Iowa, I'm a contractor and I fully sympathize with your situation. If these people are there unsupervised then this just shows a badly run operation. I would never run things this way. On the other hand though, to play devils advocate. Unless your contract states that the fence needs to be screwed rather than nailed then you have no right to withhold any money. Sure you may think that it SHOULD be done that way (and for the record I agree with you) but it has to say so in the contract. Plenty of fences are built with nails rather than screws. You have an opportunity now to get it done the right way and call the contractor and address your concern before they get too far with it. Right now you are letting them waste money by continuing to nail it knowing full well that you don't want it that way. If you don't bring it up until the end - he is just going to see it as you trying to take money out of his pocket. So at that point he may just say no, no discount. And if you refuse to pay then he may file a lien against your property for non payment - he would have every legal right to do so if it's not specified to screw it in the contract. One more point, say that it is specified that it has to be screwed - most states laws are set up to give him the opportunity to fix it himself first, if he refuses then look at withholding money. Either way it's not worth the hassle for either of you - the right thing to do would be to call him and work it out now.
MN_Jay - It's not just that the fence is nailed and at one point he was just nailing to the center cross beam and not the upper and lower until I brought it to his attention that I watched and video'd him cutting corners, it is also the fact that they are a month and half late which has cost me another ton of cash to continue boarding my two outdoor dogs which is unacceptable.
