Thanks for the detailed reply. I am doing a pool with them now in NJ. I am still reserving judgment until I finish the whole process but so far I am frustrated with the rate progress. I had heard and read so many stories about how work is slow and delayed that I really grilled them on this. The sales/design guy said delays between phases of work were a "thing of the past" and that they build so many fewer pools now that it is a "non-issue." I even specifically said since the work will be done in spring when it rains a lot, I know we will have rain days but wanted to know if rain days led to getting re-scheduled to the back of the list and caused a lot of dry day delays. Again, "oh no, definitely not. Nothing like that." Bottom line he said even with typical rain delays I should get from dig to swimming in 8 weeks. Before the dig it could take "up to a month" if the Township holds up the permits� I signed in early March. They dug the hole 31 days later. The Township approved the permit within one working day of receiving it, except for the part A&S forgot to file (new employee I am told � I only found this out because I have a contact in the Township). A&S then took a week to file that part and then just mailed it. Township turned it over almost immediately again. But it took a couple weeks to get the dig scheduled. The hole was dug two weeks ago and counting. That�s where it stands. They did have the steel crew come out about a week later but some of the dirt had slid back into the site so they left and said the diggers had to return. They finally did and it took them and hour in-and-out and they were done very early that morning. Still no sign of the steel crew and from communicating with the scheduler it is definitely the case that I am at the back of a list again, despite being told it didn�t work that way. Of course if they wait long enough it will rain again and more dirt will slide back into the hole and we�ll just have to do this song and dance again. In the best case scenario now it will have been 19 days between the first day of actual work (which took half-a-day) and the next (which will likely take only half a day too). The bottom line is I understand rain delays but I have had more dry day delays than rain so far, and that goes directly against my asked-and-answered questions about how the process would work. BTW, to your other comments, at least where I am they seem to mostly use Jandy equipment. I wish they used Pentair because I wanted to use their control system that had the iPhone/iPad interface. They said they could only install the Jandy PDA system and wouldn�t even quote the Pentair. They use AquaCal for heat pumps, which they strongly pushed as the preferred heating method, and Raypak for propane heaters, Haward for LED lighting and Polaris for sweeps. And they strongly push the Nature2 Fusion system over doing a saltwater chlorinator. They reluctantly quoted a saltwater chlorinator after some prodding but it was ridiculously more expensive that just getting one installed after the fact and they offered zero credit to remove the Fusion system if you did it and were going to force me to sign something that basically indemnified them against any premature damage to the coping or the stone on the raised bond beam. They do use Jason�s as their servicing company. I don�t know if they do the plumbing too since I haven�t gone to that yet. They use Corbin for the electrical.

Karen, Unless you are planning to hire a professional engineer/inspector, or waiting for results from your attorney, we need to identify exactly what went wrong since by all accounts with an effective perimeter drain and working sump pump, you should not have a water problem. Would have loved to help in person, unfortunately we relocated from NJ to WA a couple of years ago. From your pictures it appears water is seeping up through a possible gap between slab and basement walls. To answer your question why basement is also wet in the center; regular concrete is porous and moisture will wick upwards through it due to hydrostatic pressure and lack of effective installed counter measures; I said regular concrete because one can add expensive additives to minimize/eliminate concrete porosity; but we can still fix things. First check perimeter drain installation: Do you have visibility to where the perimeter drain exits into the inlet? In your case, especially with sump pump turned off, there should be water pouring out of the drain; if not, the drain may either be a) sloped incorrectly (may even be feeding water back into the drain b) has a break somewhere (like patriceny described) c) is installed much higher than bottom of footings d) has drain holes facing up. Perimeter drain should have drain holes facing down so water starts moving sooner than wait for it to rise above top of drain; you want the pipe to drain and not float. Additionally, a perimeter drain should be sleeved in fabric to prevent clogging drain holes (it takes time to clog drains hence an unlikely cause in your new construction) e) is a combination of one or more above issues Measures: 1. Have the drains scoped: Preferably, this should be done when the basement is wet, so that you can tell if the drain is actually draining water to the drain. Have one ten foot section on a longer wall or where feasible, excavated to bottom of footing level. I'm guessing but it is very likely you have issue (c) above. Top of perimeter drain 'should not' be higher than bottom of basement slab. Drain needs to be next to bottom of footing to be effective for draining water. If that is the case, you may have no choice but to have entire perimeter dug out to lower height of perimeter drain or correct one or more above issues. If drains 'appear' to be installed correctly and water is still not draining fast enough, there may be a break/leak which unfortunately means uncovering 8'-10' sections at a time to identify where it is crushed/broken. Not that anything can be done about it immediately but do ask the builder if he installed a vapor barrier (visqueen sheeting) before he poured the basement and what thickness it was 6mil, 10mil or thicker (very likely it is 6mil if at all installed, builders will not use anything thicker unless specifically asked. Other effective measures: #1 is install an interior french drain, at least 8" deep (twice your slab thickness) draining into sump pump pit #2 if no vapour barrier was installed, have a company use Pressurized injection of waterproofing material, such as polyurethane, via several drilled holes. #3 same as #2 above but have them seal joints between slab and walls. #4. Dig out sump pump pit, deepening it to effectively lower water collection level and taking water away from bottom of slab and walls. There are several other possible solutions but we need to establish root cause or causes first. Please keep us apprised of course of action you are or intend to take.

