My builder skipped something in my approved plans. Is that a red flag?
Yes — it’s one of the clearest ones there is. Once your plans are approved for a building permit, your builder’s job is to build exactly what’s on those drawings and in the specifications, not to privately decide something is “over-engineered” and leave it out. If a builder genuinely believes part of the design isn’t necessary, that conversation has to happen before the permit is issued, with a structural engineer at the table — not quietly, on site, after the concrete’s already been poured. A builder who skips something and hopes nobody notices isn’t saving you money. They’re hoping it stays covered up.
I heard about this happening to a friend of a client of ours: a foundation going in, and the homeowner walked the site to find no rebar in the formwork. The builder’s explanation was that it was over-engineered and unnecessary. But the rebar was called out in the approved drawings and listed in the specifications both parties had signed. That’s not a difference of opinion — it’s a builder deciding, on their own, to build something other than what was contracted and permitted. And once that happens, the relationship becomes adversarial from that point forward, whether the project continues with that builder or not.
This is exactly why construction administration matters as much as design — someone needs to be checking that what’s being built actually matches what was approved, before it’s covered up and forgotten.