End of house renovation project dispute with the building company. What's the industrial norm?

RoseLondon

We are near end of a big extension/renovation project. For numerous issues, we had unpleasant exchanges with the builder. The guy managing the project has a tendency refusing to openly admit any fault/negligence on any issue. When we are behind schedule , he put all the cause on us ignoring what they failed to do.

Anyway, we have only a few final bit carpentry, electrician and plumbing to tie up next week before signing off. We raised a checklist for the little odd bits.

one of them is that between the bathtub & the walls, there are gaps to fill/seal, as well as between the toilet plan and the floor tiles. The builder told me that it's the tiler's job, not theirs. -Obviously, our tiler didn't do it as not being mentioned.

The other thing is that they had to drill quite a few hold for pipework of the radiator and etc. Now the holes are left exposed. I requested them to tidy up. This project manager said it's our decorator's job to make the filling. We found it's really unfair and don't believe it's really the industrial norm.

Can anyone shed some light if the industrial norms are really as what he said for the above? Much appreciated.

Doozergirl

You have a project manager but have brought in your own tilers and decorators? How many other people have you brought in?

I can't really tell you what people should do what without seeing, but for a start, you fit the bath to the wall, seal it, then tile. Conversely, you tile the floor first, then fit the toilet.

Holes for radiators - depends where they come from. Decorator if they're out of the plaster, or you can buy shrouds to cover holes if they come out of the tiling.

RoseLondon

Doozergirl, they don't have in-house tiler, decorator, kitchen fitter or flooring fitter. They only have recommended tradesmen whom we found across-the-board far too expensive.

I mean project manager by mean a personnel within the building company only...

RoseLondon

And the problem is that the building company sent their plumber fitted the bath and the toilet pan before our tiler came in to do the floor tiles and wall tiles.

Does this make it our tiler's negligence?

Doozergirl

I'm not sure what to say. Did you pay them specifically to project manage those people?

If you didn't, then you're the project manager and it's effectively your fault.

There are always jobs that don't really fall under anyone's remit and at the end of a big job, there is an element of finishing that is exactly that. The last bit of a job is where you end up picking up piddly bits and pieces from places and asking everyone randomly to do stuff as well. It costs money and time - I don't really understand if you've paid that or not. But there's also getting trades in the right order. You can have several fixes for each trade in a good bathroom.

I mean, my people would be more expensive than someone you pulled in, but then I wouldn't be project managing anyone for free. It's confusing, as you're discovering. Where you seek to save money, you are the one bearing the cost and risk.

RoseLondon

Hi, thanks for explaining a different view. I guess you more or less let me see what our builder think about these.

We think they should hand over a functional bathroom at sign off. But again, as you said , there are things not falling obviously within anyone's responsibility. We just have to pick this up at our own cost.

tacpot12

The industry norm is for a tradesperson not to do something unless the contract makes them responsible. A good project manager understands how building can be put together, so understands where there is going to be damage to structures and finishes that will need a different trade to address the issue. This means the project manager will make sure all the contracts and the plan aligns, so that there is someone who is responsible for fixing the structures and finishes at the appropriate time.