said by leibold:The room above the garage is unfinished for now. The building inspector would not have approved the staircase with those issues if the room was finished as living space.
That's exactly how the BI explained it to me. The BI said he should force the GC to fix that stuff now but he really doesn't want the GC back after claiming that stuff is the home owner's responsibility. He said I should fix it myself and charge the GC back under his insurance or get a new contractor to fix the stuff then put in a claim against his insurance for it. I am trying to be nice so my solution is just to call it even and move on. The BI wants me to not pay him what I owe him AND put in a claim to have someone else do the work though. That's his recommended course of action. I'm caught in the middle and don't know if I should follow the BI or be nice. I'd tend to follow the BI though since he has some interest in making sure stuff is done right for my protection while the GC's main is money.
The GC did try to hack the code by installed 1x3 strapping as a handrail and 3 pieces of 1x3 strapping hooked to 2 pieces of 2x4 studs as posts with 5-6 nails into the joists to hold them for the guard. The BI just laughed though and the GC said anything over that was my responsibility. He installed it so he's done with it.