So just my 2 cents... A contract is never more valuable than the steps you will take to enforce it. It is just an agreement between two people and that agreement has two sides. Frankly, timelines are incredibly difficult to enforce in non-commercial settings and there is no guarantee that a new timeline would be any more enforceable than the last. Furthermore, I am not sure that a time is of the essence clause would be enforceable without additional consideration. You can't add liquidated damages or a new breach condition to an existing contract without offering additional consideration. Now you might offer that not suing the contractor for breach is consideration and that might work but if he calls your bluff there is little you can do. Furthermore, the problem with liquidated damages clauses is that if you have made any change to the contract then they are largely out the window. This is why they work well in commercial contracts that are fully specified and less well in contracts that are not. You note that you owe the contractor $30,000 above the original contract price for other improvements, if any of those constitute a change in the contract he is going to argue that you caused the delay. Contractors are generally given a wide berth on those delays. A 48 hour delay in a selection that the owner chose could easily justify a much longer delay in the project. The idea being that the subcontractor is scheduled on your job on X day and would have to be rescheduled when available, which could be weeks later. The problem with construction contracts is that you and the contractor are largely over the same barrel. You can either choose to stop work and act on his breach, which will delay the project for many more months or maybe even years. Or you can choose ignore the breach which largely means the rest of the contract is enforceable in full. If you ignore the breach now and try to collect in court later on, it is unlikely that you will collect more than your attorney fees. My advice is that you set aside strict enforcement of the contract and instead focus on your goal. That goal should be getting the best house you can get for an amount of money you can live with. Whether that amount is more than you originally intended is really immaterial, the questions really become (1) which option get you a nicer home? and (2) can you afford that option? There might be cases where terminating the contract is the best answer to those questions and there might be cases where making nice and figuring out how to pay for it is the best option. Best of luck to you.

Just my 2 cents on your position and options. First, you need to quickly decide if this thing will resolve with communication or whether it is going to require a bit of a push to resolve. Next, the legal system really has two uses. You can use the legal system to resolve issues, which usually take significant time and resources. Or, you can also use the legal system to force reasonable settlement of issues outside of a courtroom. In my opinion, the latter is preferred to the former. I would advise having a discussion with your attorney about skipping the back and forth part of demand letters and just filing the case and the lis pedens. That will likely force the builder to sell it to you or at least force a conversation on getting this fixed. Odds are your builder has overestimated the power he has in this matter, owning a house that you want to buy certainly gives him some power, however, having money tied up in a house that no one but you can buy drastically shifts that power dynamic. I doubt the cost to file the case and the lis pedens is significantly more than back and forth demand letters and is much more likely to result in favorable action, possibly even having him reimburse you for those fees. Having said that, listen to your attorney. There are always nuances in your specific situation and jurisdiction that don't translate well to on-line advice. Good luck