Not getting along w GC - can I hire my own flooring sub during the project?

I’m having a hard time getting along with my GC and we are 2/3 of the way done w our renovation project (3 story townhouse). He’s been a big jerk the last few months — he’s refused to admit his mistakes, he charges a super high rate for every Change Order, and he’s stopped showing up to our site meetings with the architect, and he’s extremely rude in every email to the point where I am avoiding him. That said, I do hope we can get along for the next couple of months until the project is done, because I just want it to be OVER and move in….

We are having a particularly hard time agreeing on the best way to do the floors, and without the floors we can’t move forward with installing the kitchens, baseboard trim, doors etc…

Rather than give in to him and his rip-off change order prices, I’m at the point where I’m wondering if I can just hire my own flooring guy to do the floors, and take that out of the GC’s scope. He’s saying that I cannot do that due to insurance reasons, ie he does not want to have another contractor on site during the project since the whole pro ject is under his insurance. Is this correct? He did mention his insurance is only on the weekdays… what if I were to hire someone on the weekends? Would that be legal? Or what if his guys take a break for a couple of weeks while I have the flooring guy come in? Is that my right or not? Anyone else out there done this before?

And aside from the legality, I don’t want to piss him off TOO much, as I don’t want him to walk off the project or try to screw me over in other ways.

Any advice?

Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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Thank you, Jane… yes the architect is making it worse not better but frequently siding with him and refusing to get involved in critiquing his methods and materials, which leaves me as the only person really reviewing what he’s doing.

I will check our original contract and see if it specifies anything. And yes I would imagine the flooring person is insured but I will check… and of course I have my own homeowner’s insurance as well, if that counts?

The reason I’m afraid to cut ties with him is that we did our electrical and plumbing and those things are not totally done yet, so I’d imagine it would be a nightmare to try to finsh those jobs with new contractors when they’re 75% done. Or if I fire GC, can his electrical, plumbing and HVAC subs keep working since they have their own permits they took out for the project?

Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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I’ve only seen and heard of plywood. However according to this, masonite seems acceptable. Unless I am misreading. https://homesteady.com/info-8722037-installation-masonite-hardboard-floors.html

Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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BS. That’s why I asked you if you had a contract that clarifies. Either way you are covered as long as the subs are insured which they usually are. Also your architect is supposed to be working on your behalf not against you. This doesn’t sound normal. If you don’t want to fight with the GC then tell them you want them to stop work for a week and finish the flooring. Just fyi the desperation to finish with a bad contractor is the homeowner’s downfall. A lawyer once told me he’s seen this situation multiple times and it’s way better to cut losses and move on. Who knows what else is lurking besides masonite under things??

Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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Thanks Steve and Jane, it was I who liked your post Steve. 🙂

@augustiner the thing we’re arguing in terms of flooring is that the GC chose masonite (sort of like a thick cardboard substance) as the underlayment for a new parquet, which I confirmed is not standard after talking to multiple flooring contractors, the parquet flooring salesman and even 3 glue companies… Everyone says the proper substrate for parquet is 1/4″ plywood. But rather than admit his mistake the GC wants to charge me thousands of dollars to remove the masonite… and doing so may cause irreparable damage to the subfloor. The best path forward I think is to put plywood over the masonite, which kind of makes the floor too high (and might interfere with the pocket doors Steve fixed for me (thank you!) Or I suppose I could let him install the parquet on the masonite if he guarantees it’s going to last for 10 years (can one do this?)

But back to the broader issue… The hardest part is that I am doing this renovation on my own as my husband feels it is too stressful for him to be involved (he’s been dealing with a stress/burnout situation from his job for many months now)… Often in this project it has been me, my architect and my GC together and the GC and architect sort of gang up on me and bully me… I’ve never really experienced anything like it before but it is horrible. And I feel like I can’t fire either of them because we are so close to finishing the job and we are desperate to be finished…

What I’m predicting is about to happen at our next meeting is that GC is going to say I can’t hire my own flooring sub, due to insurance reasons, and then architect is going to back him up. Then I’ll be forced to wait until the entire project is over from the GC’s standpoint to bring in my own flooring guy… I would instead rather do it on the weekend or when the GC is not there…

So does anyone know if this is true, that I can’t bring in additional handymen/subs due to my GC’s insurance not allowing it? Or is that BS?

andriywww1990 | 4 years and 4 months ago

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that must be the best advice i ever gave anyone. i post it and before i turn from the computer someone has liked it. its true.

andriywww1990 | 4 years and 4 months ago

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op called me and i told her that to deal with this contractor she has to “grow a pair”. ask her, that is what i told her.

Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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I really feel for you. I went through this and it was one of the lowest points of my life – I was so depressed I didn’t know how I would get out of the situation. The relief I felt after I fired them was immense. You will realize that no one should be treating you this way and good people won’t.

Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago

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This sounds exactly like my former contractor. Do you have a contract? I was in the same boat but ended up having to fire. I started ignoring the insurance excuse – it’s just a way to bully you.

Augustiner | 4 years and 4 months ago

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Flooring seems a weird issue to fight about.
The ‘best way’ is to pick a flooring material, lay it on a solid and straight subfloor, that’s that.
The thickness of the material should have been considered at the planning stage already.