Horrific new slab pour, PROPER corrective action advise needed!

Lassen Forge · Aug 25, 2020

I keep trying to reword the old "man from Nantucket" limerick with "contractor from Duluth"... Hmmm...

There once was a contractor from Duluth
Whose work was quite far fron the truth
The facts as are layed
that the OP got played
And the contractor needs to lose more than one tooth. :boxer:

Not quite "Nantucket" material, but it's the best I could do on short notice.

I've seen contractors totally screw the pooch up a job, then skate town rather than pay the consequences. After all the **** this numbnuts put you through, I wouldn't be surprised if he did... at least you got his *** on record (thanks to the law) for the total screwed up shankjob he did on your slab...

The rough part is time is no longer on your side, but IF (we hope) you get a new contractor to demo, re-excavate, reset bar and heat and repour, you might be able to beat old man winter... it'll be close, but I've seen crazier stuff work out.

B T C · Aug 25, 2020

PugetDude said:
You don't happen to be a concrete contractor from Duluth, do you?

He currently has 1,666 posts. Coincidence?

Jayman17 · Aug 26, 2020

This really has become a nightmare, I will keep my fingers crossed that all will turn out to your satisfaction. Hang in there...

Jay

35k0 · Aug 26, 2020

Sorry you are going through this.
I live in Esko, near Duluth. I know many people in the concrete business around here and would love to know who this was. Message me if you want.

Fatboy148 · Aug 26, 2020

zimmpz said:
I noticed something wasn't right with the last side of the forms I placed on top his so I measured the slab and that is when I discovered it was 1 whole 16 inch stud bay off.

Obviously they never checked square on the forms. I have seen a foot or an inch off because that's what the guy on the "dumb end" of the tape held (or was supposed to hold). It happens and that error is usually/supposed to be picked up when you check your work!

I did one once where when we started laying the corners out, we used the transit to establish the first square corner and then just pulled parallel lines off those two walls. All was well but when we finished, it was out of square by the width of the transit grading rod. I had read on side of the rod on one angle, spun 90 degrees and read the other side of the rod on that wall. Oooops! The double wide that went on top of the foundation was apparently pretty square.....

Blk88GT · Aug 28, 2020

Wow. Just wow.

Good luck. I would be hammering that mess out, even on my dime.

nhdiesel · Aug 28, 2020

I had concrete contractor issues when building my house, but fortunately not as bad as your experience! My guy poured the walls 6" too short even though he had the house plans, including the concrete specs. Normally foundation walls being too short would just be an inconvenience, but my plans included a walkout wall with French doors. There was an LVL just above the doors and the center beam sat on the LVL. There was no room for error.

The contractor wouldn't make it right and suggested I dig the floor lower (floor hadn't been poured yet). Well the ground was very rocky and going deeper would have meant seriously disturbing the ground around the footings.

My options were to fix it myself or go to court. We were on a deadline so waiting for court was out. I ended up building up the sill plate. Not ideal, but we git back on track.

I'm afraid with your time crunch, your only option is to document the problems in detail, then fix it on your dime. Attempt to go after the contractor later.

At least this route would ensure another company will do the work. Do you want to fight this company, win, and have them do the work again...especially grudgingly? What kind of quality would you get then?

pcmeiners · Sep 3, 2020

"I'm afraid with your time crunch, your only option is to document the problems in detail, then fix it on your dime. Attempt to go after the contractor later. "

This is called "cover" in contractional law. If the original contractor fails to do the work correctly, then refuses to make good, you can hire another contractor to do the work, even if the new contractor costs more, and the original dirt bag pays for the work if you win the case.

theundermount · Sep 6, 2020

pcmeiners said:
"I'm afraid with your time crunch, your only option is to document the problems in detail, then fix it on your dime. Attempt to go after the contractor later. "

This is called "cover" in contractional law. If the original contractor fails to do the work correctly, then refuses to make good, you can hire another contractor to do the work, even if the new contractor costs more, and the original dirt bag pays for the work if you win the case.

