Am I just misreading your post (or did you mistype it?) Your builder says he can get you a nicer door for 15$ more per door...and they turn out to be 27$. Yet you act surprised they are not 15$? What did you expect the cost of the original door to be, 0$?

As for the stone, I wish ours was done in 4 Weeks! 6 Months and ours is still ongoing, incase that makes you feel any better:-)

It sounds to me like you definitely fell into a change order trap, but honestly it was your responsibility to demand final cost, in writing before any stone or door was ever ordered. You say at no time was price discussed...this is your money not the builder's and anytime you step outside of agreed upon price it's your job to outright demand that conversation take place otherwise that is exactly how these things happen!

Just me, but these issues don't look major.

Doors $12 more... Stone tad more.

At least final product sounds good. Builder didn't take the draws and disappeared. Installed cheap windows pocketing 50%. Installed bizarre electrical, plumbing, some unknown facets that leak, pulled permits, etc.

Builder relies on subs. Sometimes sub tells you two day, will start next week. In reality it will take 5 days, one month lead time. It appears he is one month over. That is pretty good.

$18 material costs is pretty different than $18 materials and labor. As in what you picked out was obviously double the original price. Again, plus the change order fee and builder markup. That's just standard construction practice. And it's why you have a healthy contingency.

9-10 months for a custom build isn't half bad. Especially when you are pleased with the results. It could be so much worse. As in it could have obvious structural defects or be built on the edge of the cliff and be falling over. Have some wine and keep your eyes on the end.

I'm sorry. I didn't make it clear. The builder told us that there would be an up charge of $15 per door (that we would have to pay since the doors were not an allowance item but priced into the contract). However, he charged us a $27 up charge per door, PLUS the change order fee of 25%. So we were expecting to see about a $250-$290 extra charge for the doors, but instead the cost is $518. A pretty significant difference.

Hollysprings: The builder told me that the allowance was $17 sq/ft for materials and labor. The stone place quoted me a price of $18 sq/ft for materials and labor. So we did expect to slightly overrun the allowance, but not by 30%. The builder is well aware that we are doing the best we can to stay within our allowances, so we feel that much of an overrun should have been discussed, especially since he didn't even use the place where we received the quote.

Carra: I hate that you are dealing with such issues. Unfortunately, these types of things happen way too often. We are building for the third time and the best advice I could offer anyone, is remember that YOU are in charge. Contingency funds are for decisions to make changes that you decide upon knowing exactly how it is going to affect the overall budget. They are NOT for the contractor to use to his advantage (i.e. in cost plus situations) or because they are not on top of their game and aren't fulfilling their part of the contract. Let him know now that his failure to provide you with a regular statment that shows EXACTLY where you are budget wise could result in HIM being responsible for any overage of the agreed upon price. There should have been something in the contract stating his responsibility in providing regular statements. If this hasn't occurred then it is a breech of contract and that is his problem. Good luck... hope all goes easier from here on out:)

"The builder told us that there would be an up charge of $15 per door (that we would have to pay since the doors were not an allowance item but priced into the contract)."

Did you forget to mention that, before you told him "verbally" to go ahead, he presented a fully priced change order, which was signed by both parties.

If not, you were the father of your own destiny.

>A pretty significant difference.

From reading this forum for years and from my own experience with building a house, a ~$300 difference for something like doors for a whole house is negligible, as arrogant as that sounds.

Unless there is a hard contract with clear numbers, this business is notorious for cost overruns and even if this sounds ridiculous, the problems that you stated are pretty minor in the big picture.

While a $300 overrun may not sound like a significant difference in the scheme of things, when the builder gives you a hard number and says 'the doors average $15 more a piece', and when you see the bill, the doors average $27 more a piece, then that is significant.

Also - my stone went over by more than $2500 which was a 30% overrun.

This post was edited by carra on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 12:39

With the stone - the price different could have to do with the install. You found stone that quoted a price including install. Yet your gc already has a stone sub. So now your gc has to buy the stone from the guy you asked for, and then hire his own sub to install it. So you are not going to get it at the same installed price the original guy quoted.

As other have also mentioned, verbal pricing doesn't mean anything. If you didn't get the prices in writing from your gc befor authorizing the work, then you have nothing to complain about.

Materials suppliers do not quote labor unless they are the ones contracted to supply said labor. I know it can get to be confusing navigating all of that, but I'd be pretty confident that your stone quote was for materials only. After all, how can they quote labor and materials when they aren't supplying the labor? So, your GC found the material cheaper, and instead of being double the price allotted, it was only 30% more. That's a pretty good deal!

Needing to vent about the stress from a build is natural. Just don't get lost in the weeds here thinking that your build is so much different than anyone else's. It's not. When it's over, you'll gain back your perspective and view these minor hiccups as exactly that! Minor annoyances. Nothing major. Even if it feels major right now.

Yes, it does feel major, because we are trying to figure out where we are going to come up with an extra $3000.

