Repair paving works

It is logical that special requests have to be specified separately. Also, that you have to say which stone it should be. Because theoretically there are thousands of possibilities... no craftsman can guess what the client wants. But even if the client does not explicitly say beforehand which stones he wants: doesn’t the craftsman then ask? Does he deliver any at random? I don’t think so. But here, in my opinion, it is quite different. A driveway was ordered. And there is only one conceivable possibility for the level at which it can be paved: that of the street. So the craftsman knows exactly from the start what the client wants. Of course, the craftsman would then have had to take the height of the finished street into account. Saying to the client that he should have clearly said so beforehand is not appropriate here, since there is only one conceivable way to build a driveway. I don’t tell the gardener to lay the turf with the green side up, or the window installer that the roller shutter goes outside in front of the window and not on the inside.

You are right! But sometimes it is probably better to communicate a bit more. Because if this had happened, there wouldn’t already be 4 pages of questions and answers in the forum, which, as it seems, also do not bring a satisfactory solution for the OP. The OP would probably have liked to hear: "Yes, clearly. The craftsman is at fault and pays for everything."

Attention, personal opinion!

Some of the arguments here are really solemn.

When you order a roof, do you explicitly say that it should be watertight and cover the entire house? When you order windows, do you explicitly say that they should fit into the wall openings? When you mark sockets, do you also explicitly say that the electrical cable behind them should reach the socket?

Face it - the craftsman is a complete idiot. The street level in the final construction phase is at least roughly known down to a few centimeters or can be inquired by phone from the building authority within a minute. This information is in every development plan, in the building application and can also be reasonably defined based on the construction road. Changes/adjustments are possible, you just have to inform yourself. If he doesn’t do that and does not adapt to the neighboring properties, in my opinion that is gross negligence, but it should not have even been accepted in the first place, instead 50% should/might have been withheld immediately.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the higher floor slab, unless ... the execution of the construction deviated 50cm upwards from the building application and the outdated building application was given to the paver as the basis for execution; which cannot be the case, because then it should be 50cm too high and not 20cm (if the street was built correctly according to plan and was not accidentally executed 30cm higher).

Therefore, I would set a deadline of 4 weeks for him to correct this free of charge – if not, I would hint at two alternatives that are definitely even worse.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Unfortunately, you will not be proven right with your opinion. I know dozens of similar posts from the green forum. There it is always said by the so-called experts what was agreed upon. And if you have no idea, you must hire a planner. That is exactly how it will end up in court, should it come to that.

I agree with you , the craftsman could have asked. But to stick with your roof example: The roof can be watertight even though the craftsman made a 30-degree roof pitch and the client actually wanted 45 degrees. If the client does not inform the craftsman... We will not be able to resolve this here as long as the OP does not provide the exact order, all further agreements, and photos. And even if it turns out that the craftsman messed up, at least the following points will be taken into account in court:

And even as a layman, you can go and take a look in the evening whether everything fits. Then maybe only the edge stones would have been placed incorrectly. If you are not able to do that, there are experts and site managers who do that for a small fee.
But apparently, you were satisfied with the result for half a year. Why should the contractor then have created something different?

The work was accepted by you?

I assume so if the OP used the driveway for half a year. And then the OP has lost any claim.

Full quote from deleted and replaced with direct address, as the response is clearly attributable.
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aha now the craftsman also has to play the architect and study the plans or obtain the information? What else should he do, get coffee and prepare breakfast and fire up the grill after work?

There is a limit to service somewhere