/him, which he didn't show up for. Finally, he agreed to go to the bank w/us. After that meeting he needed to submit to the bank a cost breakdown, because he claimed he needed $89K to finish the job. The bank also wanted to see a list of where all the $$ was spent. So we asked for a copy as well. As it turned out the lists had some red flags in them, so for the next 3 months we had a meeting every week trying to get him to produce factual figures, as the first list was bogus. He said he paid the painters $5k. We knew he hadn't, because we did all the painting and paid for all the supplies out of our own pockets and he never reimbursed us! Not one dime! Asked us if we could just consider it sweat equity, so we agreed. Anyway, he did give us copies of the purchase orders for all the trades, so we called them up and found out the real amounts he had paid them. There were 3 vendors, aside from us, that he neglected to pay, which on his list he claimed he did pay. A lot of the vendors on his list had added amounts that they never got. Guess who pocketed that? Yep, the GC! All in all, there was $42K unaccounted for, and each week when I'd ask for an explaination, he'd claim other items over again that I'd already accounted for! We were getting no where fast with this guy, so we hired an atty. The next few months were bogged down with Atty meetings, phone calls, letters to the GC, etc. All this to no avail. All during this construction time, which started in feb. 2006, we were having the battle of our lives with cancer. they didn't expect my DH to live six months, now it's 1 and a half years later and we've just about won that battle! So, as you can see, we were not on top of things at the construction site. the GC never even went to the construction site, unless it was to have a meeting with us! We submitted a list to ROC with 25 items in our complaint. All our exposed windows leak. Our concrete floor cracked right through the middle of our great room, in two places, and not just on the break lines! They did numerous screw ups throughout the job and refused to correct them. All the arches were done wrong, and we told them that as they were framing them up, but wouldn't do them the way the plans specified. Now, the place is all sheetrocked and painted! I could go on and on, but I'm sure you don't want to hear it all. It's just too much and we are very saddened. We should have been living there many, many months ago. We need all the final plumbing and electric before we can begin to go forward. Plus all the baths need to be tiled. I mean there's no way we could even live there if we wanted to. It's a nightmare! what else can I say? And yes, I have been running searches on him, that's how I know about his home and how much he owes on it and how there's no equity left in it. He used to own property in the area we are building in, but he sold it in 2005, that's when we first got his proposal on our home. Well, I hope I've answered everyone questions. I appreciate all your feedback and support. We really need this. Thanks again.
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kimgill
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks shoelvr I am paying cost+ and the Plus is a lot. He acts as if he gets frustrated when I complain about something to the point that I get nervous even asking about something,, I tend to start every conversations "I'm not fussing but would like to ask about something...." I'm sure he is getting tired of me but I am also getting tired. Its coming to the end and just pray I can make it though this without getting in another argument with him. I to have asked him if we could change subs, and have tried to contact one of the subs myself cause of miscommmunication.....
dakota01
13 years ago
Your House + Your Money = Your WAY

If you wanted a "spec house" you would have bought one !!

I'm sort of having the same frustrations w/my gc. I don't actually complain and I dont' think you are either. I think it's more that we have expections/standards that we expect. When something is done to the standards of the sub-contractor or the gc there in becomes the "complaint". What is acceptable to them - may or not be acceptable to us, the person who is spending all the $$$$ !!
arkansasfarmchick
13 years ago
Welcome to the club. ROFL My builder is a male chauvinist pig and absolutely HATES for a woman to have an opinion or question him. I thought he was going to kill me twice while installing cabinets. He later apologized for being an a-hole, but still... He argued with me for 15 minutes last weekend about the installation of my range hood. IMO, he didn't do it right. He has the same hood in his house and installed it the same way. I asked him if he read the instructions, he replied with "You should know by now that I don't read instructions". And I have lost count of the times I have heard "I have been building houses for 25 years and I've never heard of such a thing" when presented with an idea new to him. OMG, it would be funny if there wasn't so much money involved.

What it boils down to is that he is a professional hired to do a job for you to YOUR standards. That gives you the right to have opinions, point out mistakes, and complain about shoddy work. :-) Just cheering you on a bit...

V
kimgill
Original Author
13 years ago
I agree with all of you.
arkansasfarmchick I am a women trying to build my house without a man for me and my sons. My builder has picked out several of my items without even asking me what I wanted. After confronting him he always comes up with an excuse "that what I always use" that the color I always use.. . And everytime I say some thing is wrong he has a reason it isnt wrong or says thats nothing to complain about. But its my money not his....... Thanks
sandy808
13 years ago
Yes, it is YOUR money, and YOUR home. You have a right to set the rules and complain about how things are done. Your general contractor is your employee, and you are the boss. Make that clear.
sierraeast
13 years ago
"Your general contractor is your employee, and you are the boss. Make that clear".

My Grandpa was a succesful and reputable builder in San Diego. He built in an area now known as "old Town" and some of the houses he built are historic preservation homes. He always stated that every customer was his boss and he worked for them. He never went without work!
kateskouros
13 years ago
there seems to be some kind of GC Club that they all belong to. if a GC is not already rude upon acceptance apparently they learn once inducted. i can't tell you how many moronic mistakes our GC has made. i really love how when something is done wrong he won't acknowledge the error in the hopes we won't notice. -i mean BIG mistakes, like two walls of windows sitting right next to each other -and one of them is ONE INCH HIGHER than the other set! the window sills meet at a corner and you can see how far off the sills are!

it's frustrating to say the very least. i do keep on top of keeping the peace however so i'll be sure to let GC know when i really like something. sometimes i bring donuts. last month i got him a bottle of stolichnaya. spoke to him this week and he told me he still loves me so all is good ...but man, sometimes i really want to rip out his spleen. (!!!)

GC says All I do is complain... UUUGGG Frustrated

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GC says All I do is complain... UUUGGG Frustrated

Comments (9)

dyno

shoelvr

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