I asked him about the anchors he said they always use drill in anchors and went on to explain to me why they are better than set anchors.
Builder came out today. Long story short he told me it was structurally sound and a pour over would be fine. I told him I would not accept anything other than it being tore out and redone. He said why don't you take the weekend to think about it and we'll talk again. I basically said that's fine but it sounds like you need to take the weekend to think about the fact you're going to have to tear this up and redo it. He was here for about an hour and a half. I recorded it all on my phone. I also told him in writing (per HIS contract) that I did not accept the concrete. He acted offended that I put it in writing. I also made a copy of it for me to keep. I asked him to sign it and he refused. I did get him to acknowledge thst I was giving him written notice on the recording. I'm also going to send it to his office via certified mail. He did say that if we can't come to an agreement he will tear it all out and fix the yard and the driveway and give us our money back.
He did say that if we can't come to an agreement he will tear it all out and fix the yard and the driveway and give us our money back.
Wow!
I thought I had the worst pour on this site.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=295023
Good for you standing your ground. Be thankful and feel blessed because at least your contractor is still talking to you. I used a fly by night cheapest price I could find guy and he never answered my calls again. Not to mention one of the truck drivers got arrested on my property the night of the fiasco and that made me and my family the talk of the town for a little while.
I had to remove the form boards myself and add footer supports around the perimeter of my slab. Today I have a sound foundation that does not even show surface cracks. It is ugly but I plan to install racedeck one day. Thankfully my concrete mix was good and rebar is strong. But your surface looks terrible. Are you planning to put in flooring or painting over that? I'd still want it redone. Good luck.
Man, I thought I've seen some bad pours but that takes the cake. A heaping pile of **** on that slab would make it look better.
Like someone else said, epoxy set anchors are okay if done right (and it's not rocket science). A lot of builders (and even designers) prefer it because then you don't have to fight with crooked / shifted anchor bolts and it makes the pour go better because they aren't having to work around them.
My gut feeling is to have him remove it all, fix the yard and driveway, and refund our money. On the other hand I've had an extremely hard time finding a builder that would even return my calls. I've been trying to get this shop built for four months.
I hate to say it, but I am going to side with your gut based on him not wanting to do the right thing from the get go. You mentioned him stating that you never know how dry the mix is going to come off the truck and the few times I have had trucked concrete delivered the rep at the company advised then the driver also knew what the application was and verified that it was correct. He is a garage builder who uses a whole lot more concrete. It would make me wonder what other corners he is cutting. The truck being stuck in your drive is a separate issue with the truck company. If the builder gives you too much **** about it I am sure your neighbor can tell the name on their truck and a call to them might grease things with the builder when you call and tell them you are the guy who almost got to keep their truck for the weekend because their driver didn't know how to get his *** out of the truck to look around before putting that much weight in the mud.
My gut feeling is to have him remove it all, fix the yard and driveway, and refund our money. On the other hand I've had an extremely hard time finding a builder that would even return my calls. I've been trying to get this shop built for four months.
I know who the concrete company is and I'm going to call them Monday to get their side of the story.
I will chime in with more words of encouragement to listen to your gut and make the GC fix this.
The biggest red flag in this is the GC's attitude. He says that 'this can be fixed' and that you need to 'take the weekend to think about it' - that is a terrible response. He didn't acknowledge the issue, didn't call you and tell you there were problems with the pour but he waited for you to find this mess, and then the first words from his mouth is to try to talk you into accepting this? Think about it! He stood next to this worthless concrete and defended it and tried to tell you that he can build a garage on top of it! Run away from this GC!
I asked him about the anchors he said they always use drill in anchors and went on to explain to me why they are better than set anchors.
The 'take the weekend to think about it' bit may have been as much for himself - he probably knows what the right thing to do is and just needs time to justify spending the $ (or figuring out who to extract his money from) to pay for it.
This forum is pretty aggressive (and sometimes hateful) when it comes to contractors and wrong doing. At the end of the day, the guy is human and you said he was well respected. I would give him a little time to do the right thing. Getting another concrete company to come look at it and give you an opinion might not be an idea (it might cost you a little to pay them to come out). That opinion might also help you down the road if things get ugly...but it's pretty clear that it's messed up badly. In my opinion, it should be torn out and started over. Accidents happen and there's no reason to get furious over it (yet)...until he refuses to accept responsibility for it and assume the cost of the do-over.
UPDATE- they are tearing it out today. Fixing my yard and driveway when it is dry enough to do so and refunding my money.
Best possible outcome. While I'm sure it's disappointing to you to delay the build, I think it's best to server ties with this contractor and move on to another.
UPDATE- they are tearing it out today. Fixing my yard and driveway when it is dry enough to do so and refunding my money.
Posted the tear out pictures in my other thread.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=350687&page=3
Is it me or is that slab thickness all over the road. It looks like it ranges from ~6" to under 3" in some places. Or are the extra thin areas where the hot load capped the first pour?. Or was the grading just that far off.
joes169 stated this was a monolithic slab... thus it would / should be considerably thicker around the perimeter.
I could care less about it being thicker, hell I'll pour a slab thicker then required verses dealing with compaction for a small area. Muds a hell of a lot cheaper than labor. But if you look at some of those pictures it looks like some of the flat work is about 2" thick. Also I'm looking at this on a phone sooooo
Is it me or is that slab thickness all over the road. It looks like it ranges from ~6" to under 3" in some places. Or are the extra thin areas where the hot load capped the first pour?. Or was the grading just that far off.