Screed uneven - defect removal refused

since the acceptance has effectively taken place through your EL.

Yes, I would see it the same way. The acceptance took place implicitly through the commencement of the client's installation activities. Here, the contractor was permitted to assume that the client accepted the execution as conforming to the contract. However, it is questionable whether this defect was possibly not noticed immediately. In that case, the defect would, of course, have to be remedied by the contractor within the warranty period. Acceptance does not eliminate the warranty for defects. It becomes problematic for the client if he knew or should have known about the defect at the time of acceptance. Then the contractor could assume that the acceptance took place with knowledge of the defect, which excludes his subsequent liability for "this" defect in the further course.

Hello Voki1,
thank you for your presentation of the facts. I have a question regarding the following point:

Problematisch wird das für den Besteller dann, wenn er den Mangel bei Abnahme kannte, bzw. hätte erkennen müssen.

If I understand your answer correctly, I am the client. We had a handover with the house construction company. At this handover, I did not notice the uneven floor; I was not looking for something like that, nor did I have the expertise to recognize such a thing at that time. This handover was about whether everything was built according to the plan. (For example: are the switches and sockets where we positioned them during the sample selection? Do the windows, windowsills, in general everything correspond to what was discussed in the sample selection? Besides that, it was only about any minor damage to the doors or the staircase.)

I only noticed the uneven floor about 4 weeks after the handover/acceptance of the house in the course of laying the parquet flooring. At that time, the idea that this might be a construction defect did not occur to me (as a layman). Well. My mistake, but at least I want to learn from it.

It only became clear to me much later that this could be the case when I dealt intensively with other defects at this point and the resulting problems (e.g., terrace doors that close poorly, terrace doors that slam shut, terrace doors that do not close windproof) and had to recognize that the sloping floor, for example, is responsible for a terrace door not closing windproof. It rubbed over the floor; as a result, it was adjusted upwards by installers from the house construction company so far that the rubber seal no longer closes the opening of the locking pin windproof.

I also cannot rule out that the uneven floor was already present at the time of laying the parquet but worsened afterwards and therefore might not have been present at the time of acceptance. At least, at the time of the house acceptance, we had terrace doors that closed perfectly; six months later, however, the construction company came because the doors could only be moved into the frame by actively lifting them. Initially, they were positioned upwards; later, because this brought little improvement, the windowsills were removed and the wood under the windows was routed out.

I am now quite sure that one or more significant errors were made during the installation of this component, which are the cause of the problems. Unfortunately, the construction company also does not give me any information about what caused or could have caused the wood under the windowsills to be routed out.

We have already inquired about an expert appraisal; it would cost us 2000 euros, and we would have to bear this cost ourselves.

You will probably have to invest this money.

Didn't you have your own expert to accompany the construction?

Today we ordered the vinyl floor for our main room. The dealer gave us a brochure that he explained beforehand.

Main point: In a new building, the screed must have a certain curing time depending on the type of covering, i.e. a certain residual moisture. Additionally, the screed program must be fully completed.
It is still possible that the covering lifts. Heat from the underfloor heating and residual moisture cause expansion. Therefore, a gap between the walls and the floor is absolutely necessary. Also, starting from a certain square meterage, an expansion joint must be incorporated into the floor covering.

I assume you have followed the installation instructions important for your floor so that lifting, expanding, or warping of the installed covering is excluded and only the uneven screed can be to blame, right?

As stated in , no screed in the traditional sense was installed. The construction company applied so-called soundproofing plates on 7cm concrete slabs on site. The parquet was laid on top of that.

Oops, I must have overlooked that. Unfortunately, only the expert remains.

If I understand your answer correctly, I am the client. We had an acceptance inspection with the construction company. During this inspection, I did not notice the uneven floor, nor was I looking for something like that, let alone having the expertise to recognize something like this at that time.

It may not help you now, but I want to take the opportunity to make current as well as potential builders aware of your mistake! You don’t mention an expert anywhere; to me, that means there was none – not even TÜV® or DEKRA® – and you were naive enough to assume you could just accompany/perform an acceptance inspection yourself. I hope the users and silent readers here learn from this and do better regarding their own construction projects! Rhineland greetings