The construction manager does not come, does not check, or he doesn't care about anything

I have an architect in the neighborhood who worked for a time as a construction manager for a prefabricated house company. A highly decent and quality-conscious person. His employer's task was to resolve any defects as cheaply as possible. He had a hard time with that and quit again. You can try to prescribe presence or commitment to your construction manager – he serves another master (as already mentioned). If you have the slightest doubt about the construction quality – hire your own professional.

Hi Balduin, Frank is unfortunately completely right. The construction manager works for his client, not for you. Even if you were perhaps told differently at the beginning. Your contract probably states: House X at price Y at time Z. That’s it. Interim deadlines are deliberately avoided, as are specific intermediate dates or a construction performance description that goes too much into detail. It can still all go well, you can also find examples here in the forum, but it doesn’t have to. That’s exactly why my advice is to pay for an expert yourself. They really work for you. Not because they are a do-gooder, but because you pay them. At least what this person documents during the construction phase will be better recognized later in disputes than your own records, photos, etc. You might even congratulate yourself later for this decision. It makes the construction 1 or 1.5% more expensive for you, but that’s not the end of the world. The matter with the Schlussrate then turned out in court as one usually knows: They somehow reached a settlement. The general contractor effectively got 5 grand less than he would have liked. But that doesn’t cover our frustrations in between nor the legal fees. For us, that didn’t matter, kind of like: For all the crap in between, the general contractor (owner = managing director) at least gets a little financially held accountable. 1 fewer trip to the Maldives for Monsieur and Madame. That’s how it was, and that’s fine for us. No more desire. For you, as I said: Good luck and keep your nerves!! You’ll manage it.

What many builders do not know is that a site manager is not the representative of the builder's interests,

Where the builder and the contractor are identical (= with the property developer), then yes – but only there. Builders often forget that it is their house, and therefore only their interest that it turns out well. The contractor is content with delivering a compliant work or with defects not becoming apparent during the warranty period. Encasing a pipe because of a forgotten slot in drywall does not bother him. A site manager with a supervision ratio of two dozen or more construction sites will, of course, very rarely show up where he knows his "regulars" (and does not have the time to personally receive a prefabricated garage installer whose appointment can only be scheduled with a plus-minus two hours window). The builder reads in the construction service description that a site manager will be provided and imagines that this person personally wields the scalpel throughout the entire operation. In reality, the construction service description should actually be read as that one twenty-eighth of a site manager will be provided.

Hello everyone,

Thank you very much for your feedback. It has helped me a lot. Sometimes you first have to acknowledge certain things (here: "realizing that the site manager is on the other side and is not necessarily there to constantly check the quality of the installed trades") and then try to deal with them as best as possible. I will follow the recommendation to engage an expert and spend more time on the construction site myself, hoping that I can at least positively influence things in my favor.

Thank you.

Balduin

I wish you success and that the person you appoint is diligent and still finds nothing.