The steel siding was purchase for a project that this contracter was working on. Building a new garage and resding our house the same color as our new garage. We purchased the siding at Menards where our contracter would have bought it as in our quote. The reason we purchased it is because it had a rebate with it. We called this part of the job part of sweat equity. THe siding needed to be speical ordered. So we bought it with permission from our contracter. When our contracter put up all of the siding and we did final inspection we noticed scrapes all over the siding. Is this normal? I don’t know anything about siding that’s why I hired a contracter. Our contracter stated. The siding had that on it over 80% of it. We took it to Menards finding out it was defective from the Manufactor. The question asked by all.
WHY DID YOUR contracter put it all UP? We don’t have an answer for this question. But our contracter will not take down the siding and replace it with the new. He says because we purchased the siding we should have inspected it ourselves and noticed it was defective? What can we do?
This should be a discussion between your supplier and contractor. Although the contractor did not buy the material himself, you should always inspect and make sure what your installing is of quality. We have had suppliers make mistakes in the past (tinting all of our stucco incorrectly) and our guys did the entire house the wrong color. The company gave us new material for free and compensated us half the labor for our guys. It was a mistake on both parts, obviously the supplier messed up, and our guys could have been briefed on the proper color from the beginning. However, you are supposed to be able to trust your supplier/contractor. It is not your guys responsibility to check the quality of every piece of siding. With that being said, I’m assuming you have a signed contract from the contractor. I would let him know he did not hold up to his end of the deal and that he should talk to the supplier for some sort of reimbursment of his labor. He is accountable to install the siding you guys had in mind without defects. Punchlist items and take multiple picturs. Document communication and be suttle before higher action may be in order. Good luck!
The contractor should have caught it he’s the professional. The supplier would have replaced it. sounds like an insurance claim to me.contact your builders insurance co. He’ll be more helpful after you do that.
Contact the contractor and ask them to remove. If that doesn’t work then you should think about contacting your local attorney generals office. If nothing else works then you should think about taking them to court. Its the contractors responsibility to make you the homeowner happy.
As far as the contractor is concerned–Nothing…Since you purchased the materials, you should have inspected, before installation. If you had no representative at the time of installation, the contractor may have assumed your product approval. If you knew you did not know anything about siding, best to research, especially since you would be supplying the materials. I have many clients supply materials, most are special order. My contracts do have a clause when owner supplies materials, owner is to inspect, any flaws discovered after installation is not the fault of the contractor. If you discovered the manufacturer was at fault, the manufacturer should replace. Normally the manufacturer / supplier will demand an inspection on delivered materials-----time varies on product.
The contractor is right, but at the same time ethically wrong because he should have informed you that it was defective rather than install them like that. If the contractor purchased it himself, he would have inspected it before taking delivery. The reason he is refusing to take it down is because you are asking him to do the job again without paying him. At this point, it is a new job.
So far the answers to the question of your dilemma have met with honest considerations to both sides, ethically speaking, is not a statement that can be evaluated in a decision by a court, as they work from facts, not conjecture. The truth is, both parties should have applied a greater amount of due diligence.
All that being said, it is the responsibility of the party supplying materials, to accept responsibility for those materials. (Lesson learned, albeit an expensive one.)
Moving forward, mitigating damages is the next task at hand. Damages to siding products are a regular occurrence, especially this type of damage, to this type of product. Menards will be able to supply you with a paint code for this product, although it is not a perfect solution to your problem, it is likely to be the most reasonable and least expensive for both parties. Ask your contractor if he can assist you with the name of a good painting contractor.
In the future, remember that when you want to reap the benefit of the savings (on materials purchased) you must be willing to accept the responsibilities that go with it.
Good luck with your current and future construction efforts.
This is the number one reason I discourage or refuse customer supplied materials. There is no recourse for us if we didn’t buy it. I have suppliers I can bring things back to and they will work with me to correct and even cover lost labor. There is no warranty on customer supplied products at all. If I bring it it is warranted for one year. I tell all customers this. They usually then have us bring the selected product. We just had a customer with a faucet she bought at a home store. I told her she asked us to just put it in. Ok no problem. Then she calls because it’s to tall for the very low med cab door to open. When we help a customer select a faucet we get pictures look at specs discuss finish cost brand. My wife will go out and meet them if there are any unsureties. All of that good problem avoiding prociedure is lost when they buy it. The strict rule here is if you buy it and there is a problem the problem and costs are on you. So many people want to buy cut rate products then when they look cut rate blame the installer. I prefer not to get involved and really only relent on faucets. Just a note definitive’ stucco problem is exactly why we insist. Because he bought it from his supplier he was compensated. That’s the point of us supplying outer own materials.
