I love the exercise and only because I can; I let my wife supervise if she’s around. Moved a trailer load of broken tiles and building junk this morning into the trailer ready for the junk yard next weekend. I remember moving dozens of packages of 12x24 and 24x24 tiles from the trucks to inside, inside to outside and each time there was a. need to move before tilers started. Why? Because workers break too many tiles, it’s all coming out of my pocket hence...:in the two and half heats of this build, I must have moved tens of thousands of pounds of material much to the subs surprise.

Attempt such acts only if your body and back can take it, else you can do serious damage to yourself.

No not acceptable. I have never heard of having to haul your own tile and wood!

I'm confused. Did your builder just call you one day and tell you to come move your flooring up to your house or it wasn't going to be installed?

I hope you've had an otherwise positive experience with your builder; it seems so strange to expect you to do this. Are you going to be expected to bring more materials up to the site?

ditto what CP said. That GC is just trying to RIP you off because the venders wanted to charge extra to haul up the hill and the GC didn't want that to reduce their profit!!!!! You might need to fire that GC! The companies that supplied the wood flooring and the tile 'should' have delivered their product on site!!

Following

Seems pretty ridiculous, I would charge him a delivery fee! We purchased all our lumber while it was low market value this Jan and hauled it and stored it but it was our call

3 things -

1) I don't understand who picked the supplier / how your contract is set up

2) A 3 way dolly that will hold a metric crap ton of stuff is available at Costco for about $120. And will last you forever. Your back might thank you later

3) There has to be WAY more to this story.

I have only heard of this when the homeowner provides the materials.

It is all in the agreement between the Owner and the Builder. If it is not spelled out in a written agreement, it would be worked out by some other manner. If you carried the material, it sound like it was agreed to in writing or by action.

Delivery often explicitly is curbside, and it sounds like that’s what you got. My builder considers it his job to get the materials from the curb into the house.

It sounds like the issue is that your driveway is mud and broken concrete and real manual labor was necessary. My experience living on a farm is that no one wants to do manual labor any more. It would not surprise me if his guys said they would quit and go work for someone else if they had to work that hard. Over 20 years ago, an older gentleman watched me pulling up, cutting and hauling barbed wire all morning and said “how did you learn to work like that? No one knows how to do that anymore.” Still true.

Is your builder providing a driveway as part of the build or is this up to you to provide the driveway? If up to you that is probably where the issue lies. You haven't provided a way to access the build for the builder to provide materials in a reasonable manner, in such a case it is not unreasonable IMO for the builder to have you haul it up there. On the other hand if it is the builders responsibility to provide the driveway then this is way out of line.

Yikes! Now I'm wondering about everything else... are you going to be hauling bathtubs up the hill? Exterior brick or stone? Slabs of stone for your counters?

Homeowner should only be carrying a checkbook. Curbside delivery? I had over a hundred trucks deliver stuff up a half mile driveway. I would have loved for some driver to try and get cute and pull some curbside delivery nonsense. Delivery goes where the homeowner with checkbook directs.

Hi all-- first of all, thanks for the responses...good to know from most we hand't lost our minds. And to clarify a bit for those who asked, in some sort of order: 1.) We didn't mind the workout (at all), but the question was more about principle: we're paying for the builder's services, why are we doing what should be their work? 2.) Yes, the builder and the office manager both told us we "have" to pick up the material and deliver it or it won't get done. And no, unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. We'll be writing a blog on who NOT to use for custom home builds. 3.) We did not agree ahead of time to loading-in, picking up, etc. and only did it to keep the move less behind schedule that it already is. 4.) We did not provide the materials, we did not order them or pay for them. We only selected them. 5.) @MarkBischak, nowhere in our agreement are the details spelled out covering the home owner/client providing or delivering materials. 6.) Susan, curbside delivery would have been a step-up. The Builder himself refused the shipment of flooring because they wouldn't pallet jack it up the broken concrete and drop in the driveway. Only after the shipping company called to inform me that he not only refused delivery (even curbside) but that he was sending it back to the shipper. The hardwood was returned when we intervened. 6.) Lyfia, it's solely the builder's responsibility to provide all the flatwork, including the driveway. It's actually new construction on a rural lot. And 8.) Thankfully, no, we're not bringing in the counter slabs. We have to draw the line somewhere!

I wish I could see the builder's face when he finds out he has to cook for the first year of occupancy.

Maybe submitting him an invoice for your and your wife's hourly rate would suffice in getting the point across? Does the builder carry worker's comp? I might suddenly have a lumbar strain ;)

What is the condition of the driveway? Do you have a good layer of gravel bed? If not, you need to get the builder to install it. This will allow deliveries and provide the base for your new driveway.

When we built a rural home the first thing we did was cut the drive and install a thick layer of gravel. We never had to haul anything to the job unless I ordered it and had it delivered to my residence.

At another home, we did order ready to assemble kitchen cabinets that were delivered to our driveway. We had to haul those up the drive and store them on the back porch. That was around 5,500 pounds of cabinet parts. We used a combination of the back of the SUV up the driveway and a good dolly to the back of the house. Of course, they arrived on the coldest day of the year.

I understand that sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to keep things going. You did go above and beyond. I think a face-to-face visit with your GC is in order. You need to get this situation straightened out. You shouldn't have to deliver supplies for sub-contractors to the job site. Sorting that out is the GC's job.

If he's providing the eventual driveway then he should be providing access to the site for deliveries as well. How long is the driveway? Couldn't someone on a skid steer clear away broken concrete in a day or two so trucks could drive right up to the house?

I've had my share of builders/owners expecting me and my crew to haul heavy countertops across a 2x10 spanning the incomplete front porch. Nagadoit. It's disrespectful, dangerous, but somehow expected in this get-the-lowest-bid world.

It appears this is not the first time this guy has been less than professional. Sorry you are dealing with this.

ditto what jj said. It sounds like this was a tear down and rebuild? If so, did the GC tear it down? All that heavy material might have damaged the driveway to haul away.