ᐅ Welds on Painted Handrail – Assessment?

Created on: 15 Jul 2020 18:07
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Typ12345
Hello everyone,
we are currently building, and I think most people know that this can be quite a stressful process. You sometimes have to overlook minor defects, but when it comes to the welds on our new railing, I’m not sure if these can still be considered small cosmetic flaws or if they are already major visual or even structural defects.

Close-up of a black metal railing with a visible weld at the joint, blue sky.


Here, of course, I deliberately chose one of the worse welds.
There are also paint damages that are so obvious that, in my opinion, any reputable tradesperson should have fixed them before final acceptance.

Close-up of a gray metal edge with water droplets and chipped paint.


Friends with welding experience who have seen this say such work is unacceptable. Unfortunately, I’m not an expert myself, but this is the response I received from our construction supervisor via the contractor:
“The welds are flawless!
I don’t know what expertise the owner has to claim that the welds would not hold...
The two ‘paint damages’ probably occurred when lifting the 180 kg (400 lb) railing.
We will retouch these with a paint pen so they are no longer visible.
Corrosion protection is fully ensured anyway, because the entire railing beneath the paint layer is hot-dip galvanized.”

What do the welding experts here think about this? And do you know what options I have? Are there special expert inspectors to whom I should turn?

Thanks in advance!
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Alessandro
11 Aug 2020 09:12
At least withhold the amount that this damaged side panel costs. Send a formal dispute of the invoice by registered mail and wait to see how they respond.
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Pierre
12 Aug 2020 10:18
Typ12345 schrieb:

And the construction company doesn’t give me much hope either and just warns me about the costs I will face if I go to court and lose. "Railings with much more obvious flaws have already been accepted."

That clearly speaks against the construction company! So they knew that mistakes had already been made before and still continue to work with that company?
Unfortunately, you’ve really made a double mistake here.
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Alessandro
12 Aug 2020 10:34
How do you come to that conclusion? Railings are very often provided by the client.
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Pierre
12 Aug 2020 11:15
Sorry, I confused the construction company with the general contractor. My bad!
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Typ12345
12 Aug 2020 11:24
He is right about that. We hired the construction company to assist us with coordinating the trades and also to help obtain quotes. They said they only work with companies they know and have had good experiences with. Naturally, we had hoped to avoid the horror stories about building that we had heard from friends and colleagues.

Unfortunately, the metalworker turned out to be a complete failure. In my opinion, other trades were also not always 100% as expected. The only consistently positive experiences we had were with the craftsmen we hired ourselves based on recommendations from friends.
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Alessandro
12 Aug 2020 11:28
Oh!
That really makes it twice as frustrating!
The construction company should definitely follow up and make their opinion clear in this case. I believe the metalworker is also interested in maintaining a long-term collaboration with the builder. Not to mention the damage to their reputation...