New concrete contractor

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
Just met with the new guy. Was very enlightening. He is miffed that such incompetence is in the community and made me privy to all sorts of infractions I didn't even realize. Tomorrow an intensive photo shoot will happen. I will be documented up the wazoo. Getting loaded for bear.
 
There are many unscrupulous contractors/tradesmen/business predators that perceive grey hair as weakness that signals an opportunity to make an easy buck by providing substandard service. Sorry to say, but being a woman makes it even worse. Glad you are holding this bad guy's feet to the fire.:thumb:
 
Maybe next Friday. Mine is a small job and he will try to work it in. Should be here on Wednesday to remove the monstrosity left behind, dig the footings to the required depth, and re-form it square , level, and with straight walls. The first guy had footings 8" too shallow for Tuff Shed, the walls were crooked, and I wouldn't trust his idea of square corners. He can't read prints evidently and he doesn't know what a monolithic pour is or the requirements for that kind of a slab. He also 'forgot' the door aprons. He is a sham and a con man. I got bit but at least I am not going to have live with a slab that Tuff Shed wouldn't use. Their plans are pretty specific. Its their rep on the line. Can even imagine that nightmare.
 
Maybe next Friday. Mine is a small job and he will try to work it in. Should be here on Wednesday to remove the monstrosity left behind, dig the footings to the required depth, and re-form it square , level, and with straight walls. The first guy had footings 8" too shallow for Tuff Shed, the walls were crooked, and I wouldn't trust his idea of square corners. He can't read prints evidently and he doesn't know what a monolithic pour is or the requirements for that kind of a slab. He also 'forgot' the door aprons. He is a sham and a con man. I got bit but at least I am not going to have live with a slab that Tuff Shed wouldn't use. Their plans are pretty specific. Its their rep on the line. Can even imagine that nightmare.

I'm actually surprised that they didn't have someone do that part also, just for the fact it is their reputation. :dunno:
 
The responsibility is mine. He is independent though is one of the recommended ones. Went with the other guy because he was 'local'. This new guy is not but turns out to have done slabs for Tuff Shed customers for 18 years now. Not all sheds require a slab. Mine does because of its size. That's why it's not 'include.' Though now I expect it will be done right. The slab does need to be inspected and approved by Tuff Shed though. And this first slab would not have cut the mustard. Glad it never got to the pour stage before I fired him.
 
... Glad it never got to the pour stage before I fired him.

Yep, concrete slabs are a lot easier to fix before they're poured. :thumb:

Reminds me of a story from back in the mid-'80s when I was an inspector on the large airport expansion project here. My BIL and I were the two civil engineering inspectors on the project. The contractor was pouring a 10' x 10' x 4' deep footing for an elevated roadway. This footing had literally tons of rebar in it, too. As per standard practice, we had the testing lab pull samples from the mixer trucks to test for slump, air content, and (eventually) strength. On this day, something was wrong at the batch plant, and all of our samples were showing that the air content was about double what the specs called for. With that much air entraining agent in the mix, it was very doubtful the concrete would ever reach spec strength. My BIL strongly suggested to the contractor that he have the crew pop the forms off and remove the mud while he could still do it the easy way -- with a front-end loader. The contractor chose to roll the dice and wait a week to see how the 7-day strength tests came out. Not surprisingly, they came out very low (about half what they should have been), so we rejected the footing and told them it had to be replaced. It took a pair of laborers about a week to jackhammer out all the concrete, and in the process they ruined the rebar, so it had to be replaced as well. That was an expensive roll of the dice for the contractor. ;)
 
Hang in there. Just went thru a similar saga with getting my driveway paved. Took 3 contractors, but the last crew did excellent work and were great to work with. Just wish I had found them at the beginning.
 
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