Siding Screw Up, What would you do?

[HawkinsHollow]

So the crew who did my roofing "also does siding" so I had them give me a quote. I was very impressed by the job they did on my roof and they came in pretty good on the siding quote so I decided to go with them. If had a few week delay on windows but I finally got them in and they started the siding yesterday. Well I get there and they are 75% done but they reveal is a 7" reveal, I wanted it to be a 5" reveal like my garage. This a a Latino crew that seems to be doing an average but far from exemplary job. Their solution was to pull it all down, rip each sheet to 6 1/4 and put it back up, the other option is I just live with it. I chose to just live with it, and I will be asking for a discount on what I pay to make it right.

The reason I chose this option is that I feel like they would have just rushed through it, cut more corners and potentially had the chance of screwing something up even worse in the process. I am torn about my decision. It looks good and most people might not even notice it. The addition has completely different siding than the existing house which has old asbestos siding that we opted to not rip down and replace at this time. We will possibly do that when we replace the old windows in the existing house. Another caveat is the houser next to my house burned down 15 years ago. In the process it melted the side of my house and they replaced the old siding with 7" reveal hardie. So when we do reside the older portion of the house the 7" hardie they put there will keep us from having to redo the newer side.

I have worked VERY hard on this addition and things have been going very smooth. This is the first kick in the pants situation I have had that has kind of upset me and not gone the way I wanted it to. First world problems I know! Oh BOO HOO my brand new 850 sqft addition has a 2" greater reveal than my garage.

Anyway, just venting. What would you have done?

 

[3Ts]

Don't feel bad. It should have been done correctly, but I think your decision was the right one and for the right reasons. I'd have made the same choice. The other option is to rip a 2" piece and put that at the top, but the reveal will still be different. I've had similar situations, the reveal on my garage door is different from one side to the other. The builder noticed it and mentioned it, but did nothing about it. The quality of construction seems to be an ongoing issue in many threads.

 

[drumminj]

Not exactly the same situation, but we had an issue with our corner boards when building -- builder and roofer/siding company (same folks, like you) decided 4" corner boards were appropriate without ever asking us. Never having built a house before, we didn't think about it/make sure to specify it up front.

They did provide a quote to cut the installed siding to accomodate wider (6") corner boards, but the risk of damage seemed high -- cutting into the house wrap or sheathing if the depth stop on their saws wasn't set correctly, etc. So we just decided to keep the smaller boards and paint them differently to minimize their appearance.

I think you made the right call. You'd likely end up with worse issues if they pulled all the boards down and ripped them narrower. And 3 months from now you probably won't even think about it.

 

[JJT]

30 years ago I would have torn it off and started over. Today I'd simply live with it. Older and wiser? Probably not.

 

[2manyrocks]

I would have been concerned about damaging the material if they had taken it down to rip it. I would also have been concerned about how straight they could rip it or whether it would end up looking worse. FWIW

 

[scootr]

30 years ago I would have torn it off and started over. Today I'd simply live with it. Older and wiser? Probably not.

As a retired contractor and homeowner, you should have made it crystal clear 2 or 3 times to the contractor that you wanted to match the exposure on the other building. If that had been in a signed contract as agreed upon without a doubt we would not be having this discussion.
If it was not agreed upon as above, you assumed and then you are in the wrong.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

As a retired contractor and homeowner, you should have made it crystal clear 2 or 3 times to the contractor that you wanted to match the exposure on the other building. If that had been in a signed contract as agreed upon without a doubt we would not be having this discussion.
If it was not agreed upon as above, you assumed and then you are in the wrong.

I told him I wanted it to match the garage. Water under the bridge at this point. Maybe I did not specify well enough.

For the record the main guy in this company speaks excellent English, so I don't think it was a language barrier thing. I think he just assumed we wanted it 7" revveal because thats what they do on 90% of hardie jobs. But as a sub siding a house 7 feet away from a garage done in 5" reveal I think HE should have made sure he knew CRYSTAL CLEAR what I wanted. His defense is that I said at some point I wanted 7". Overall they did an good job, EXCEPT I asked them to paint the cut ends and they totally ignored that request.

So the next question... do you think it is right to ask for a reduction in price tag due to the mix-up?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Thought Painted ends are a must for hardie.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I thought so too. I would have done that. And I feel like a better crew would have as well, especially with a visually upsetting and micromanaging homeowner (me) asking for it and watching like a hawk. I will go back and make sure I hit any unpainted ends when possible. But yes not ideal.

 

[scootr]

I told him I wanted it to match the garage. Water under the bridge at this point. Maybe I did not specify well enough.

For the record the main guy in this company speaks excellent English, so I don't think it was a language barrier thing. I think he just assumed we wanted it 7" revveal because thats what they do on 90% of hardie jobs. But as a sub siding a house 7 feet away from a garage done in 5" reveal I think HE should have made sure he knew CRYSTAL CLEAR what I wanted. His defense is that I said at some point I wanted 7". Overall they did an good job, EXCEPT I asked them to paint the cut ends and they totally ignored that request.

So the next question... do you think it is right to ask for a reduction in price tag due to the mix-up?

Non english speaking workers can provide cheap labor, making the job much more affordable. But you need to be there at the start of the job if not all the way through to ensure you get what you want. I'm sorry you had this trouble but I know the next time you will be onsite to ensure you get what want.