Over Spray on carpetStained pavers

threshold is a disaster

after mopping the floor
and it still looks like $hit

wow just wow, sorry what else can you say...

So sorry. I would not clean anymore. Wait for the response and I would tell them very calmly that you are concerned you need an attorney because this went so badly. They need to give you new carpet, a full house deep clean and perhaps replace the threshold and the pavers if they cannot be cleaned. I would also insist that you are able to vet whatever contractors/workers they send. Clearly the ones they sent last time did not know what they were doing.

Unbelievable the level of incompetence that can be achieved when someone puts their mind to it. Hard to imagine any other explanation. I wish you luck.

I can't believe that this kind of stuff happens. Stop cleaning up their mess.

Sigh, sigh and sigh again - it's precisely why I HATE letting anyone back into my house to "fix" anything.

Agree on the stop cleaning- someone needs to see this debacle in person.

That's a HUGE amount of work for anyone to have to clean up - and I really hope that nothing is truly damaged.

Sorry Russ but I disagree with you. It may be just fine soot but if it is spray from the stain it is not just fixable by cleaning and instead it all needs to be replaced. And the fact that it's also on their personal items like furniture? Stuff like that will not come out of carpet

I agree you need to stop cleaning. Take photos of Everything that has the dirt on it.

Well, it's a little too early to make BIG assumptions about what the builder will or will not do until you hear back from him.

I agree with everyone that you should photo document everything! Too bad you don't have the "before" shots. Will be interested in what the builder says.

I'm so sorry this happened to you, and I really hope he makes it right. Good luck!

I'm just trying to figure out how fixing stain on stairs leads to over spray on walls, toilets, and everywhere else that I would imagine is not located near the stairs. Perplexing....

CP - I am not saying do not get it replaced, I am saying IF it can be cleaned, let it be cleaned. If not, sure, demand it be replaced. If you lead with that, it is just going to get frustrating.

I am sure the builder will see there was an accident and fix it. Assuming that lawyers need to be brought in and everything needs to be replaced when the photos shown here suggest it can be cleaned.. may be a bit harsh.

I think the OP is rightfully frustrated and needs to relax and know they are in the right here and all will be taken care of. That is what a warranty is for.

If it is not taken care of, then by all means, nail them to the wall.. heh

@rrah - If they used a spray gun with stain.. yea, very bad idea. that is a LOT lighter than paint and it gets eeeeeverywhere. They should never have used a sprayer.

R

Thanks for all the responses. Per our contract with the builder we would have to have arbitration before any other legal action. I am a very reasonable person and I know accidents happen. The contractor used an atomized spray to apply the stain and it clearly got beyond the sheeted off area and into are entire house. I am a retired firefighter and the only thing I can compare it to is the effects that a very minor fire in your home that results in a fine soot getting everywhere even well beyond the origin of fire area. I have a meeting scheduled with the builder rep this morning, she has already stated that their restoration cleaning company will be coming out. I took many photos and videos. I mopped the floor and cleaned our kitchen counter, and a few other things but documented with photos prior. Simply not cleaning is not an option as we have a 7 month old grand baby that lives with us as well as teens etc.. I appreciate all the advice and please keep it coming. I will post a response after our meeting today. Wish me luck.

Jim

That is just crazy. An amateur should have known not to use a sprayer with stain.. blech.

If they had constructed a sealed "room" with plastic sheets around their work area they should have been able to use a sprayer without contaminating other areas. It has to be sealed very well to work properly and takes time to put together ... probably well beyond their level of expertise.

yes chispa, and I can guarantee those workers had masks on for protection. Now we have a baby and an entire family breathing this dust. Not good!

Besides sealing doors ways, the vents should have been sealed if the furnace/air conditioning was running. This will blow it all over the house!

How large of a sprayer did they whip out for touch up work? I would have thought they might have dabbed some stain on with a foam brush, or, maybe - here's an idea - use a small airbrush to do touch up / detail work. This amount of overspray has me envisioning someone with a Wagner power sprayer doing interpretive dance all over your house.

Hope the resolution is positive. It's going to be VERY labor intensive to wipe down the amount of stuff that really needs to be wiped down / cleaned.

I am sorry this happened to you and hope you get a good resolution to the damage done in your home. Incredibly sloppy work - they should be ashamed.

