You probably don’t mean your site manager, but the "site manager" of your general contractor.
Does "expert" mean that there is already a legal dispute pending?
There was real conflict with my first expert and the construction company because he didn’t mince words about defects.
We withheld money due to a defect and the construction company acted as if there was no defect and threatened us with termination.
My lawyer advised me to try to keep construction going, as the payment schedule was hopelessly overpaid. So the tactic was to give in.
Then we got the full barrage from the contractor. Threats of interim acceptance, change of construction supervisor, etc. (of course, this was only said verbally.)
We then decided to change the construction supervisor. Unfortunately, the new supervisor does not openly address defects where he knows that the general contractor can hardly fix them. The supervisor only asks questions and gives hints. The lawyer said that given our situation, this is appropriate.
The lawyer only has contact with us. If the general contractor knew we had one, he probably wouldn’t have continued building, and frankly, I don’t want to discuss the defects with a lawyer for more months/years.
For me, building the house is really a nightmare. I just ended up with the wrong company.
In the meantime, we have been to a third expert and went through a few defects with him. The issue with the reveal and the insulating foam too. He said, “That looks very adventurous.”
For me, the question is whether I should seek conflict with a lawyer once the construction is finished. Hence also the question about the contractual penalty.
Actually, I don’t want that because I wanted a nearly defect-free house. It’s already frustrating for me.