How anal should I be? (New house)

[Kloubek]

So - my wife and I get posession of our new house in mid January. yay!

We have been visiting the site every weekend to take pictures of the progress. Now that the house is nearing completion, we have started to notice a few things which do not appear 100%.

For example: There is a wall separating the shower stall from the bathtub. The sheetrock on one side of the wall (which sticks out about 4 inches until it hits the shower stall) is slightly slanted. Not really sure how it is possible, but it is. With the grout lines of the tiles, I can now see it. Now, in the 4-inch span it is only off by maybe 3/4 centimeter. It is not an enormous issue at all, but I know every day I live in that house I'm going to see it.

Since there is obviously an error (though very minor in the scope of things), should I get them to tear the wall apart and fix it?
Another thing we noticed: In order to tile our fireplace, they had to cut the top row of tiles. On the edge, I notice that where the tile is cut, it is slightly chipped. Pretty common for glazed/ceramic tile I think. Additionally, the baseboard at the bottom of the adjacent walls comes right up against the *corner* fireplace wall. Then there is about a 2cm gap in the corner on each side, before the tiles begin. Are these things to bitch about?

In my day to day life, I'm really fairly laid back. I'll fight vehemently for things I truly believe in, but otherwise I tend to let things slide a bit. On one hand, these are not major issues and no huge deal. On the other hand, I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for this work, and it should probably be virtually perfect.

In short, I'm not sure if I should be an asshole, or if I should take it UP the asshole in this case....

Thoughts?

[Thaco]

you just committed your paycheck for the next 25 years of your life to this house, how anal do you think you should be?

[kenny]

Originally posted by Kloubek
Now, in the 4-inch span it is only off by maybe 3/4 centimeter. It is not an enormous issue at all, but I know every day I live in that house I'm going to see it.

If you see it, chances are when you sell it, someone else will as well. Get it taken care of.

[yellowsnow]

Yes, make them fix every single damn thing! Chances are, they noticed the tiles were crooked too, but hoped you wouldn't say anything.

[masoncgy]

Absolutely have it corrected to your satisfaction. Even with the slowdown in the building industry, there are still a ton of contractors with sloppy workmanship and you are paying good money for a quality product.

:thumbsup:

[masoncgy]

Originally posted by yellowsnow
Chances are, they noticed the tiles were crooked too, but hoped you wouldn't say anything.

9 times out of 10, the homeowner notices the sloppy workmanship, so I have never understood why a contractor is okay with trying to sluff off crappy work knowing full well that he is going to be back to tear it out and re-do it...

Pretty counterproductive, in my opinion.

[D. Dub]

Originally posted by Thaco
you just commited you paycheque for the next 25 years of your life to this house, how anal do you think you should be?

Exactly this.

[mr2mike]

Had a buddy lay down atleast 60 pieces of marking tape on his new hardwood floor. Made them basically redo the whole floor because of little dents that were only noticeable at an angle. I thought he was picky, but why not? You're paying for a perfect or near perfect product.

[masoncgy]

^ Yeah no doubt. I never understood why hardwood installers would put down crappy boards in the first place.

Sure, a *few* might get knicked from other trades, but for the most part, crappy boards are the result of a quick-moving/non-caring installer.

Though I remember having homeowners who selected natural appearance woods that come loaded with knots & imperfections (some people like that rustic style) and then have those people complain... too bad for you!

[syeve]

Get it taken care of now vs waiting for your final walk through.

Contracters get bonuses if their work is perfect the first time vs having to come back and fix things. During your walk through you will find paint mistakes, drywall mistakes, dirty carpet etc etc and all will be taken careof without question by the builder. BUT if you can find things now vs later they will be happy to fix it.

[C_Dave45]

you should send me some pictures, Jeff. Tile is one of the most-abused trades with these new builders. My sister's $600k house had just BRUTAL tile work. I had to tell them to redo the shower, BEFORE they even started..they had used "pressure treated" lumber, that they were going to tile on. An absolute NO NO!

Take one wide angle shot...and one as close as possible to whatever it is that concerns you.

[SJW]

I'll never build a house again. Too many sloppy tradesmen around. It's brutal.

[C_Dave45]

Originally posted by masoncgy
^ Yeah no doubt. I never understood why hardwood installers would put down crappy boards in the first place.

Sure, a *few* might get knicked from other trades, but for the most part, crappy boards are the result of a quick-moving/non-caring installer.

Though I remember having homeowners who selected natural appearance woods that come loaded with knots & imperfections (some people like that rustic style) and then have those people complain... too bad for you!

Do you know how many trades come in after the hardwood? tile guys, carpet guys, painters, plumbers, electricians, finishing carpenters, blind installers, heating guys, window guys (screens and handles), cabinet guys, appliance people, cleaners and the builders own deficiency people. None of them want to take their boots off, none of them take the time to put down drop cloths and blankets (all of them work piece work, not by the hour, so time is money) This is where all the dings come from. Very few times an installer puts in a marked board. It happens, but very few. Winter time is the worst with the weather outside. Hardwood goes in anywhere between two and six weeks before possession. Now you know ;)

[88CRX]

I had a good list I put together for my final walk through.... I'll see if I still have it somewhere.

I was fairly picky.... like others have said why not, you're paying for it.

[GTS4tw]

if you bought a custom built mansion then worry about it. If not, then trust me, it wont be worth the hassle.

[2Valve0]

Bitch and make sure every single thing in the house is done right and how you want. You choose the quality you accept, if it is not up to your expectations they have to re-do it, especially with those problems.

[Jason Lange]

I'd say if you are ok with it then leave it, it will probably be a hassle to fix it. With that being said, if it is worth the hassle for you because you know down the road it will bug you then have them re-do it.

[DeeK]

Originally posted by masoncgy


9 times out of 10, the homeowner notices the sloppy workmanship, so I have never understood why a contractor is okay with trying to sluff off crappy work knowing full well that he is going to be back to tear it out and re-do it...

Pretty counterproductive, in my opinion.

Having worked in the industry and built many houses, I can say that all homeowners notice something wrong with the house, but the average homeowner notices only 20% of the errors in the house. Contractors get paid by the job, so the more jobs they do, the more they make. They rarely return to the same jobsite to redo shotty workmanship, as the homeowner either doesn't notice, or it's a small enough thing that the homebuilder's company can take care of. That's why it keeps happening.

For the record, most of the time I was one of those people on hourly wage that fixed all the contractor's errors prior to turning over to a homeowner. Salary wage = Quality.

From that standpoint, I say bitch about every little thing you can. Go over the place with a fine toothed comb. Get it done right.

[DeeK]

Originally posted by GTS4tw
if you bought a custom built mansion then worry about it. If not, then trust me, it wont be worth the hassle.

The hassle depends on which homebuilder you decided to build with. There's only a few good ones in the city. Otherwise, have fun fighting them for the next year getting it all fixed.

[InRich]

where did you build? which builder?

[CaptainReboot]

Get everything fixed now in your first year, no matter how small it is.

The biggest problem we had was one of our wall extensions was not straight. It curved quite a bit (probably a good inch or so) It was quite bad actually, I may have pictures of it. They didn't want to fix it until we complained enough about it. They basically ripped open the wall then banged it back into place so that it was straight. Fixed up the wall, repainted, etc. Glad we did, since we noticed it, someone else probably will too should we ever sell in the future.