Is there an air return vent in the area? If so, it may have gotten into the HVAC system and distributed all over the house. I'd be curious to see what your air filters look like now. If that's how it got all over the house, I'd make sure they include air duct cleaning in their restoration. Hopefully a professional restoration company would have that covered.

This what the crime scene looks like.

So met with the builders rep who is eager to make things right. We had a cleaning crew clean hard surfaces today. Thursday the carpets and upholstery are getting cleaned. They are going to re paint walls ceilings etc.. They have offered to pay for dry cleaning also. I will wait and see how Thursday goes.

The A/C was shut off prior to spraying, and it was 113* so my house was a sauna. They did "attempt" to seal off the room, but obviously they did a very bad job in that department. I Changed the filters this afternoon and they were dirty because of pulling any residual particles

On a lighter note... I am a retired Firefighter from the East Coast ( work in corp America now) and have very "salty" language when I get animated and I got very animated with the contractors who made a mess of my house..especially after he smirked a little and acted like I was trying to BS him about the extent of the over spray etc.. No threats or anything like that but I was just emphasizing my immense displeasure. The builder rep mentioned that they told her about my saltiness and when she arrived at my house and saw first hand she said I'm surprised you didn't punch him!!

So glad they're working with you to make it right. Phew. And I appreciate that the rep thought you were being nice under the circumstances. I hope they fire those hacks.

One thing. The AC might have been shut off but if the vents weren't sealed, then you could wind up blowing the dust through the house again. I would seriously ask them to get someone in to clean out the ducts.

Good point CP. I think I might add that to my list. Thanks

At this point the builder is our side. The Stair rail is worse than it was before. There are numerous drips and areas that are smooth then rough like sandpaper. I plan on requesting that they build a completely new stair rail and stain it at the warehouse then remove and install new one. There is zero chance that anybody sprays anything other then windex in my house again.

Glad they are standing behind their work . My first husband was a career FF in a very dangerous city...so I know the "salty" and yeah....if the worker was a jerk, he got lucky you just used the language!

The Stair rail is worse than it was before. OMG, would put some comments into better biz bureau
and Angies list and whatever other websites you
can think of. Completely UNSAT, yup, Being a lifelong Sailor I can get SALTY
Too. Best of luck

"The Stair rail is worse than it was before. OMG, would put some comments into better biz bureau and Angies list and whatever other websites you can think of. Completely UNSAT, yup, Being a lifelong Sailor I can get SALTY Too. Best of luck"

Did you read the posts? The GC and Rep are on the HO side and addressing the situation correctly. Why try and screw that up before they fix their mess?

The stair rail is worse because they never should have sprayed on the touch up stain.

Stories like this lead me to either do things myself or leave them alone. I rarely feel comfortable having anybody whose work I dont know well working in my house.

Milk, i read that, i am ASSUMING he was a sub of GC, so in theory someone else could ask them to do a J.O.B and get not so great service... i.e "I'll spray chit of your house painting contractors LLC" - not so good a job...

As a builder with an unhappy client, I called in a painting contractor to redo some of his misses and messes. Did the painting fine. But working with a splattering roller (no drop cloths) and brushes he left me another set of paint drips to clean up. Do you know how hard it is to remove paint droppings from un-glazed tile?

more confirmation of my subcontractor laws:

1. Everyone's primary job is to create as much of a mess a possible for the next contractor in line.
2. Avoid having "new" build subs back in your house after you've moved in, because they are still operating in Mode #1 above

So we had to reschedule the carpet cleaning to Monday. Yep they are coming out on the 4th. We opted for a waterless carpet cleaning option.
Thursday the painters will be out. I have little confidence that the carpets will ever be satisfactorily cleaned for us but will let them try. Even though they sent cleaners out my wife, who is mad cleaner of all things in our house, continues to find areas that have some residue and is not happy at all.

I spoke with the builder rep regarding the game plan regarding the stair rail and in formed her of my wishes to have a new one constructed and the old one removed and she agreed. I also requested that supervisors from both the vendor and the builder be present.

The pavers were cleaned somewhat effectively by the cleaning crew but there are still visible footprints and the builder has promised to have them professionally cleaned once all the other work is complete.

I requested that we get out ducts cleaned and the builder has offered to reimburse us if we do although I feel they should just pay for that up front. I don't feel it's appropriate to have to lay any money out for their mistakes.