When our builder gave us the stone allowance amount and we gave him the supplier name and cost, he told us he could get a 'better deal' - which obviously meant (to us) that the price would be better than the price of $18 sq/ft for labor and materials. Obviously his price was quite a bit more.

As for the doors, I fully agree we should have had the price in writing. We asked for the price in writing, more than once and he said he would get it to us. In the meantime, the doors needed to be ordered, so we gave him verbal instructions to do so. Apparently, that was a mistake. However, that leads me to conclude that my builder cannot be trusted and lied when he gave us the pricing over the phone.

We had several "nickel & dime" overages, but nothing as major as you're describing. Our builder treated us very well, and ate several significant cost overruns because we had a fixed price contract.
I hope you can find a favorable solution with your GC. He sounds a bit sketchy.

I do not think he sounds sketchy in the slightest Bungalow. Without something in writing it is one's word against the other. I am not saying the op is incorrect but maybe the builder had a price quote of $17 more for say a 2'-0" door and took that to mean they would all be $17 more when in fact that may not have been the case. As far as the stone, as mentioned above about the stone I would almost guarantee that is exactly what happened and the builder did save you money as he could have charged you $17 plus the $18 as no stone yard will include labor for something they are not installing period. Nor over the counter without a mason contractor at least looking at the plans or visiting the site.

If the OP's first paragraph description of her builder is factual, then my opinion is that he sounds sketchy.
Your mileage may vary.

I'm not sure why there is confusion on the stone. When I received a quote from the local stone yard, they quoted me the price for material AND labor. We were assuming that they were going to be hired to do the work. We informed our builder of their price. AFTER the work was started our builder told us that he did not use that stone yard because he could get a better deal. The stone cost for the Tennessee field stone (material only) was a price per ton, which I can't recall what it was - but somewhere around $6 or $7 a sq ft. My point is that it's quite obvious that our builder paid much more than $18 sq/ft for the materials and labor, but simply never informed us of the 30% overrun.

Again, no ticky-no laundry!

To the OP - While some of responses you have received to your venting may sound a bit snooty, I think the message everyone is trying to give you is the same. In the future, GET IT IN WRITING. GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. EVERY SINGLE TIME!

To the extent that you haven't been getting these change orders in writing, thus far you've been lucky to only be facing additional bills in the $3000 range. I know you don't feel lucky but, really, it could have been a whole lot worse and, if you don't put a stop to verbal approvals, IT IS VERY LIKELY TO GET WORSE.

If you are on the phone to your builder and he suggests a change order, tell him he needs to send you an email with the information IN WRITING and that you are not approving anything until you see what he is proposing in writing so that there can be no more misunderstandings between you.

An email thread regarding change orders is better than no written record at all. And most people now have cell phones that have the ability to send/receive emails. But, if your builder is a dinosaur who can't send you an email from his phone, tell him to send you a text message and then use your phone to forward the text message as an email to both yourself and your builder so you both have a record. Even that would be better than nothing. Just make sure the text messages states clearly WHAT the thing is that you are buying (materials only? labor only? materials and labor?) and the price he is telling you it will cost. If it isn't clear when he emails/texts you whether the price he is quoting includes his 25% profit or not, then ASK for a clarification.

Once you are 100% sure that you understand his written proposal. Then respond with an unequivocal - "yes, I approve the preceeding" or "NO, don't do this it is too expensive" or "WAIT, we need to think about this some more and will get back to you."

Good luck with the rest of your build.

PS - in building a home, it is safest never to ASSUME anything. If a supplier quotes a price, ask for it in writing and ask whether the price is materials only or materials and labor. Take a copy of the written quote to your builder (always keep one for yourself) and, if he says he can get something cheaper elsewhere, ask again whether his price will be materials only, or materials and labor and whether that price also includes his profit margin. Remember that even if your builder chooses to use a supplier (and laborer) that you located, the builder will still add his profit margin to the cost. He is justified in doing so because he will still be supervising the work and he will still be ultimately responsible for making sure it is done correctly.

Again, good luck with everything. Eventually your new home will be finished and you will move in and begin enjoying the fruits of your labors. All of these frustrations will begin to fade into the background.

Thank you Bevangel! I agree, it has been a learning experience. We met with our builder today and he informed us that the stone cost was $17 sq/ft. The issue with the overrun was the amount of square footage required. Apparently, he erred in the initial cost projection by underestimating the amount of stone required for the build. We are so close to being done with this house and we are just ready to be done. Too much of this process has not gone smoothly.

The door issue was not resolved this meeting as I think my husband and the builder were not in a good enough humor to discuss it.

Carra, I know you've gotten an earful of advice (of varying degrees), and I just wanna say that it sucks, whether $300 or $3000, to have to deal with the headache of this stuff. So much of the building process is exhausting, and fighting every overage, investigating every upcharge, is just taxing on a person. I hope that you're able to drum up the dollars needed to finish off the house and move in without all the headaches ruining the experience for you. Enjoy the process and the home you'll love.