What to do if you find the wrong materials installed

If you've spotted something installed that isn't what was specified, raise it immediately. The window for fixing it cleanly is short — and shorter the further the install has progressed.

Steps

1. Stop and check. Confirm what's installed against the most up-to-date materials tracker entry for the item. The tracker is the live record of what was specified and ordered — that's the thing to compare against, not your memory or an earlier draft of the design.
2. Tell your builder. They're closest to the install. They may have a quick answer — for example, the spec was changed and not properly recorded on the tracker, or an item was swapped at the supplier's recommendation, or what's there matches the order and only looks different in situ.
3. Decide the path. Three common scenarios:

• The wrong item was installed by mistake. The builder removes and replaces. The cost sits with whoever caused the error — supplier, builder, or you depending on the cause.
• An informal substitution happened. The builder substituted something without going through the change-order process or without updating the materials tracker. Either way, the swap needs to be unwound or formalised: the item either comes out and is replaced with what was on the tracker, or the substitution gets written up as a change order so the tracker, the contract, and the site all line up. Talk to your builder about which makes sense — sometimes the swap is genuinely better and worth keeping; sometimes the original spec mattered for a reason that's only obvious in context.
• You changed your mind about the original spec but the original is what's installed. That's a customer-led change. Talk to your builder about whether substitution at this stage is feasible. If it is, you use the change-order process to scope, price, and approve the swap before it happens.

1. Loop in your build advisor if needed. If your builder's first answer doesn't resolve it, or you and your builder disagree on the cause, your build advisor is the next step.

How to avoid it

Most "wrong materials" incidents come from drift in the materials tracker or undocumented changes mid-build. Keeping the tracker current and using the change-order process for every substitution closes most of the gap. The article How the materials tracker works covers this.

Who pays

Beams doesn't make procurement choices, doesn't make specification choices on the build, and doesn't install anything — so this conversation is between you, your builder, and the supplier:

• If the supplier sent the wrong item and your builder didn't catch it on receipt, the supplier covers the replacement under their terms. If catching it earlier would have made the cost lower, your builder and the supplier work out where the cost lands between them.
• If the builder installed the wrong item against the materials tracker, that's a builder error and the cost of putting it right sits with them. The Home Improvement Contract sets the framework.
• If you changed your mind and the original spec is what's installed, the cost of swapping it sits with you, through a change order.

Related articles

• How materials work — your role, the builder's role, ours
• What is a change order
• What to do if a product I receive is faulty