I'm in the midst of a home renovation and have a general contractor (GC) overseeing the project. During the siding work, the subcontractor ended up using the wrong material on one side of the house on the first day. When I pointed this out, he promised to fix it and started asking me daily if everything looked okay afterwards. We made a few minor tweaks during that time. Now that the two weeks of siding work are done, I received a $4,000 change order from my GC, which seems excessive considering it's a quarter of the total siding cost. I want to ensure that I'm only paying for the actual changes we discussed, not for the subcontractor's initial mistake. I've requested an itemized breakdown of the charges, but I'm wondering if there's anything more I should do and what my rights are in this situation to ensure I'm not getting charged unfairly.
3 Answers
What exactly were those tweaks you mentioned? Understanding how minor they were might help in arguing your case.
It’s essential to loop in your GC when communicating with subcontractors. But since the work’s already done, clarify with your GC about the costs. Asking for a breakdown of labor and materials for the tweaks is perfectly reasonable. If the changes were as minimal as you say, don't hesitate to calculate and suggest what you think is fair.
Change orders usually need to be agreed upon before the work begins, not afterwards. You seem to have the upper hand here unless you have texts that outline the changes and their costs. It's reasonable to push back on that $4,000 if it doesn't match what you discussed.