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General Contractor questions

7 months ago
last modified: 7 months ago

Hi all,

I would really appreciate your advice. I am working with a general contractor on a whole house renovation. some of the work has been quite good, but some of it has been substandard. When quality, materials, or execution has have seemed poor or improper I have brought this to the attention of the Project Manager and VP of sales for the company. I have been told many times that they aren’t worried about these issues, or the work is fine or even good. A few examples: they installed a brand new roof about six months ago and told me the old lead counter-flashing around the chimney did not need to be replaced. Now there is a hole with visible daylight at the chimney flashing and rain water staining the chimney, roof rafters and the floor. They've known about this for more than a week but have done nothing, despite rainy weather. They have also said they don't want to speculate that the rain is coming from the visible hole and suggested it was coming through saturated chimney brick that needs to be sealed instead (they were obligated to seal the chimney and claim that they did and it needs to be resealed). As another example, without consulting me and after I had specified using clear coat only, their painter ”touched up” beautiful original honey colored wood trim with a dark red mahogany that's a totally different color and opacity. The trim is now two-toned throughout the house. They claimed this was "artistry," the work of highly skilled painters practicing their craft. For a third example, we specified Doug Fir Clear grade floor boards. The quality seemed less than clear and I brought this to the General Contractor's attention. He says it is fine and I am ”overthinking” the floor boards, but then the flooring subcontractor told us he bought ”clear select” floor boards.

There are quite a few more examples.

This company has a very good reputation and is very expensive.

I am having a very difficult time trusting them at this point and am considering moving on, but I’m curious if the community here thinks I have unreasonable expectations. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!


(edited to correct typos)

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