Is this a case of workers are there, but the project is moving much more slowly than you expected, or is it that appearances of workers are sporadic?

In our contract, if GC/builder fails to supply workers then we can turf him.

Someone will show up, I'd say, once a week for a couple of hours. Just enough for the contractor to say he has not "abandoned" the project.

You've hired a goof-ball, talk to an attorney.

If you've used a credit card to make payment put in a dispute immediately.

Make smarter hiring decisions, use this as a learning curve

Next time less priceshopping more quality.

You owe it to yourself

Most people want to fire their contractor. There is not much you can do, unless there is a definite completion date in the contract.

It's rare to have a completion date and any sort of penalty for going beyond the completion date by any substantial amounts in a residential contract. These are common in commercial contracts because every extra day a business is not in business is a loss of income. But I am not sure you want someone rushing to finish up details at the end of a project to get it done in your own house anyway.

I have had quite a problem with contractors over the years.

I had one who came highly recommended but the scope of the project was beyond his capabilities and he just sort of disappeared leaving some tools behind.

The problem was that it was very difficult to get someone to come in and not want to take out any of the old work and start from scratch. Eventually I found someone who would take over without completely undoing all the previous work. (Which wasn't close to finished).

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I had a well known plaster restoration person (nationally known, actually) who thought my project was too simple (not a lot of ornament) and put an apprentice on the job who made a complete mess, dropped and broke pieces of the run plaster cornices, and was just way in over her head.

He came in, saw what she was doing, fired her, and abandoned all the equipment including scaffolding on site and never returned another phone call or letter again. It would have been too expensive for him to undo her work and do it over at his agreed price. Luckily I don't think he had actually been paid anything yet but a small deposit, if that.

I found someone else, waited more than six months for them to be available and paid about twice as much as it would have cost if they had taken it on new.

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I should add that I dodged one big bullet. I was awaiting an estimate from a recommended contractor and he was suddenly and completely off-the-map, phones not connected, anything. I thought he was dead.

He wasn't dead, but he ended up in prison (vehicular homicide and other charges) for running over a pedestrian while smoking crack.

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Finally, I have a contractor who does great work great work. But he suffers from depression and his domestic life is always a problem (different women involved, serially). It takes him about a year to do a bathroom. He started tiling this last one in December of 2016. It's not done yet. (so it will take Two years, in all) When you talk to him about it, he says "I know. This is entirely my fault. I would not blame you if you fired me right now".

But who am I supposed to get to finish a project that's 80%or more complete in terms of his part of it?

The other contractors I use (plumber, electrician, HVAC, roofers) have all been great. But they are all much more expensive than average, you wait for them to be available and other issues.

You say that 25% of what you've paid so far has been because of change orders. Could it be that these change orders are playing a significant role in delaying the completion of the project?

At this point really the only thing you can do is what Joe suggested and really escalate things.

Also, I disagree with thatsmuchbetter that it's always about money. If only it were so easy in residential contracting that more $ = better. I've seen people pay for high end, highly recommended and end up having a lot of problems. I've seen people come off of Yelp and do a fantastic job for a reasonable price. You do your background work to maximize the odds that things go smoothly, but there are no guarantees.

I agree! thatsmuchbeter is assuming the homeowner is at fault. You can do all the research and still hire someone who is incapable of completing the work. The companies should not be taking the jobs if they cannot do the work.

Our contarctor should finish 1 year ago, his showing up on the side job twice a week to do nothing and we have contarct thats says 6 months aprox. to build the house. All subcontractor that he was bringing on the side job messed up the job: Drywall, taping, tiles floor and walls, brick etc nothing is how should be, and when me and my husband try tell him that we dont like the job like for example how they put the tiles or walls etc his getting mad at us and frighten us that his gonna change a code so we cant go inside the house no more... or that I make his worker cry because i ask him why he didnt protect the hardwood floor before he put all the equipments etc. We contact lawyer just to find out that besieds sending him letter and talking to him nothing else can be done. We can only sue him but this will take forever. He already took all money from our bank to finish everything but there is still a lot to go: water retention, driveway, moldings, casing and doors inside, carpet in the basemnt , gutter etc Still a lot. He start this project in February 2017 - Guy is a freakin nightmare, we got him from one of our friend - BIG MISATKE.

What exactly thats mean?

We hired contractors pd for supplies, they come 3 hours a day not consistant every week a different lie, gave us last name and its not even his real name!! What do we do???

@HU-513704610 - Giving you a false name is an indication of fraud. I recommend contacting your state's attorney general's office for consumer protection.