what's the point of a walk through?

[grumpydasmurf]

We are working on re-roofing some town homes, 41 buildings 10 units per building... nice job to have. After the first building we did a walk through with a few board members and got their approval, we then modeled all the other buildings after the first.

We are currently into the 6th building and the general contractor we are working for calls me with a punch list of 20+ items. He wants us to change for free. What the F*** was the point of the walk through? Any changes that were made, were made at the order of the board members, so now that a resident wants something changed back to before, I have to pay?!

F*** No!

[Rich]

As I'm sure you know. A punchlist item and a change request are 2 different things. Punchlist is something that is either defective or not installed properly - i.e. a shingle that is overhanging more than the one next to it. A change is something that is requested by the owner, contractor, or architect - i.e. the base color of the shingles are requested to be red instead of black. A change should be followed up by a change order to you in the amount you request. A punchlist item should be included in your scope of work.
Sorry to state all this -- but I'm doing it for others benefit also. :D Because I'm sure you're well aware the difference.
So I guess the next step would be to clarify if it's actually a change or minor defects in installation. From your last statement it sounds like it's definately a change requested by one of the residents or board members. Change requests and punchlist items should be addressed in the contract. I would start there.

[grumpydasmurf]

It was a list of aleged defects/mistakes that were 99% void due to the initial punchlist.

At the request of the head of the association we made some changes to the gutter configuration, then some home owners were complaining we were putitng downpouts in the wrong locations... The best part was the last 4 items on the list were for work on a building that "Was incomplete". It was incomplete because we ran out of sunlight yesterday! Their inspector must have arived just after we left, and if so how did he see?!

The ONLY thing that was a valid complaint was an old shingle that some how was laying free on our new roof. That was very odd.

In any case to address the downspout issue, my response was an estimate for removing the gutters and downpouts, hanging new gutters and relocating the downpouts.

I'll keep you posted. Should be interesting.