UGH! So frustrating. And of course, now there is a lost of trust. I hope you reiterated to him that he should check the plan and any further deviations from it must be confirmed in writing. Just typing that got me wondering how the ubiquity of text messaging and having email available in our pockets at all times has changed their ability to use verbal exchanges as an excuse.
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Our guy is already much more communicative than some other builders we spoke to, who refused to even give detailed quotes in writing, or were like 'Oh, we’ll see how we do that later on" . At least this guy calls us, but he frequently seems to misremember? I’m in a professional job where I work with numbers, Mr. Imma is in office management, so I suppose what we consider “normal communication” is very different from what the average builder thinks of as normal.
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I am sure you are correct with just what qualifies as adequate communication. I hope he would commit to all things in writing, even if it’s just text message just so you can both refer back when you have questions.
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Here, it’s pretty much assumed that you don’t start without a detailed quote that’s been signed off on. It could easily slip into nightmare territory for both parties without that contract. And when/if the build deviates from the quote, there is typically a conversation about the changes (we always go into it knowing that there will be extras that pop up).
Our builder isn’t great with remembering to communicate some things, either (usually related to schedules). It’s rather humorous, though. My friend is his office manager, so I just drop her a line whenever I have a question, or ask him when he’s here. I think most builders are creative-types and, well, we know how that goes. 
He knows his job, though, and always has great suggestions for how things could be done in order to make the space amazing. From the beginning we gave him a basic outline of what we wanted and let him give us input on what he could do. He has really been great to work with.
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When we had our bathrooms remodeled, our contractor was also quite helpful. He had a lot of experience flipping houses, so he knew the latest trends and also what things were classic and never would go out of style.
I did ask him to insulate around the bathtubs before installing them. He questioned me until I told him that people who take baths would love to keep the water hot as long as they could. It was so very inexpensive to do but made the biggest difference. He now just does it as part of a bathroom remodel.
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Our builder doesn’t have an office manager, unfortunately, I think he could use one! Most contractors are self employed here and don’t have support staff. In all other fields, detailed written quotes are the norm but it seems builders don’t like admin much. Legally, a verbal contract is equal to a written contract here but of course it’s much harder to prove a verbal contract in court. But it’s not really that common to sue people here, we always joke about Americans running to court about everything, we generally try to figure things out without going to court.
We bought our kitchen, bathrooms and tiles from specialized vendors and they drew up plans for the builder to build. Except for that one issue, so far everything else has worked out. We worked with family-owned businesses who have been around for a long time and both were very knowledgeable and gave us good advice about the right choice of materials and what kind of extra’s are worth spending money on, and which ones weren’t, even if they were more expensive. For the floor, we went with a less expensive one than we had initially chosen, at the advice of the owner, because that material probably wouldn’t have suited our lifestyle. He said he’d rather sell us a less expensive floor that will still look great in 5 or 10 years, so we’ll recommend him to all our friends, rather than sell us a more expensive floor that will be damaged in a few years and we’ll complain about him to all our friends. It’s very true but not every salesperson thinks like that. I suppose that’s why that business has been around for some time!
We had a clear vision in mind of the style we want our house to be decorated in (we both enjoy midcentury styles, bold prints and colours, we don’t like grey and beige) but we didn’t come into their stores with a clear picture of the colours and styles we wanted, and especially the bathroom vendor really helped us design nice bathrooms, even though we hadn’t really put much thought into what we wanted before we came there.
Our builder is a traditional builder, who is very up to date about the latest trends because that’s what he builds every single time, he knows his trade but he’s not really a creative. He doesn’t really come up with out of the box ideas. We considered another builder who is much more of a creative, but we weren’t sure about his technical skills, so we chose skills over style.
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Are you getting a tub? I love Linda’s recommendation to insulate around it to help retain heat when bathing! I will be asking for that for SURE when we reno our bathroom. What a great idea!
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Room’s not big enough for a tub unfortunately! But it’s a great idea to insulate the tub. Hardly any extra cost or work but will make taking a bath much nicer. Those little things can really make a big difference in day-to-day life.
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My tub was on an outside wall. Since the house was old, there was not a lot of insulation in the wall so the water got cold quickly. I had a spa tub heater but, I never felt comfortable putting an electrical thing in a tub of water no matter how “safe” it was supposed to be!
