Contractor is responsible for the jobsite conditions and materials (theft, breakage, etc.) after signed off delivery from the building supply house.

I doubt he will want to walk from the contract over that, but it sounds like there are other issues going on.

Hopefully this will be a lesson, albeit one that will cost him money, to manage the process a bit better from here on out.

Thanks for your response

In general is it reasonable to expect that they be installed the day they are delivered (or next)? Should he have not had them delivered if he wasn't ready to install them?

Contractor pays. I believe ours were on site for a day or two before install. Our front door was in the garage for months before install and got damaged and needed to be replaced. No cost to us.

No, not reasonable to expect that they are installed the same day they are delivered.

My windows were stacked neatly in the garage and not installed for close to a month. I just checked dates on the photos I took during construction! Not sure when my five sliders were delivered. Those are 10 ft tall so harder to maneuver. I'll assume that the distributor held onto those until the crew was ready for installation. We are in a gated community so no issues with leaving expensive materials sitting in a garage with no doors.

Contractor's responsibility, but the truth is that the property owner ends up paying for everything anyway!

You aren't switching contractors because the glass broke on a slider. Your legal fees will be much much larger than the cost of replacing the glass or the whole slider unit.

Check your contract with the builder, it may or may not mention it but you won't know unless you check.

If you own the job site, this is what is what YOUR Homeowner’s Builder’s Risk policy covers. Job site weather impacts, theft, accident damage, etc. None of that has anything to do with a GC’s general liability insurance. Don’t tell me you didn’t buy a builders risk policy! Because a builder generally doesn’t furnish it unless he owns the property. Or it is specifically called out in the contract as a line item expense that he obtains, and then charges you for. Plus the Cost Plus % for him having to do it.

Give your contractor time to respond. How long has it been? was it over the weekend?

" Contractor's responsibility, but the truth is that the property owner ends up paying for everything anyway! "

Yep, one or another you will pay for this.

Contractor has yet to respond. The reason I'd consider switching contractors is because there has been a lack of transparency and communication throughout. If he responds well here then I guess he will have proved me wrong, but my gut tells me that based on how it's been going so far he will shirk responsibility.

Yes I have a BR policy, I bought a high deductible though and this is below the deductible. Having a policy isn't an out for the contractor, he is still responsible for negligence which I believe this was. If we could collect under the BR then great, but if not then he should be responsible.

Sliding doors don't just fall down from the wind. That makes no sense.

So what are you suggesting happened instead? A wind advisory had been in effect with potential gusts up to 45 mph. We had another sliding door stored there which they were smart enough to tie down and it didn't break.

I would have had the windows / doors delivered before they were ready to be installed. Brand, type of windows/ doors and quantity dependent it may be too much to expect all one day but within a few days is not unreasonable. It will come down to the GC and whether he excepts responsibility. But he should accept the responsibility although he may point back to the contract and the type of contract if he wants to be adversarial. What type of contract do you have with him?

It's on you, as the property owner, to have a BR policy that covers what you need it to cover. Your inadequate deductible is irrelevant. A weather event caused the issue. That's not covered under liability. That's covered under BR. Period. So that's your issue to replace. It's not even an expensive door if it's below the deductible. Just go get it ordered again, or you may be another 6 weeks + without a door.

Yes and no on wind comments. Why was it exposed to the wind? Where was it placed in the home so that it was easily impacted by wind? That seems like error on whenever put it there not a weather event.

As above. Making the cause a weather event is the contractor positioning himself to avoid paying. Zero in on his responsibility to safely store the materials. Then weather does not enter the calculation.

Has anyone suggested the wind pay for it yet??

It was inside the house but we have a lot of windows so there's a lot of open areas. It's possible that it wasn't the wind, just my assumption because it was a very windy day

Our window installers broke 3 or 4 windows. Mostly because the glass is held in place by vinyl stoppers that are hammered in between the frame and glass. In cold weather, there is no give to the vinyl and the panes break.

The window supplier and the installers (a separate contractor) worked out the issue between themselves.

When I was a licenced homebuilder, the liability would have been mine.