Although the the builder rep has been very accommodating we are still not happy about the cleaning results. I am considering writing a letter to the builders top warranty/customer service people and outline everything that I am unhappy with. We just feel so wronged by this entire experience to no fault of our own and have been extremely inconvenienced and will continue to be for a while. I have not ruled out getting some legal advice and am considering notifying the builder as such. Additionally, I am curious that if we decided to pursue legal action would it be possible to specifically go after the offending sub contractor? I'm guessing probably not because they were hired by the builder but wanted some insight on that.

Thanks for all your replies.

Jim

I have no advice on the question but wanted to say I feel for you and your wife and I hope it is eventually fixed completely to your satisfaction.

I also agree you shouldn't have to lay out a dime of your money.

Please keep us updated.

**update**

So fast forward and we have had the entire staircase replaced. However the fit and finish are not up to par. There are plugs required during installation and when the main body is stained at the warehouse but they have to hand stain the plugs it is not a good look. My wife and I are so fed up with the endless string of staircase people and painters parading through our house at this point. I had submitted a list of things I wanted to be compensated for to our builder. I have not heard no yet on anything but one of the items is that we be reimbursed for the expense of the dark staircase upgrade as we feel we did not receive a product that is worth the cost. This was a pricey upgrade. We still have painters scheduled next week to complete touch up work in stair area. I assume we will have one more meeting once the painters are done and should know where we stand.

Jim

I am so sorry this has turned a sour note on a lovely new home. And I agree - the price of this upgrade has been well sued up in the stress this has caused and it appears they are not truly able to deliver a quality product. You deserve some compensation and some peace in your house to stop the endless parade of folks trying to fix the mess before them.

So sorry to hear this Jim. What a mess for you. Hope it works out to your satisfaction and let us know please.

In Conclusion... So after all the drama and many return visits to attempt to make the staircase acceptable to us we have reached a final outcome. We had asked to be reimbursed for the full amount of the staircase upgrade, which is significant to us. We had also itemized a list of items that we wanted to replaced as a result from the stain over spray, we had requested funds to cover a thorough duct cleaning, dry cleaning etc.. we had asked for our pavers to be professionally cleaned, and due to excessive visits by the workers from the staircase vendor, I had asked to be compensated for having to use multiple PTO days from work to be available for the many many visits and of course the follow up visits by the painters.

During this whole ordeal I had wisely run this issue up the builder executive chain of command to make sure I had the right audience and it paid off they have agreed to everything on my list including a full reimbursement of the staircase option. The only item that was not approved was for my use of pto from work. The builder stated that it is a company policy to not compensate for time off, but did however offer to give us a gift card(s) worth several hundred dollars as a token of good faith. The builder has been on our side from day one and I am very appreciative of that and will accept the gift card offer in lieu of any pto compensation. I had considered that a long shot anyway and I have plenty of pto to use so I'm good with it.

I would like to thank you folks that offered advice in handling this issue. It felt good to vent to you guys and your words of support were greatly appreciated. I also am happy that I followed the advice of a few of you to keep an amicable dialog to reach a positive outcome. I think the builder really wanted for us to be happy and the way I treated them with respect went a long way to resolving this.

Finally, if anyone but my wife and I walked in our home you would think the staircase looks beautiful now. We know there are still some areas in which we are not happy with but it looks much much better than it did and I am not willing to go through having another one installed. The fact that we are getting the full amount of the upgrade back makes it much more palatable.

Thanks again for all the support and advice!!

Jim & Sherrie

Congrats on a good outcome. And the truth is as you use your staircase and home, you'll eventually forget the less than perfect parts. (And of course getting reimbursed for the upgrade does help make it more palatable)

Sounds like you found an upstanding builder. Or as my builder said to me before we hired him, "I promise you there will be things done wrong, or that go wrong, or not to your satisfaction. There always are, but I also promise we will make it right so you're happy."

If our builder is true to his word, like yours was to you, I consider that a positive and would still recommend him.

More importantly, thanks for letting us know. :)

Thanks CP! The builder did state from day one that they would do whatever it took to make us happy. This is the second home I have had built with this national builder and I am glad that I did.

Nice work. You seem like decent reasonable folks who deserve a good outcome and now who can get down to the business of loving their new home. Well done.

And - also well done for being fair and firm and not twisting yourself into a pretzel over this. You likely made out better and it's better for your stress level.