you have to ensure you give the original contractor enough time to correct their mistakes first though

walrus · Sep 6, 2020

zimmpz said:
The path has just gotten rougher. I thought I had hit rock bottom but I guess it is never wise to think it couldn't get worse. They ground the slab and I spent my weekend cleaning the hell out of it, laying rebar and erecting forms and cutting new foam. At the final end I was wondering why on earth my forms needed to be modified as I was just placing them in lightly with foam so I could square and level later. Turns out it is 15.5" short on one side. I have measured multiple times as I still can not believe it. Ray Charles could have done a better job with a string and a spatula on this monument to the stupidity of man I have in my yard. The engineers are working between a fix and a tear out option right now. I will keep you all posted. I also have released the legal hounds on his *** so I will keep you posted on what comes of that as well. Good thing my material costs just went up over 140% and there are 2 hurricanes about to blast the coast......Truly unbelievable....

Wow, I feel really bad for you. That guy should never be allowed to do flat work again. No matter what you lose in this situation and that just *****. Duluth ain't warming up as we head into the "ber" months so time is running out.

andyvh1959 · Sep 7, 2020

Wow, nothing but s**t work from that so-called contractor. I could accept a 1/4" off on the forms. 1-1/2" off on the forms is inexcusable. But 15.5" off!!?? I could easily "see" the forms are way out of square if it's that far off.

I had my new garage site prepped and forms placed, 2" insulation put down on my slab pour last fall, all hired work. Before the pour I looked it over and could see one corner looked thin (not 4" from the foam to the top of the form). I checked it and proved it less than 3" thick. Called the contractor and came over and checked it out, agreed, and went to work to correct it.

Imusprofit · Sep 7, 2020

KMinAF said:
Talk to the company owner, maybe he is a stand up kind of guy and will man up to it and take care of it. Stranger things have happened.....

I'm in the concrete highway business. There is a product from a company called Sika that makes a thin lift overlay that will likely fix your problem. We use it on bridge decks with 80,000 pound trucks pounding on it for years with no delamination. And it goes down as thin as 1/4 inch. I would knock off the high spots with a grinder, then cover the whole slab with Sika. (They make many products so call their rep to get the correct one). It's almost self leveling. Good luck.

Fatboy148 · Sep 7, 2020

Imusprofit said:
I'm in the concrete highway business. There is a product from a company called Sika that makes a thin lift overlay that will likely fix your problem. We use it on bridge decks with 80,000 pound trucks pounding on it for years with no delamination. And it goes down as thin as 1/4 inch. I would knock off the high spots with a grinder, then cover the whole slab with Sika. (They make many products so call their rep to get the correct one). It's almost self leveling. Good luck.

Sika makes some great products BUT I bet they don't make one that would square his building up!

or

texasprd · Sep 15, 2020

Any updates to this saga?

dcg9381 · Sep 15, 2020

walrus said:
Ray Charles could have done a better job with a string and a spatula on this monument to the stupidity of man I have in my yard.

Hang in there.. Construction is a PITA, especially if you're a single job guy (like most of us are).

Slackerzinc · Sep 21, 2020

Any news? Wondering how the slab turned out

imjustdave · Sep 21, 2020

Just started reading this thread yesterday..... WOW

So initially I was going to say I would suspect the batch plant made an error. not so much in the mud but in batching and sending the truck out, and or batching multiple trucks and sending the first with the second coming latter. As a finisher if your expecting X but end up with Y you end up in situations like you saw.

I did a color tinted stamped driveway and my crew was doing good then the next truck came and started getting a little behind, then the 3rd truck showed up and by the time it was pumped and on the ground it was hard Come to find out the batch plant mix it all 3 trucks worth at the same time and sent out trucks 45 min apart... so yeah 3rd truck was basically 3 hr old mud... hot as the sun and the batch slips proved it Ended up tearing it all out mostly on my dime the next day. correct mud poorly managed on the other end with no notice to us. We had standing orders on our account that we would call for the next truck VS auto sending. So yeah I give the contractor some benefit here.