Just be sure that the insulation is mildew proof as you don’t want the insulation to get moldy from the tub sweating. I believe he used fiberglass and not pulp or recycled paper. You can google it for more tips. It truly made a big difference in our colder climate!
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As you guys all renovate and decorate your homes over the next six weeks, consider creating something for the Spring Is In The Air Challenge! You can fix up an outdoor space you enjoy spending time in during warmer weather, decorate planters to cheer your living space, or create a lovely wreath to welcome people to your home. There are so many springtime options!
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We are experiencing issues with our builder again 
Same issue as last time - not building what’s in the plan (at all) then blaming the plan for being unclear, which I don’t think it is. I don’t know what it is with this guy. Or actually, I think I am starting to figure out what it is with this guy. I don’t think he can read a plan and I also think he has issues with reading for understanding. Maybe it’s linked. Maybe he can’t help it. But when you’re a builder working on someone’s house, that’s a huge issue.
He put in the downstairs toilet (half bathroom for Americans) differently than we had planned, but at least it’s functional and it doens’t look very different than planned, just facing a different direction. We did ask him to please take a very good look at the bathroom plans before building that, we showed him in person, we called, confirmed by e-mail … and it’s still absolutely not how we want it at all. Again, it’s still functional, but in this case, it’s much, much uglier than planned. It really looks like someone randomly stuck the shower head, the handheld shower and the thermostat on to different places on the wall. I would think that even without a plan, people would generally attach those things symetrically. In our case it was clearly shown in the plan as well as the 3D drawings as well as confirmed verbally and by e-mail that it was supposed to be built symetrically.
Funny thing is, many things he has to build completely by himself, without any kind of plan (such as insulating floors) it all goes perfectly. So I don’t think his building skills are the issue, just not really being able to read plans and kind of winging it. Which is absolutely fine if it’s your own house, but not if it’s my house!
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Oh, that is not ok at all.
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Holy cow. I dont even know how you haven’t flipped a table when talking to him. Can you make him redo it? It will bother you every time you look at it for the rest of the time you live there. 
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I try to keep it polite because he still has a lot of extra work to do. But I am absolutely pissed off and I think I will indeed be noticing this forever. But it’s not really a fixable thing, not without causing a lot of delay and damaging parts that would need to be ordered again. He blames it on the bathroom supplier because their plans are supposedly unclear, but I mean, I can read them, and I know nothing about plumbing. I explained it to him, while looking at the plan. This guy came highly recommended by lots of people and most work is fine, but some of it is terrible. It’s all related to appearance, not functionality, as far as I can judge. Maybe the guy just really has absolutely no taste at all.
One thing is for sure and that’s he’s not going to get paid what we agreed upon for this part of the reno. Had I known beforehand how stressful these two things would have ended up, I would have asked the bathroom supplier to build them for us instead.
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It’s not impossible to fix it now, surely? Better than redoing it at a later date. I would find it very difficult not making him redo it properly.
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It’s not literally impossible. But it would cause a huge delay, a lot of extra costs (and I expect we’re going to have to fight about who pays for that as well, he’s not to go easy on us) we’d have to demolish some things that are already built, get new materials. It would be a huge hassle and probably not worth it. Especially not if you want to keep the relationship sort of intact.
But we’re trying to figure this out in the best way possible. I’m just not sure what’s the best approach.
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Whatever you are going to be able to live with long-term and not end up redoing later at greater cost? Man, I would be so pissed at him. Twice? Just NO.
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Oh I am!! Especially since we designed our shower in such a way that it would hopefully be accessible for me for a long time, if/when my health declines. There’s a little bench to sit on with it’s own showerhead, and two safety grips that match the bathroom in almost hidden locations. If anything like that becomes impossible now, he will definitely have to redo it. Safety first.
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I am so sorry to hear you’re having such communication issues with your builder, @Immaculata - that would drive me up a wall.
I had a fun request from my DH for his ‘man cave’ portion of our remodel - a casino-esque rug for under his slot machine. I found a carpet mill that stocked that type of carpet and does custom area rugs, but it was such an expensive option. Fortunately, I was able to find a standard-sized rug, in the same carpet, from one of the carpet mill’s distributors on Amazon. I’ll just have a local carpet binder resize it to what DH wants. So much cheaper! Oh, it’s black light-sensitive, too!
The drywall is ongoing, but almost complete. The new windows were all properly sealed up this week. And, the builders brought our flooring in today! So, that’s exciting.
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