Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 3 month nightmare help comments or prayers please

Sounds like a nightmare. I guess my question is, did you not go to the job site to check progress along the way? 24 pillars when the plans called for 45 should've jumped out immediately. I don't understand how this stuff went unnoticed.

Well?

It would be nice to hear how all of this turned out. Contractors can be pretty sketchy at times. Unfortunately, I think there is a code of silence around contractors just like other professions. It's just my observations that lawyers are the worst/best at taking care of each other. They all went to the same law schools and drink at the same country clubs. I hope he found some lawyers who would be willing to buck that trend.

kwg

I always get a kick out of guys who start out saying, "I built a new house", when they really mean they hired a contractor to build a new house. Builders and contractors on this site might be able to tell you how they would build the house but there is no reason to think they can tell you whether it is your contractor who is a fool, or you are for using him. I built my house. When something isn't right, I know who to blame and I do my own remedial work. GD

I didnt read the rest of the comments , so the legal responsibility goes something like this. General contractor, sub contractor , supplier. Generalcontractor is responsible for all those under his contract. If you hired a GC without getting a certificate of insurance, You now are part of the problem. Hire a GOOD lawyer.

Hope this fellow has come out somewhat on it. Times change, there isn’t much of anything I have done of any substantial cost that I don’t require a bond and current certificate of insurance from the sub.

I only read the first page, this is the first I saw it. My main concern over any would have been stabilizing the building. I’ve had two done in Minnesota where they excavated to the foundations then went down from there and lifted with permanent hydraulic jacks. They do them here under singular piers as well. Works great.
I have a corner of a building now that is starting to drop due to infiltration of water, the lake being only feet away. That will get jacked this summer as well.

Im not playing captain hindsight, im just throwing out a viable option for any who read this and may have similar structure problems. This may be mentioned in these pages before, sorry if im redundant.

Osky

^This. I had a similar situation where the contractor overexcavated our foundation, cracked it, caused water damage, restucco'd the house without waterproofing reulsting in more water damage, mold etc. fraudulent billing etc caused $$$$$$$ total damage. It took about $250K in legal fees and 3 years to revover about $$$$$ and the contractor continued working, never got his [bleep] bond of $10K. As Diggerman said, "Hire a GOOD lawyer.". We went through two law firms before we found a lawyer who was a real expert.

My brother and his wife are currently having a house built. The general contractor is well known in the area and he has a good crew. But, they live in a county of 16,000 people and everyone knows everyone and knows their capabilities if they do contract work.

I pity you folks who have to deal with literally hundreds of contractors and I would venture that 20% are amateurs'. In my brother's case his wife has pretty much spent every day at the house. When the house was closed in she moved her business into the house even before the floors were laid or cabinets installed.

With a good contractor it's still possible to get shoddy work short of being there every minute the day making sure you are getting what you paid for. She has rejected a number of products that came from the supplier wrong or mis colored or broken. The general contractor just can't do that if he has more than one project going on or just doesn't care. It's hard to sort that all out. I worked for a painter for a year and we did several houses and commercial buildings. You just have to be there making sure it's done as per the plans.

kwg

There is that.

The only thing you need is a lawyer who goes for the throat.

Not a nice guy who is prone to settle, but a shark that smells blood in the water.

Your builder and contractors who are at fault should all have liability insurance. Your lawyer can go down the list of those culpable and determine in short order what the limits of those insurance policies are, and pursue that like a pit bull on a poodle.

Given that your wife is a lawyer, perhaps she knows an attorney who specializes in these kinds of problems. If it were I, I'd want an attorney specialist on this matter.

Good luck.

L.W.