First, yes this is homeowner-related and yes I read the sidebar, but please do not direct me to /r/homeowners or /r/homeimprovement .. I'm specifically seeking advice from professionals who have experience dealing with this sort of thing. You guys know best who in the business handles this stuff. I'm not going to get the answers I'm looking for in a subreddit of casual homeowners.
I hired a company to do a major fence job. 8ft cedar, 168 linear feet board on board, steel posts, etc.. a $9000 job. The contract stated 11ft posts buried 30-36" deep. After one year, it's leaning in multiple places and the entire thing wobbles significantly with the push of a finger. There's even a 6' corner section with no posts at all, only held up by nails, which was a concern from the very beginning. I have photos of the entire build process showing they only buried the posts, in some cases, less than 2 feet deep and cut off the tops of them with a sawzall. I didn't really know to look for that during construction, only after these issues surfaced. The company I hired came out to inspect the job after I let them know about the problems, and they confirmed the issues and assured me they'd correct the situation. They're one of the bigger companies in the area, not a fly-by-night contractor. After multiple calls and multiple promises, I've heard nothing I'm tired of waiting.. looking to take the next steps.
The big concern I have, is even if the company I hired does contact me back, I have a feeling they're going to do as little as possible to "fix" the problem to save money. They already even told me that one option would be to install a few extra posts, which not only will look like crap with uneven spacing between the posts, but it's not enough. I want the job done right, even if that means tearing the whole damn thing down and rebuilding it.
I also later found out that they never actually pulled a permit (and thus it was never inspected by the city), which is required in my city. They normally do pull them, as I looked at their permit records.. but in this case, I had hired a previous builder (individual contractor) who opened a permit and then I fired him before he started. I assume the new company didn't pull a permit because there was already one open from the previous builder.
To those of you who work in construction, what do you think is the best thing to do next? City inspector? Hire structural engineer? Personally, I want an independent third party to review the construction and provide recommendations in writing.
What should I do and who exactly deals with this sort of thing? If there are building codes for fences, I can't find any.. I don't even know if there's a strict "requirement" anywhere for post depth to be honest, I can't find anything... but it does state post depth in my signed contract, as well as a lifetime workmanship warranty, so I have that on my side.
Any info would be helpful. Thanks
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