Decremental change order - help!

[Arman Ali]

My GC told me that he lost his employees and that my project would be delays 3+ weeks until he hires more people. 

I’m furious obviously - but want to keep this project going. 

I have a handyman that can complete the flooring installation and want to use him while the GC is away. After the work is complete by my handyman, I want to initiate a decremental change order and remove it from the scope of work from my GC.

Is this in my right to do? My GC is unable to work on my project but I can keep this thing going and buy him more time until he figures out his staffing. 

The GC has no overhead on the flooring work, there is no one onsite from his team that has worked on this nor any subs who are involved / prepared for this job. I am also the one buying and delivery the materials. Shouldn’t I be able to reduce the scope of work by the full amount of the flooring estimate? 

Lastly, it’s important to note that the flooring is about 10% of the entire scope of work cost. Does this impact anything? What kind of notice do I have to give? 

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Arman Ali:

The contractor does not want me to move on with flooring without him. 

It is worth noting that the contractor "guaranteed" that the project would be complete in two months max, its barely 50% done with 2 months already gone. The fact that he lost his crew and needs to re-hire (which could take 3+ weeks), isn't that enough to continue working without him until he gets his team situated? He has already breached the contract by not fulfilling his promise on timing. 

No. You signed a contract with him to complete the job. Time delays are probably covered in the fine print.....because s**t happens. A few weeks on a job is nothing in the real world.

Unless he agrees to sign a new contract with you, you have no legal options. Be very careful here, just take a breath and relax, you do not want to get involved in a Breach Of Contract with a GC, while your house is available for him to lien........ ask me how I know.