More images. Note the board is splitting. There are also sections where the boards a separating from each other. This image is of the trim work separating.

More images of bar top. Glue is now raising and visible where boards have separated.

I'd like to see a fuller image showing more of the bar top so I can understand which part of it is in the picture. But offhand it looks like simply shoddy work (wide cross-grain joints shouldn't be glued). I don't know why the builder is refusing to fix something like that as it should be charged back to the original vendor. Given the original work I kind of doubt you'll get an improved replacement though.

The white trim looks like something I'd just caulk and call it a day.

Woodwork can be tricky, especially if you live in an area with quite a variability between summer & winter.

I'm not a home builder, but I have done some woodwork (desks/dressers and such), and 'gapping' (as what I'm seeing doesn't appear to be a stress crack) can be common if temperature and humidity are not controlled, and differ from the 'build' weather conditions.

Was your woodwork installed when your space was air conditioned?

I'm going to attach an image of the full bar plus some better angles. The bar was built in summer without air. In fact we had mold build up in the basement in summer when he neglected to put on the air conditioning. I just dont get how a guy in the business for 30 yrs building these types of homes can make these types of mistakes. I think I saw him 4 times over the year, all of which were meetings i requested. He's recently divorced and I think checked out of the process. I would not build again with him, but was locked in to him to secure the lot which was the last in a development we wanted into. If I took the same approach to my job people would die, literally.

Image of the large crack which is a split board, not separating.

Smaller crack, separating of boards. Any thoughts on how this should have been done if not glued?

Image of the large crack which is a split board, not separating.

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Is the bar top a laminate or solid wood? The joints make it appear to be a laminate.

Wood is hygroscopic and will absorb and release moisture. It swells and contracts. That changes it's dimensions. It changes most across the grain, and less with the grain. No material that does that will ever have a super tight join where cross and long grains meet. Like your bar. Or cabinet doors. Nor where mitered molding cuts meet. You're going to have gaps. It's normal.

The best approach here is to figure out what you can do to stabilize the home's humidity to around 25-35%, winter and summer. That means whole home humidification in winter for most of North America, and it means the use of a correctly designed AC system for most of the summer months. Minimize the shrinking and swelling of wood, and most of what you see will go away on it's own.

I don't understand the joinery for the bar top if he used solid wood. There's no room for the boards to move the way he has them mechanically interlocked with the cross-grain pieces.

Cross-grain joints are always an area where you have to be careful with woodworking. Solid wood is going to move, that's just a fact. What you design for is how you want to have the wood move. You can fasten/glue in the middle and allow the wood to move toward both ends, or you can fasten one end and allow the wood to move towards the other end. There's joinery that allows for movement without glue, such as pinned sliding tenons, sliding dovetails, wide slots for fasteners, etc. Those techniques allow you have tight joints while allowing the wood to move.

If you look at your bar top photo, you can see that the boards in the middle have no way to move due to the way they're interleaved with the boards going the other direction. You get stress cracks like yours when the wood wants to move but can't. If your guy has been in business for 30 years as you say, this should all be second nature for him so perhaps there's something I'm missing from the photos. But the cracks are right there, so maybe not.

Plywood is a different story as those are pretty stable and don't move much, particularly mdf core. Anyway bottom line is you have a crack where there shouldn't be. You don't need to be an expert to know that ain't right.

The wood is poplar I believe. It seems to be what my builder uses everywhere wood is required. Poplar doesn't have much grain and I assume its among the cheaper woods.

Well it's September 1819th and I finally have thebbuiler here fixing it. He's only removing the one board that cracked. And the filling the other areas that separated. I held back money which seems to be the only way to get this guy to do anything. Feel like this is going to end in an argument grrrrr.