Contractor bait and switch???
- Thread starter 90limited
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Lassen Forge
Well-known member
This has about 100 elements of turning bad...
Compaction - is COMPACTION. You wter DURING compaction (with a vibroroller or sheepsfoot roller) to settle the gravel. Watering itdown WITHOUT compaction does squat, and when your walls mismatch in 3 months... well... don't say you weren't warned...
I would back off... the "Oh I'm sorry" routine added to the "I've never misquoted..." is a ploy. DON'T fall for it. We had a "contractor" do the same thing, and after he had fubarred the job, he took us to court to try to swipe an extra 22+ grand for it.
Please... PLEASE... walk away. Get ALL the deets in a contract, as if you were building a government building, Seriously, get an architect to look over your contract (worth the $400 to do that) to make sure your **** is covered. And DO NOT allow someone to s#!ttalk you down from the basics.
Otherwise you will own a huge Pig In The Poke that will be forever a "fix the fubar job".. and I really HATE seeing people get whapped that bad.
Compaction - is COMPACTION. You wter DURING compaction (with a vibroroller or sheepsfoot roller) to settle the gravel. Watering itdown WITHOUT compaction does squat, and when your walls mismatch in 3 months... well... don't say you weren't warned...
I would back off... the "Oh I'm sorry" routine added to the "I've never misquoted..." is a ploy. DON'T fall for it. We had a "contractor" do the same thing, and after he had fubarred the job, he took us to court to try to swipe an extra 22+ grand for it.
Please... PLEASE... walk away. Get ALL the deets in a contract, as if you were building a government building, Seriously, get an architect to look over your contract (worth the $400 to do that) to make sure your **** is covered. And DO NOT allow someone to s#!ttalk you down from the basics.
Otherwise you will own a huge Pig In The Poke that will be forever a "fix the fubar job".. and I really HATE seeing people get whapped that bad.
themiller
Well-known member
That is a sweet price. But seriously - get your money back and run! Typical contractor shenanigans.
Big Bad Dad
Well-known member
THIS ^^^^^ Sorry OP, but I have all kinds of "red lights" flashing as I read your postings! This ain't going to end well for you.............
owenst7
Well-known member
I used to do compaction QA for a living, along with growing up working for the family GC business.Split face block, filled with concrete, re-bar both vertical and horizontal. I was thinking of getting them to do 12" block up to the floor level and then switch to three rows of 8" so the floor rest on the block walls. Only concern is if the fill settles, the slab is now tied to the wall and cannot settle without cracking......
Speaking of the fill, the plan is to cut lifts into the dirt around 12" changes, fill with rock and water it down between loads... said they would compact with the large Case skid steer. I am thinking there needs to be more compacting then that...???
Get away now, this guy doesn't know what he's doing. Or more likely he does, but it's not your best interest he cares about.
If he has worked on ANY backfill work that involved an engineer (or just doing the job properly), he will be aware that watering the ground and driving on it for compaction isn't even close to doing the job properly. If he's lucky, that might get him to 90% compaction of the standard 95%. A good contractor would never take a risk (not even a risk, I promise you it won't work) like that on something that critical.
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Split face block, filled with concrete, re-bar both vertical and horizontal. I was thinking of getting them to do 12" block up to the floor level and then switch to three rows of 8" so the floor rest on the block walls. Only concern is if the fill settles, the slab is now tied to the wall and cannot settle without cracking......
Speaking of the fill, the plan is to cut lifts into the dirt around 12" changes, fill with rock and water it down between loads... said they would compact with the large Case skid steer. I am thinking there needs to be more compacting then that...???
I still wouldn't have concern with a floor ledge around the perimeter, especially a 4" wide one. Typical here is 2" wide on everything.
As for your fill, you say "rock", which is fine "IF" it truly is stone and stone only. NO FINES. Generally, we use 2-3" fractured stone, as it reaches about 95% compaction as placed w/o compaction. This is an extremely common and acceptable practice in residential, commercial, and industrial construction here. Compacting certainly won't hurt, but you won't gain much.
One last thing. When you mention "cut lifts" I find it a little confusing. Are they planning on pouring footings on virgin soil, and just filling in lifts inside when all the walls are done?
As I understand it when you use something like crushed limestone that needs to be compacted, you need to cut shelves or lifts every 8" - 12"... fill and compact lowest with 12" then cover the next 12" with fill and compact that, then cover the next 12" and compact that. You would then be at three feet of compacted fill. Footer on virgin soil 2' deep...
As far as how the build is going, the GC said that it will be up to the concrete/foundation guy, as he is the expert. I do know that stepped footers will be poured and split face block will be used to bring up to grade. I don't know what will be used to fill in the 6' elevation, but you can bet your shorts I will find out.
Lastly, GC told me that he built a garage with similar elevation challenges a couple years ago. I have asked him for the address so I can go look at. I know that most everyone thinks that I should run, but I want to hear what the foundation guy has to say and see and talk to the owners of the garage already built......... lastly, thanks to everyone that has responded and to all the great info on this site....
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PugetDude
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Hope is not a course of action.
How can the GC get any idea how much it will cost to build if he doesn't know how it's going to be built? Let me guess some dialogue that's going to happen in the future; "Well, the foundation cost more than I figured so I'll split the difference with you."
I wish you the best of luck because you're going to need it without detailed plans of the garage.
sluggish
Well-known member
" said they would compact with the large Case skid steer."
Unless he has some big honking vibrating roller attachment that I have never seen, there is now way he's compacting 6 feet by driving a skidsteer over it.
Run far far away!! NO "ACTUAL" concrete contractor would ever make this comment. I can't wait to tell the guys at work this one.(I work in the heavy equipment industry)
I fear your gut will steer you wrong in this instance. I hope I am wrong for your sake.
Unless he has some big honking vibrating roller attachment that I have never seen, there is now way he's compacting 6 feet by driving a skidsteer over it.
Run far far away!! NO "ACTUAL" concrete contractor would ever make this comment. I can't wait to tell the guys at work this one.(I work in the heavy equipment industry)
I fear your gut will steer you wrong in this instance. I hope I am wrong for your sake.
ultrahd4me
Member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2009
- Messages
- 17
Good luck. I'm in the Nashville area and I can tell you that is a good price for the Grarage. I built a 32x24 and did some of the work myself and still had $22.5 when completed 2.5 years ago. I had almost the same situation when it came to grade for the concrete. There was only about 6" elevation difference on the surface, but they needed almost 12" on the rear corner to get to good soil. So I ended up paying extra for the gravel, and he eat the concrete cost, it was about $500 for us both. I think you will be ok.
Went and looked at a garage that was built quite some years ago with very similar elevation issues. It has 10 rows of block to get the slab up to grade. The owner was very happy with the work and had positive feedback about the GC other than he is slow....