New construction plumbing question (credit, new house, closing)

[Abernut]

We are three weeks away from closing on a new house we are building. We had requested that the garage be prepped for a future sink. It was recently discovered that the plumbers did not run water and drainage to the detached garage that we requested in a chane order. They left the supply and drain line sticking out of the ground at the garage and the supply lines sticking out of the ground near the house (these are the lines that are pressurized that will supply water to the garage). There is a clean out about 15 feet from the garage, in the drive way.
The change order that we paid for and that was signed by us states, "Plumber to run two 1/2 inch supply lines and one 2 inch drain line (rough in only) to the detached garage.
Before the drive way was poured I asked the builder why there were pipes sticking oof the ground. He assured me that everything was connected.
After the driveway was poured we were informed that the plumber never agreed to hook up the drain line because we would need a sump pump since the detached garage is slightly lower than the main drain line. The builder said they would investigate. After two weeks the bulder said that according to the plumber "rough in" only means instaling the lines in the walls and not under ground. I told the builder that we asked for the ability to have a sink in the garage and that the signed change order states "to the detached garage".
The builder wants to credit us back the $780 and move on. After calling a different plumber i was informed that a sump pump and tank are going to cost around $600 just for materials.

I am not sure what to do.

[mawipafl]

So the builder said it's all connected, but there are pipes sticking out of the ground at the house and at the garage indicating there's none in the middle, meaning the pipes are obviously not connected -- do I have that right? Is this "middle" where the driveway runs or is it dirt/turf? I'm guessing it's hard surface which is why the builder just wants to move on giving you a credit rather than eating the cost of either fishing the lines under the surface or slicing through the driveway and connecting the pipes and having to re-do the driveway.

Trying to put myself in your shoes ... my stubborn nature would insist that the accepted and paid for change order be honored with an additional change order to install the sump pump (and I'd make sure the added change order doesn't have an inflated price to cover the costs of the builder's oops.) Afterall, the ability to install a sink in the garage later was the plan agreed upon, and if you just take the builder's credit and later on have it done, it will cost you a great deal more than the $780 (not including the sump pump).

As to the plumber's definition of "rough in", I have to disagree with him. If I was building a house and a future bath's plumbing was to be roughed in, I would be expecting that the lines would be running from the main supply all the way to that future bath so that the future finishing work would be to install bath fixtures to the piping and be good to go.

But I've never built a house, so I don't know how often these kinds of things happen nor how they are dealt with.

Although you're in the Jax area, have you posted to the general House forum to see if anyone there from other places in the country might be able to help? //www.city-data.com/forum/house/

[EricBoyd]

What builder are you using?

[Robyn55]

Unless you're desperate to close/move in - tell the builder to stick it in his ear and do what your contract says he was supposed to do. Ripping up a driveway is very expensive.

Do you have septic or sewer? Apart from any sump pump issues - how is the drain pipe supposed to connect to either of those things? Robyn