Imagine hiring a contractor for a building project. If the contractor agreed to build a room of a certain size but later, after construction had already started, told you the room was actually going to be significantly smaller, what would you do? Would you agree to the smaller size or push back?

In this story, one family is in this exact situation, and they’re not sure how to proceed.

Let’s read all the details.

AIO? My contractor cant build the bonus room above a new garage as quoted but the foundation is poured and framing underway.

A local (reputable, by all other indications) contractor is building a detached garage at my house.

Our intent was to have a bonus room above to use as storage in the short term but eventually finish out fully into a game room for the kids.

To accommodate for the staircase up to the bonus room on the back wall the garage had to be 30ft long (30×24 total).

Now, we get to the problem.

The foundation is poured and walls framed but today they contacted me and told me that the bonus room would be a max of 8ft wide and have 6ft ceilings.

The quote called for a 12ft wide room with 9ft ceilings.

Obviously that is too small. Especially the ceilings.

They have since told me they can use “custom trusses” and increase the space to 10ft wide with 7ft ceilings.

He doesn’t think this sounds much better.

I still am not sure if it makes sense to try and fully finish a room with such low ceilings? How would I even hang a fan?

They told me the issue is “my roof looks steeper than it is” and they didn’t get the actual roof pitch until after the framing was done on the walls.

This feels like something that should have been known right away.

Without a bonus room above we could have used a more standard length 24×26 footprint and saved around $9000 not to mention window placement and other choices we made to accommodate the bonus room.

He’s not sure what to do.

Ill be first to admit I know nothing about building a garage.

Is roof pitch something that should be checked before work begins? Can you even fit a normal sized door under a 7ft ceiling? What resolution should I hope for at this point with concrete already poured and walls up?

I’m pretty upset. Am I overreacting?

This would be really frustrating! You’d think the contractor would know the size of the room they could build before starting the construction process.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

Scam alert!

Surely there were blueprints.

Another person thinks the situation seems odd.

He did get a permit, didn’t he?

That contractor sounds untrustworthy.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.