New Home Construction - The Customer Is Hardly EVER Right., Unless They Pay For Being Right.

When a person goes to invest in the construction of a new home - the standard way of conducting such business is typically done via contacting a builder.  The builder is a small to large business owner, and is the man or woman with all the contacts and business relationships with the various and sundry contractors that do the actual work of building a home.

The customer and builder will look over a set of plans, and though some things can be tentative or added on should funds be available, a general agreement for a home and the cost of it must be reached, and loans taken out....but of course there are the rare times when a customer is living within their means, and actually foregoes the banking/loans process, as they've got the money already for the construction of their new home.

During the process of the home's construction - the contractors on the jobs deal directly with the builder, or the representatives of the builder - as it is the builder who is paying the contractors for their work - it is NOT the homeowner.  The homeowner is in the vast majority of cases dealing with a bank where they were loaned money to pay the builder for the construction of a home - and the builder oversees the project, and deals with the contractors they've hired to ensure things are done in the proper manner.

There are many a protocol and code to follow, and of course, inspectors inspecting the construction job to ensure the work is done up to the legal standards - this is entirely to protect the homeowner and the banks investment in the new home, but it also keeps the contractor out of trouble for faulty work and the insurance claims that come naturally for having not done a good job.

A little about me...the author:

I am a universally certified through the environmental protection agency refrigeration mechanic.  I am certified able via the United States Government's Environmental Protection Agency as being very capable and absolutely knowledgeable to work on any type of refrigeration system, and to use any type of refrigerant.  I also have a very long history of working as an electrician.  From the time I was twelve years old, I worked Summer's break from school for either my father, or one of his brothers as an electrician, and always this was in the field of new home construction.

This bit of blog concerns just that - an electrician, and the building of a new home....and a customer that thought he was right, but was very very very wrong.

You see, in far away Clarksville, Texas...a beautiful little home is being built.  The homeowner deals with the builder concerning the plans for the home and its electrical appliances and outlets - the builder relays what is going where to the electrical contractor, and then the work is done to codes and specifications using the materials agreed upon by homeowner, bank, and builder.

If a light goes in the center of the dining room - a light box is installed during the "rough in" of the home, then, the ceiling is installed later.

Well, should the homeowner at this point, after a ceiling and walls has been constructed decide they do not want just a light, but rather, a ceiling fan and light combo kit in the center of the dining room....they've made a grievous error, as a light box will NOT support the additional weight of a ceiling fan and light combination.

Walking onto the construction site, and exclaiming, "I'm the customer! The customer is always right!"

That is a more grievous error still, as the customer can not demand a ceiling fan be installed into a ceiling suspended blue plastic box designed to only support the weight of a light fixture.  Oh they can demand it, but the electrician has no obligation whatsoever to install a ceiling fan into a light box - and the reason for this is, a ceiling fan might well fall from the ceiling onto someone's head....as ceiling fan and light combos are designed for metal ceiling fan boxes secured in the proper manner to the rafters of the house - light fixtures go into light fixture boxes - and those are secured in the proper manner to the rafters of the house.

Light fixtures - they go into the blue plastic boxes designed for them, secured in the proper way to the rafters...these do not hold or support the weight of a ceiling fan and light combo.

Ceiling fans - the are mounted to the metal boxes fastened to the rafters of the attic/ceiling...and in the proper way per code...and are designed to support the weight of ceiling fans and light combinations....which incidentally, weigh a lot more than a simple light fixture.

This is a light fixture box - technically, a ceiling fan can be mounted to this box...but this box is not designed to hold the weight of a ceiling fan/light combo.

Now above, you see a ceiling fan box - did you notice this box is metal?  The metal is very stiff, and it can't be cut or bent easily at all, and this box is mounted to a piece of two by four inch wood, and the two by four it is mounted to has two nails on either side of it driven into the two by six ceiling beams composing the ceiling....the customer can say he or she is always right - however, this is not true, and no amount of repeating, "I am the customer, and I want a ceiling fan light combo kit mounted to the blue plastic box because I changed my ever and always right mind" - no amount of this makes a blue plastic box into a metal box secured the way metal ceiling fan boxes are supposed to be secured.

Oh sure - the blue box can be taken out and replaced with a metal box, but then someone must come up with some more money to pay for this, as this was not in the agreement.  No amount of repeating, "I am the customer, and I am therefore right" can ever change the fact that one must cough up more money in order to have a ceiling fan and light combo kit and the box it is per codes and laws must be  installed put where only a blue plastic box was paid for beforehand.

Changing your mind means you must cough up cash.  The contractor works for the BUILDER, and the builder well knows it costs more to have another thing done when something else has already been done....the customer is always right so long as the customer always has more money with which to change their always right mind.

Thanks.