Concrete light shaft corner broken in shell construction - retention justified?

Our house is currently in the shell construction phase (basement completed, insulated and backfilled, ceiling to the ground floor completed). A corner of a built-in concrete light well has broken off, about 8-10 cm from the surface. Both the light well outside (on the house wall side) and the support surface for the grate are affected. We cannot say whether the shaft was delivered that way or was damaged during construction work. We have complained about it. We were told that the corner will be filled in with a special material from the manufacturer, that nothing will be visible afterwards, and the function will not be impaired.

Does anyone here have experience with this? Is this legal or can we withhold some of the payment / demand a discount? Does it need to be completely replaced? Of course, we don’t want to jeopardize things right away; the rest of the house still needs to be built by the same company. Thank you in advance!

We were told that the corner would be filled with a special material from the manufacturer, that you wouldn’t see anything afterwards, and that the functionality would not be affected.

GU/single trade contract/developer? So how are you building?

Regarding the question: discount for what? If in the end the purchased product house (however built, see above) is delivered as ordered, you shouldn’t care how it was actually built. You will receive a light well that corresponds in appearance and functionality to what you ordered.

Whether it is worth withholding money for a €100 repair is something I doubt.

And finally, of course, the question: What does the construction supervisor/expert/site manager etc. you hired say about it? Or are you personally accepting the work without support? Again, the question is how you are building. For example, if developer-built, then initially you have no rights at all, you might not even be formally allowed to enter the house.

Thank you very much for the assessment.

GU/Single trade contract/Developer? So how do you build?

We are the builders ourselves and are allowed on our construction site at any time. We have a construction company with a site manager who takes care of planning and coordination with the individual trades; we ourselves are the client towards the trades. The site manager referred to the shell constructor for clarification and stays out of it.

I see it this way: for a car with paint damage, even if it is repaired, I do not pay the same price as for a car without paint damage. Different rules seem to apply in construction. We wait and see how the repair turns out and looks.

Hi,

Different rules seem to apply in construction.

That is a very important insight... ;-) Seriously, you can’t apply the same standards to building a house as you would to a mass-produced product like a car. BTW: about every second car is already repaired or repainted somewhere when delivered. Nobody tells you that...

But if you are building without external construction supervision, my urgent advice would be to quickly get external expertise now.

Best regards,

Andreas

Is that legal

Yes

Should everything be replaced?

No, that is disproportionate

Can we withhold part of the payment

No.

The rest of the house still needs to be built

You will come to realize that this won’t be the only thing that could be criticized in the centimeter range … if one wanted to.

We are homeowners ourselves and are allowed to visit our construction site at any time.

You are also a client with a general contractor – it is good to look closely, but a house is not a car.

Proportionality always counts! And the client gives the contractor the opportunity to repair something so that it is of equivalent quality.

I see it this way: for a car with paint damage, even if it is repaired, I do not pay the same price as for a car without paint damage.

Actually, yes. We bought a new car and discovered a small paint damage on the hood when picking it up. Luckily, it is right on the edge, so it can be fixed with Smart Repair. They offered to cover the repair. According to the painter, we're talking about 30 euros for the coffee fund. What would be the alternative? Having the hood repainted? It will most likely look worse afterwards than before. Nobody benefits from that and it only costs unnecessary money.