Try to get the master carpenter on board if he has a better connection to the general contractor. Maybe together you can find a cost-effective solution for your trench.
This is my current approach. At least the master carpenter stands behind me and also finds the behavior of the general contractor more than strange.
Are you sure that the execution plans were correct or "could" the error have occurred there as well?
The plans are correct. I checked them twice. They were created by the house construction company. They also immediately checked everything: all correct. The general contractor even admitted the mistake... but he cannot explain it.
Again – even if you paid the general contractor a lot of money, I see no reason why he should provide additional services; unless out of goodwill.
No, he does NOT have to provide additional services. Only if you carry it through to the end, then I am sure I could insist on opening the floor slab. And that would be more expensive for the contractor than just making the small trench. Admittedly, that in turn would be more expensive than the 50mm HT pipe. But with just a little goodwill, the trench would definitely be doable.
If he really – as the master carpenter says – is otherwise willing to accommodate his customers, then there must be another reason for his behavior that you are not yet aware of.
Well, that is the big question that neither I nor the master carpenter have found an answer to.
Just because of stony ground, I cannot imagine that (your general contractor also accepted that without comment), especially since he agreed to the fixed-price offer.
Well, he FIRST made the fixed-price offer, we accepted it, and after he was done with everything and handed over the invoice, he mentioned in passing that he probably didn't make much profit because the large stones in the ground unexpectedly made it more expensive for them.
I see it this way: his problem. My problem now is that I have 50 cubic meters of earth lying there that I have to get rid of expensively because of the stones. But that's my risk. Everyone has their burdens to bear.
If I understand you correctly, it is primarily the total amount that is prompting you to consider further remedial measures. Which I don’t understand either, because the "disadvantages" of a hillside property were surely known to you; you surely knew that it wouldn't be done with 5 or 10 thousand euros. So why do you write ... when you know that this amount was never in question?
At first, I didn’t know it would be that expensive. It was estimated at 3-5k EUR by the home builder (and not just this one, another also estimated that order of magnitude). Only when the first contractors made their offers did we get wiser and realize that 3-5k EUR probably wouldn’t work.
At the beginning, the low price was based by the “experts” on the assumption that the earth removed from the back would be used to fill the front, so there would be a level surface. That this wouldn’t be that simple only became clear over the following months, until there was an actual offer.
Try to see the situation from your general contractor’s perspective. He made a fixed-price offer and realized during the work that his profit shrank significantly due to extra effort, machine use, and work hours. He nevertheless completed the contract without additional cost to you. Then this error occurred (regardless of who caused it) in the installation of the sewer pipes, which – fortunately – can be fixed with little effort. So he does not pay extra here. Now you – knowing full well that this service will cost you some money, and would outsource it – want your contractor to bear these costs for you, for a correctable "error" that does not diminish the overall service he guaranteed you?
I have thought about that part several times. That the contractor may already have suffered losses was and is his risk. I can't do anything about that. I was also not the one who proposed the fixed price. That came unsolicited from him. Back then I thought: “Wow, great. He’s really accommodating. Risk for me = zero.”
The error can only be “fixed” expensively (hole in the floor slab), but “circumvented” cheaply (50mm HT pipe to another drain). That should be distinguished. Hence the proposal for a compromise: the trench for the water pipe, which is more expensive than the “circumvention” but cheaper than the “fix.”
What I have been able to find out so far: I could insist on actually fixing the error. Because if I now plan a different floor structure than before (just hypothetically), then the 50mm HT pipe solution wouldn’t work anymore. The contractor surely knows that, too. So I do not understand why he resists the compromise. But it wasn't about why the contractor behaves this way, rather what the actual “fix” for the problem would roughly cost. I already have an estimate from a master carpenter (more used to wood than foundations). I only asked here for a second estimate to see if the first estimate is roughly right. To put the contractor in perspective that the trench is significantly cheaper for him than the “fix” (not the much cheaper "circumvention" that I aimed for via the plumber).
What would you do if you were this contractor?
I would talk straight with the customer and not hem and haw or behave “strangely.” I made the mistake, so I have to deal with it. And if the customer insists on the expensive solution and absolutely doesn’t want me to do the cheapest solution, then I’d be glad to have a compromise I could go with. After all, I don’t want to alienate the customer, so that they might damage my business with negative word of mouth.
