gsrblack

Hi all, anyone know how much it would cost to relocate a scuttle hole from one room to another? This is the hole that gives access to the crawl space to get to the air handler and other HVAC stuff.

I'm having a new home built and the builder had a major oversight in the design and had to move the hole into the great room since it will not meet building codes out in covered patio. I'm pushing them to relocate it to a less obtrusive place. Heck, the great room and the kitchen are the rooms where we spend most of our time and I don't want to be looking up at this cutout all the time.

I'm still in talks with the builder to see if they can fix it, but I have a problem that I'm just plain out of luck. In this Arizona market, I'm sure they would rather me back out so they can just resell to someone else.

Anyone ever seen a scuttle hole in a living room?

TBone2004

You talkin about the square opening to get into your attic if you do not have pull down stairs? No I have never seen that in a living or family room - that would be absurd. Usually they can be located in a closet - maybe a hallway, but not in an actual living space. I would think easy to move - it is just a hole between the beams in ceiling - some 2x4's for new one, trim to make look nice. For the old hole just rip off trim moulding and sheetrock closed.

...unless I am missing something here - should be real easy. Best if you can get builder to do before he is done.

chef chris

Definitely have them move it. You don't want that hatch in a great room.

It should be in a bedroom closet, hallway, etc.

doopstr

Stupid stupid of them.

gsrblack

but the VP of the building company said that he doesn't see having the opening in the great room a big deal and that some people don't care. what a bs!

i'm waiting to hear from him to see what they can do....my guess is that they are gonna tell me "too bad" but we don't see a problem with it.

since they goofed and the original was not per building code, i do want them to place it where it is legit, but not in the most used space! it's probably too much work for them to move it somewhere else, so they just want to take the easy way out.

doopstr

Yeah its not a big deal, except that it will look like shit. You are paying plenty of money for this house, they can move it. They just don't want to be bothered. Once they move it make sure they do an outstanding job of patching that hole in the greatroom, or that too will look like shit.

gsrblack

first thing first....if they can move it, that will be awesome and during the walkthru, i'll make sure they clean up the patch job.

i'm just hoping they will move it, right now, they aren't planning on doing it (my guess) because it's probably too much of a hassle. builder is just trying to bully us around since the market is so damn hot here.

chef chris

Frankly, if the home is not how it was presented in the model than you have an issue.

The only thing that comprises the attic access is a framed port to pass through. It is not had to 'move'. I'd continue to raise holy HELL until they see things your way.

fsttyms1

Scrib

You have a legitimate concern and that is something that should be corrected.

Frainkly, that's plain retarded. That's like putting a toilet in the kitchen.

chef chris

Sounds like a good idea for Taco Night.

TBone2004

I don't recall if you said they were done or still at framing point etc. But for my house while it was being built I could not figure out what looked different about it and finally I realized the alcove in the kitchen has a door to the outside and on the otherside a window - the builder had reversed them! At first they were like "Oh sorry, the previous house this crew built the owner wanted it that way and these guys once in motion ya know - stay in motion." So I made a huge stink and they re-did it. They did not have much ground to stand on, but they will try to do the leaast amount of work possible. I would not back down man. You can get drafts from that hole beside how crappy and dumb that will look - not even like you could hang a picture in front of it - unless you are a dentist and practice in your home.

Good luck. Do NOT back down. Are there other modelshomes in the same development that you could see what they did and where their hole is?

ric

The VP is giving you a raft of shit to avoid paying a cleanup crew a post construction visit out of construction sequence to fix the problem. Putting it in the Great Room sucks.

They cannot locate it in a place that is not code-compliant. They have to provide it, and you can lean on them to put it where it is the least offensive. Tell the VP that if he views it as not a problem in a great room, he can install one in his home, not yours. Also point out that you did not realise he was being paid for his aesthetic opinion.

And with that in mind, keep in mind that a busy construction team can be a sloppy one, and do NOT accept occupancy and move-in until you have a documented "punchlist" of items that need to be remediated for the house to be as contracted. That can be anything from rough finish edges to missing windows.......

The truth is, they will not get to your punchlist items until after you move in, at which point you can harass their warrenty folks with the followup activities.

gsrblack

I don't intend on backing down....VP hasn't called me back yet (my guess is that he won't, hoping that if ignored, the problem, which is me, might go away). If he doesn't call, i'm gonna be pissed. I say they screwed up by not having the plans reviewed correctly and now they need to remedy the situation by putting it somewhere that is out of view of the main living areas. They may have to move things around up in the crawl space, but that's just how it has to be.

It sucks....and it's just BS how they advertise how they work with customers to make them happy. I don't think I'm asking for much by wanting to get what I payed for! They're probably bullying me around to try and make me back out of the house so they can sell the house for more. I'm probably about 2 months or less away from close too....I've spent too much time at the design centers as well as passing up on other great houses that DIDN'T have the hole in the living room.