Snaglist

how much have you withheld in payments

Put everything on a list but be prepared to accept not to have everything addressed .If you prioritise each item as high medium or low , it will let you see which items you definitely need done and which you can live with .Doubtful any builder is going to accept 160 snag items and address each one.

Gumbo wrote: »

The list can be 10 or 500 items long.
If there snags then any reputable builder will address them.

Competely agree.
You're not buying a secondhand car.
A snag is a snag. Be as picky as you want, the builder will have had pickier in his time.

Your engineer may, be a bit like myself, looking with an engineer's eye. I'm terrible to notice chipped window frames etc, always looking at the structural integrity.

Speakerboxx wrote: »

Then you get to keep final payment if he refuses to fix.

I don't mean knocking walls of houses or replacing all Windows free of charge to be done on a snag but I would expect him to fix an interior door that's not hung properly or correctly if something that's supposed to work isn't or if plasterwork is poor I would expect them to readdress.

those kinds of things are very much outside of acceptable tolerances
any decent builder wouldnt let them get on the snag list or would fix them straight away

its really small things that you often see on snag lists that are really over board.
somepeople really go overboard especially on paint . some thing that if you get down on your knees and are 6" away from a tiny defect then it needs fixing.

Speakerboxx wrote: »

Then you get to keep final payment if he refuses to fix.

I hope that’s not the attitude your builder is getting from you and if it is how you are dealing with him I hope he has a watertight contract in place with you .

Under a recognised contract ,a snag list prepared by a professional usually RIAI or EI is what will be deemed as an accurate list that needs to be addressed not what a customer isn’t happy with.

Again though , perfection is not the usual requirement in house building be that right or wrong and expecting 100% on everything is setting the project up for fail.obviously poor quality work is not to be accepted but you have to be realistic in what can be achieved with site work.

Op you have bashed the standard of building in Ireland a few times now, are you sure you want to build here at all. Why didn't you just build in Germany where they do it perfectly.

I know, but you cannot expect perfection no matter where you build. I know you have a long snag list and maybe it is all valid, but if the engineer has a smaller list you must meet somewhere in the middle unless he is bad at his job. Holding back 15% for the build due to that seems excessive. It is your house and your money so you call the shots though at the end of the day.

Speakerboxx wrote: »

That all depends on whos building the build and whether the attention to detail is applied or not.

What's acceptable to you might not necessarily be acceptable to another person. The standards of building in Ireland is quiet poor to be honest.

I had a client once who, among other things, decided the gap between the door and frame when the door was closed was too much. He wanted absolute minimum gap (less than 1mm if possible, just once the door still closed properly without hitting the frame). I pointed out that the gap between the door and frame was to an acceptable standard as per the regs, and as such I wasn't going to put it on the snag list as it hadn't been requested or specified that he wanted absolute minimal gap and therefore the builder wouldn't have been working to that standard, and that the work required would either create a bigger gap hinge-side, or require a new door.

I told him I wasn't going to add it to the snag list, but he could ask the builder to do it himself. I think the builder agreed to do maybe two or three of the most used doors but said he wouldn't do others without a variation.

Some of these things are subjective, and the builders have tolerances and standards they have to meet. If you're expecting more than that, I hope you made it absolutely clear to your builder from the start and that he charged accordingly. Without being able to see your snag list, we can't judge if the builders work was below standard or not.

There will always be snags, as most of the time snag inspections are carried out while some works still on-going or to flag things to be done before it's given the final run-through or lick of paint. The builder might already be aware of most of the snags already without having to be told.

Speakerboxx wrote: »

Don't believe everything you read.

Your posts included in that statement?

Some time ago I was asked to snag a new semi-d house where the couple had already moved in. Basically it was client driven as they pointed out most of the faults but I did manage to find a few additional issues despite the house being furnished. The list was quite lengthy, maybe 40 - 50 items listed but as I said most were dictated by the client.

The guy living next door was an ex neigbour of mine so I popped in to see him when I was there. He had also just moved into his new home and on that particular day he had the Polyfilla out touching up the odd crack and the odd bit of missing plaster before he painted. The works he was doing were exactly what his neighbour wanted included in the snagging list.

But neither of them were wrong. They just had different opinions on what a contractor should be brought back to the property for.

Whether your list is 1 item long or 501 long its still a list and if reasonable should be addressed by the contractor. However, expecting sheer perfection is is pure folly.

OP, what is acceptable is an imagined reality unless it is speced in the tender document.
eg, if you wanted 3 mm gaps between the tiles, and it ends up as four, then tough unless it was speced.

You talk about holes etc, lets see a few pictures of what is bothering you
This thread bothers me
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057988023&page=363

Speakerboxx wrote: »

Me either tbh. I guess I'm just a particular fussy bOllox

It genuinely depends on what your snags raised were, especially the ones your engineer didn't have on his list. The truth likely falls somewhere in between. You might be right on many things, you might be expecting too much on others. But oftentimes the effort, patience and skill to get something from 95% right to 100% right really isn't worth it, especially if that 95% right version is still within all acceptable tolerances, standards and quality and doesn't cause any issues.