BUT This grinding idea... I have to say yeah maybe it's an option and I never had to tearout with pex tubing and such but still, I was really wondering how this was going to pencil out. Engineering, core sampling, grinding, cleanup. cost alone would have sent me looking at Remove and Replace I figure 24 yards of mud in that 36 X 36, rebar is cheap yeah the pex isn't but we aren't talking about miles of it. If this was some 100+ X 100+ area 2 feet thick, miles of conduit 1000+ yards, multiple pump trucks, with engineered cages of rebar... SURE lets bring in the engineering for a solution.

I was hoping your contractor would be a standup person and just fixed the issue and I was trying to give them the benefit here but reality really sunk in when you found it 16 inches short on one side these people really failed you, I give them an F at this point and without any mud slips to judge give a pass to the concrete mix place.

When you said 16 inches it reminded me of a time my guys found an inch missing on the plans for a hotel and we had to ask the architect where they wanted to make up this inch. Mind you the foundation plans also didn't show the hole in the floor for the elevator ...oops i'm sure core drilling that 2 foot floor was fun. So yea even with computers people mess up. But when you can't make a square and you can't see 16 inches missing... I tend to thing they really had no business being in business.

Out of curiosity... Is it square?

In closing I'm glad to see this company off the job site, the finish, the 16 inches missing, lack of common sense ETC just all point to a bad company and maybe bad employees who just don't care. Sending you good vibes this is the last of your issues on your build.

Sending good vibes your way in all of this.

GeddyT · Sep 21, 2020

That's the second reference I read to PEX being expensive. PEX is the single cheapest component of this pour. 500 feet of PEX costs no more than a yard of concrete in my neck of the woods. It's the foam under the slab that costs a fortune when you tear up if you damage it (I'm not sure how you'd avoid doing so).

Either way, sounds like OP has chosen a path that doesn't involve complete tear-out, and I'm following to see how it all works out. I thought my 1/2" wavy slab was bad...

58Yeoman · Sep 21, 2020

When I had a house built in 1974, the contractor for the basement poured the walls and footings for the garage all in the same day. The house builder came to inspect the foundation before bringing in the 'house.' He saw that the beam pocket for the main house beam was FOUR FEET off, towards the front of the house. The basement contractor had measured for the beam pocket from the front of the garage footings instead of the garage wall.

Poor lacky had to use a power saw and chisel on a very hot, humid August day to put in a new beam pocket. Made it worse when the rope on the saw broke and he couldn't start it. All hand work there.

imjustdave · Sep 21, 2020

zimmpz said:
The path has just gotten rougher. I thought I had hit rock bottom but I guess it is never wise to think it couldn't get worse. They ground the slab and I spent my weekend cleaning the hell out of it, laying rebar and erecting forms and cutting new foam. At the final end I was wondering why on earth my forms needed to be modified as I was just placing them in lightly with foam so I could square and level later. Turns out it is 15.5" short on one side. Truly unbelievable....

zimmpz

Is the pad Square with the messed up 15.5 inches missing? If so I'm thinking your fix is going to be on all 3- 4 side of the slab and may even have to cut some off to make this work. I can see in your photos those aren't 90 angles.

Ugh.. Need some help ripping this out?

Ipassgas · Sep 23, 2020

The way I see his pics, he has a trapezoid. 2 parallel walls are the same length. The other 2 walls differ by 16".

This is a huge mess. I hope you're made whole and you have a functional building by Christmas. :fingersx:

imjustdave · Sep 23, 2020

Ipassgas said:
The way I see his pics, he has a trapezoid. 2 parallel walls are the same length. The other 2 walls differ by 16".

This is a huge mess. I hope you're made whole and you have a functional building by Christmas.

Yeah been thinking about it a little more....
Best scenario he has 1 90 corner with 2 sides that need to be fixed

Or 0 90 corners and 2 parallel and needs to fix opposite sides.

Past this I figure 3+ sides need to be fixed.

