Should i fire the contractor

[Clarence Ng]

I’ve hired the GC since Jan. Gut and redo entire house. I also hired two separate project consultants to deal with issues with this contractor. The GC don’t respond to my requests, had to project manage them, they stopped work multiple times to request me to pay them for change order and up front for unstarted work. The project is 4-5 months behind schedule right now and almost ready to close wall. The consultants proposed very different recommendations - one said I should pay them to avoid an arbitration, and the other said I should fire them

I know it costs money for arbitration but I also have been burned by their attitude and lack of progress

If it were you would you try to work it out to optimize for money / time to flip the project?

[Bruce Woodruff]

I see 2 warning signs as a high-end contractor of many decades. 

1) You hire not one, but two project managers to supervise the GC? Why didn't you just deal with him? This instantly puts a GC on the defensive and makes him feel un-trusted.

2) You mention change orders.....how many have there been so far? And why? Were the plans not good enough or did you keep changing your mind? Either way, that's on you. A good project should have NO CO's. Plus, industry standards typically require a change order to be paid IN FULL when it is signed, and it should have a time extension attached to it as well.

The contractor always gets the blame for time/cost overruns when in reality it is almost always the homeowners doing.......I once had a 9 month remodel running behind schedule and the owner started complaining. I said 'it's all the change orders'....he said 'what change orders'? I pulled out the 40 change orders he had requested, signed, and paid for. He still didn't get it.

Are you perhaps the problem? Because when an owner starts to change everything, and then hires private consultants to 'run the contractor', the contractor will start to lose interest in the job.....