Should I ask the contractor to redo work or take a deduction?
Salespeople frequently sign the agreement but fail to relay specific aesthetic choices or installation upgrades to the crew doing the actual work. This forces you to either accept a financial deduction for the ignored details or risk the crew messing up the project even more if you demand a redo.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Accepting a price deduction or discount on the final bill instead of making the contractor redo the work.Did this help you?
- 2Catching the crew in the middle of the job and correcting their methods before they finish.Did this help you?
- 3Leaving the incorrect work as-is to avoid risking damage to the surrounding structure during a messy tear-out.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I don't known if it's possible to easily redo flashing with copper or I should just take the deduction? Can a good roofer redo chimney flashing without doing the entire roof? I'm worried they will mess it more if I ask for a redo.”source ↗
“Contractors don't really think about things beyond the job itself. For example, when I was having the roof done on my garage every roofer I spoke to Simply saw the job as removing shingles putting on new shingles. When I started talking about color and type they were like why do you want that color they didn't stop and think that I wanted a certain aesthetic.”source ↗
“Happens every time the perfectly fluent salesperson signs you up, then never relays specifics to the crew actually doing the job. Happened to me when I last had my roof done. Paid for two rolls of ice and water shield that didn't get installed and left the site with the crew, along with six sheets of decking that supposedly needed replaced, that also left in the truck with the crew, Oh, and I had paid extra for 6 nails per shingle, and they were only doing 4.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why won't HVAC contractors follow my Manual J report?
- 107How to handle a bad contractor who won't fix poor work
- 6What to do when hired contractors stop communicating
- 5Contractor installed a different size unit without asking
- 3Wedding venue wants to change our date after signing contract
- 5Contractors asking for admin access but not knowing basic IT