I feel sick for the owner. Hope he updates us as painful as it maybe, we know it's not his fault but his mess to deal with unfortunately.

casmurbax · Oct 19, 2020

Hello zimmpz

Anything to report to us, waiting patiently.

zimmpz · Oct 21, 2020

Hello everyone, progress has been steady. Sorry for the delay. I'm not really sure where I left off but I'll do my best at an update. I cut the 2 footings off the slab with a saw and broke it all up with an excavator to a 33x36 rectangle with 4 90 degree corners which was an improvement. I drilled and pinned 52 24" pieces of bar with hooks on each end and tied #4 bar 16" on center throughout the slab and reformed 18 x 24 inch footings on each end so the new footings and new cap where all tied together. I cut through my pex line so I had to repair each side so we will see how that works out. On one side an entire run was destroyed so I haphazardly laid down some new line over where the old run was. Its a hail marry on how it preforms but we will see. I plan on having a natural gas forced air heater in there as well to take up the slack from the slab so I have a feeling that might do most of the heavy lifting. The pour went well until the 15% chance of rain turned into 100% and we got 6 hours of rain while power trawling but at this point its flat and the drain works so I am calling that a win. I put a few coats of TK concrete sealer which really finished it off nice. We erected the walls last night and today are starting on sheathing. As far as my old contractor goes he has been radio silent. I wish I had taken more pics but I'll do a photo dump of what I have. Winter has come early in the north but we will keep on choochin' till I have my shell and then I can hopefully start showing off interior progress and possibly ask for recommendations from you garage pioneers who have done this before. Thanks!

Vintage Veloce · Oct 21, 2020

Wow, I'm really impressed how you dove in to fix this yourself. That's often what it takes.

zimmpz · Oct 21, 2020

Ya it has been quite the time, money and effort black hole. I figured there was really no other options other than grind through. After I crack my first beer in this monstrosity I am certain the feeling will be it was all worth the effort. I appreciate the support from you guys!

casmurbax · Oct 21, 2020

zimmpz, thank you for the update. I am far from expert but I like what you did to correct the issue.

To bad you couldn't have gotten it dried in before the snow.

Good luck with the rest of the build.

zimmpz · Oct 21, 2020

You bet! I'll try and be a little more vigilant on my posts of progress. Hoping for more positive posts in the future as I turn this franchise around.

Innovate1 · Oct 21, 2020

Just saw this thread. Makes me feel much better about my slab. On mine the contractor called for concrete before the prep work was done. So the truck sat there while they screwed around with prep. By the time they got it down it was too hard to do the borders they were supposed to but got the broom finish done with a few minor issues but nothing like this. Totally their fault. They made promises about coming back. Never did.

F451 · Oct 21, 2020

Wow! Amazing progress. Way to go. Sending you best wishes as you continue to power through. -Ed

lieutenant · Oct 21, 2020

Dam, I feel bad with all the worry and work this bum caused you. Hopefully, smooth sailing from here on.

ford33 · Oct 21, 2020

zimmpz you rock!

Don't anybody mess with zimmpz.

walrus · Oct 21, 2020

That snow ***** but such is life in the great white north. Glad to see you got the slab worked out and progress toward the finish line.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Bent Handle · Oct 21, 2020

I’d be pissed about the whole thing, but I really like your get sh*t done attitude!

ConCretin · Oct 21, 2020

Not liking the look of that snow knowing we're not too far behind. Great job getting back on track! Hoping for smooth sailing ahead, a quick completion and many years of hard earned enjoyment.

joey1320 · Oct 21, 2020

Wow!!!

What a truly horrible experience.
Glad you're finally getting over the hump.

NUTTSGT · Oct 21, 2020

We poured the floor for my garage addition Saturday. We had some slight issues and got a couple of low spots but it's all smooth.

Even when I wasn't completely happy but quite content with it, I thought about the issue you had. You paid a professional to get the mess that you have. I felt and still do feel fortunate.

Glad to see you have a big pitcher of lemonade. :thumbup:

ssdave · Oct 21, 2020

Good job. Looks very good; you ended up with a better product than the first contractor would have given you even if he had managed to execute.

Way to salvage a very ugly situation!

Jayman17 · Oct 22, 2020

Way to go, nice turnaround! I was wondering about your project. I hope you get the shell done and have nothing but smooth sailing from here out.

Jay

Lassen Forge · Oct 22, 2020

Talk about turning a cluster into a cha-ching. Nicely pulled off, sir, and can't wait to see the final product of all this hard work!

Horrific new slab pour, PROPER corrective action advise needed!

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Attachments

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Super Moderator

Banned

Well-known member

Well-known member