Bad Concrete Pour, Help

[JoshM1112]

Hello everyone, I just had a 30x30 slab poured for my new shop and I'm not happy with the finish of the concrete. A 24x30 section of the slab is for a barn he is also putting up, and the other 6x30 section is a patio up front. It was hotter than heck outside and the contractor said the concrete was curing too fast and they tried to get it as smooth as they could. The left half of the slab is nice and smooth and the right half is rough with rocks visible (not talking about the patio which has rocks as well, but the right side half of the slab). The contractor also said they had leftover concrete and we decided to pour a small square for a compressor outside, soon to find out, the contractor realized he forgot a form in the middle of the slab where it stepped down to the porch up front and had to tear the peice of wood out. It was too late to salvage the extra concrete that we poured for the compressor so he sent one of his guys to the store to get some readymix bags. To say the least, it looks terrible and the color of the concrete doesn't match, especially when wet. The readymix he used has started flaking off and is a darker color. The small indented area is for a 10x10 garage door and is crooked and off an inch on one side. A small peice of concrete just popped out and i can stick my knife into the dirt underneath. I know I have to wait 28 days before I can do anything to the slab. What should I do? Should I have him grind it down and polish it on his dollar or mine? I don't think I should be paying for his screw ups. Thank you.

 

[The Cobbler]

they lost it, have you paid them ?
the sooner it gets ripped out the easier it will be

 

[JoshM1112]

they lost it, have you paid them ?
the sooner it gets ripped out the easier it will be

Too late, already paid them. Rookie mistake, but he's also doing my barn which he already started getting materials for, I can always withhold that money?

 

[jack stand]

It's not your fault that the concrete "got away" from him.
More guys are needed in these situations but it's hard to believe that he saw this coming and intentionally put himself in this position as you said he is also building the rest of it. He's probably as nervous as you right now and maybe both of you can come to an agreement. There's a lot of building left to negotiate with.
A compromise would be to saw cut from the ugly "seam" out to the short side, dowels into the good side and replace that.

 

[kelpaso1]

Dunno why this seems to be a weekly thing here. You guys must have a lot of crappy/incompetent concrete guys.

 

[FMB4]

Aggregate (rocks) should never show on the surface of the pour. Grinding the slab down will not solve the problem.

 

[JoshM1112]

Dunno why this seems to be a weekly thing here. You guys must have a lot of crappy/incompetent concrete guys.

Yea I should've known when he showed up with guys who he more than likely picked up on the side of the road and couldn't even get the form done in 1 day. Took em a day and a half, the concrete truck showed up and they were rushing to finish the forms.

 

[jack stand]

Imho there's concrete crews or contractors, and there's framing crews or builders. I don't see much mixing of the two. He may have hired a couple of good flatwork guys and pitched in doing the grunt work (placing the crete) and any formwork. With one 1 or 2 finishers, that may have been fine in the shade or early in the morning, they seem to have been short handed in the heat.

 

[PoorUB]

Rip it out. Like it or not, it is your contractors problem, not yours. Ask him if he would settle for it on his own property.

If you don't rip it out and replace it you will see it everyday and hate it!

 

[JoshM1112]

Rip it out. Like it or not, it is your contractors problem, not yours. Ask him if he would settle for it on his own property.

If you don't rip it out and replace it you will see it everyday and hate it!

How so if I already paid him. I made the stupid mistake of paying him. I'm afraid he'll just walk with my down-payment on the barn he's supposed to build.

 

[PoorUB]

Let him walk, sue him in small claims court. If he is the type of contractor that screws up stuff and won't make it right, better to find out in the beginning, than half way through.

If it was mine I would pay to replace it if I had too. I couldn't live with that mess. The top looks like **** and I bet it is **** all they way through and will fail and crack up over time.
If you think the main slab is OK but the apron or patio are is bad, have him cut it off and repour just that part.

 

[dcg9381]

Let him walk, sue him in small claims court. If he is the type of contractor that screws up stuff and won't make it right, better to find out in the beginning, than half way through.

I dunno how to fix this either.. But I suspect there is a fix other than remove it all. Maybe grinding it (substantially).
As much as I believe in small claims and financial restitution, make sure you have your ducks in a row there. If you wrote a check to an LLC (or some other business entity) - need to make sure there is water to squeeze from that rock, as it's WAY easier (and less expensive) to move the money to another business (if there is any money at all).

 

[mikedodge]

Start by going back to the guy and see what he'll do. If he won't make this rifht I'd be leary about how the rest of the job will go. I weather was going to be a factor they should have postponed to another day.

 

[ive]

Like everyone said, rip it out. Don’t let him do anymore work there, “fool me once shame on you…”

Cant have that. Hire someone who has references of people you actually know.

Amd make sure the new guy doesn’t subcontract.

like you said, rookie mistake. Now you k ow. Do it proper.

I have been through a bad concrete job too. You’re not alone.

 

[Walkers]

It will be super nice once they grind and polish it.

I’m not trying to say anyone is an idiot, well, yeah I guess I am, why did you pay before the work was done?!?! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Tell him to fix it. When he doesn’t hopefully you hired a licensed, bonded, insured contractor, so make sure he knows you are going after his bond.

 

[ConCretin]

It's always easy to say 'rip it out' especially when you may have to foot the bill yourself but that is exactly what needs to happen. I'm not sure about you but that slab would bother me every time I set foot on it. Aesthetics aside, I'd have serious doubts about the long term durability and serviceability of that concrete. I'm pretty sure they brushed on some of that Sakrete to hide a crappy finish. That will be flaking off soon and I suspect the problems go deeper than that. If so, attempting repairs might be sending good money after bad.

Even though you've paid, you can hopefully prevail apon your contractor to do the right thing and at least participate in replacing the slab. If he's not embarrassed, he should be. If he refuses, you need to reconsider whether you want to work with him going forward. Not a lot of good options I'm afraid.

 

[JoshM1112]

Just spoke met with the contractor, he agrees the patio is screwed. I told him the main slab itself is alright and he agreed to grind and polish the slab once it's cured. He's having a crew come out right now to tear out the patio and repour it tomorrow, thanks for all the advice I'll keep yall updated.

 

[PoorUB]

Good! Great to have a contractor that will stand behind his work!

I worked as an HVAC tech and also did some install. Once in a while would have a job go bad and we would take care of it. I remember one job that went to hell right at the start. The guy I was working with and I figured out a solution and got on it. I remember the estimator calling me up and chewing me out because we were going to lose money on the job. I told him if he wanted to come to the job and take over I certainly could find something else to do. He idled down an we got back to work. We still turned a decent profit on the job, just killed a few more hours labor and some cheap materials.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Concrete: Don't Pay for Bad Work

I just bumped into yet another thread started by someone who has a concrete job that was done badly. I'm no expert, but I've had a couple garage foundations done and a few driveways. It's a big problem for a person new to the process, they just do not understand how unforgiving concrete...

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