I am at the plumbing stage of my pool build and have had nothing but problems with my builder. We are 5 months into our contract and are currently at the plumbing stage. Still have electrical, decking, and plaster left. She gets irritated when I ask questions and responds to me with comments like, “its construction get over it” or “is this to your satisfaction”. If I complain she delays the build and we have already given her 2/3 of the payment. I don’t know what to do. The plumbing that was done yesterday is leaking and she is refusing to answer my questions on it because she doesn’t feel well and was up all night.
Very rude builder
- Thread starter Asummerlin
- Start date
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- Tags
- contract rude builder
Time to talk to the owner of the business. Write down your concerns and ask for a new manager of your build. Put everything in writing with dates, times, names on it.
Fire her, and see if you can get a new PB to finish.. Hold back payments as well.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,382
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Do not fire her.
Not only would termination of the contract likely lead to a big financial loss for you but you will find it impossible to find another builder to complete the job. Most PB’s will not touch a half finished pool and you’ll be left with a giant mess for months.
It’s time to invite this builder over, with a 3rd party to take notes, and have a civil and adult conversation about expectations and completion. The relationship has clearly become antagonistic and petty and that needs to stop. This is a business transaction and all parties need to act like mature adults.
You need to lay out your concerns and wishes in concise, emotion-free terms and ask that she responds to them. She may say yes to some and no to others . Then you have to establish clear goals and checkpoints. Once you can agree on something then you need to let the PB do her job without interference. If an issue comes up, you set time aside to look at it. All of this needs to be laid out in the open.
I hope you can develop a better relationship for the remainder of the job. Let us know what happens.
Not only would termination of the contract likely lead to a big financial loss for you but you will find it impossible to find another builder to complete the job. Most PB’s will not touch a half finished pool and you’ll be left with a giant mess for months.
It’s time to invite this builder over, with a 3rd party to take notes, and have a civil and adult conversation about expectations and completion. The relationship has clearly become antagonistic and petty and that needs to stop. This is a business transaction and all parties need to act like mature adults.
You need to lay out your concerns and wishes in concise, emotion-free terms and ask that she responds to them. She may say yes to some and no to others . Then you have to establish clear goals and checkpoints. Once you can agree on something then you need to let the PB do her job without interference. If an issue comes up, you set time aside to look at it. All of this needs to be laid out in the open.
I hope you can develop a better relationship for the remainder of the job. Let us know what happens.
I’m guessing you referring to a mediator? That’s a great idea and cheaper than court. Thank you
Mine just ignores me but recently when I kept pressing him for an answer on when something would be done, he replied that he would 'harass' the contractor and get answer. I wondered if he was serious or being sarcastic suggesting I was harassing him. When I don't get a response after a day or two, I try again. All I want as you probably do is someone who will communicate and keep the status of things updated. For me, I feel that unless I keep pressing that nothing will get done. Hasn't worked well because lately there is still nothing getting done. Good luck on yours.
I hate that you are going through that as well. We are paying customers. You would think that entitles us to a little respect, lol.
I think sometimes that businesses (or builders) confuse whom is supposed to cater to who. If you are like me, just wanting it to be over.
The moron we hired actually told me, “You homeowners sometimes think you’re in charge. That’s not how it works out here.” It took every fiber in my soul to keep from choking that *******.
I want my builder to be in charge. My responsibility is to pay what and when I'm supposed to. But he's only been here twice while work is going on and the responsibility of inspection of the work seems to be on me. Reporting unlevel skimmers, bootprints in the bottom of my spa, prints on the steps, cracks in the bottom of the shell.
The first day they came to start the dig, I've got a huge excavator and 10 people standing around wanting me to tell them where to dig, how much elevation I want, direction, etc. The builder should have came out by himself in advance and us taken some time to discuss options, pros and cons, alternatives, considerations, rather than all those people standing around waiting on me to tell them what to do. The builder should have told them 'after' we created a plan between ourselves and without the pressure of 'time being money'.
Mine hit the plumbing stage at about 4 months. If they had started construction when they said, the pool would have been finished by then. About 4-6 weeks ago, I was told ours was next in line for the flagstone coping but then I found that the one of the skimmers was an inch lower than the other. So been waiting for a month now for the 'supervisor' of the contractors to come out. I have been unable to get a day from the builder since then. So work on that portion has stopped. I am currently into my 5th month since the quoted start date and no one's been out in 6 weeks or so.
- Jun 7, 2017
- 9,016
- Pool Size
- 29000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
The short answer is there isn't much you can really do. As you have seen, she can and will delay your build if it suits her. Grin and bear it, have her finish up and address any issues at the end. The leak would have to be fixed before the plumbing would be complete I suspect that would be an oversight. Usually they put the system under air pressure for a day or 2 did they do that?
- Jun 18, 2012
- 55
- Pool Size
- 12000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
Very sage advice. I was once in a job in which I took between 800 and 1,000 flights over a 4 year period. In that time I saw all kinds of travel issues and found that, beyond any shadow of a doubt, people who get upset and antagonistic with the only person that can help them get nowhere near as good a service as being pleasant and understanding their position.
Assuming that no one chooses a builder that has poor recommendations there has to be a way to get it taken care of.