Hi, we're structural steel fabricators and we have a project that has unpleasantly surprised us time and time again. We had issues with the galvanizing (was sent to a third party) and concrete step fabricators (third party) did such a poor job but due to the lack of time to get things redone we have had to fix and repair what we can as we go. Such repairs have been requested by the owner's rep because she doesn't want to wait another three weeks to get things redone. This has costs us extra labor but my boss is not concerned about that, he wants to complete the work and move on. He is more concerned with finding a way to protect ourselves from having to go back to fix more things or even redo the work once the job is approved and accepted. He's willing to do what it takes to get it right now but does not want to have to come back after the owner and designer have accepted the work and approved it complete. Is there a letter or any document that can help us with this?
It is good that you are trying to get ahead of this problem. The first thing you should do is have an attorney review any warranties you may have given in your subcontract, or that may be required by the prime contract. Then you should think about how the work is going to be inspected, there is a 10 year statute of limitations on hidden defects, so you don't want an actual potential defect sitting out there for that long. Last, you should check the warranties and insurance coverage provided by the third parties that may have done defective work. If things go south and you get sued you will need to bring them in. Feel free to shoot me an email or call to go over this more.