garage foundation disaster

[lynfreedom]

I have talked to so many people in the last week and all want alot of money and have their own version on what needs to be done so I turn to you for some honesty. I will try to keep this brief.

My daughter bought some land, has a manufactured home and is building an enclosed 6ft wide by 8 ft walkway attached to the utility door of the home. Attached to the walkway is going to be a 24 x 24 garage with the door going from the garage to the walkway. It will match the house by having the hardipanel and shingles on it.

The land the home is on is not level; therefore, a dirt pad was done to prepare for the pouring of the concrete. The foundation was laid the Friday before labor day and it is horrible. My daughter had a hurt back, was dealing with the movers from hell that messed up all her wood furniture and stressed out so she gave the man his money when he came to the door. The guys were still working and she asked him some questions but thought more was being done. They had told her she could use some of her gravel to put around the foundation to make it more stable if needed. He told her the drop off from the garage entrance and the driveway could be fixed with a landing after the garage was completed. I had to leave for a short time and I feel like he got out of their so he would not have to deal with me.
They left without saying anything to her and left a foundation that once the frame was taken off has gaps between the concrete and the dirt pad. It rained really hard yesterday and water was collecting in the middle so after looking at it, it seems the middle of the garage is more hollow. They did not use footers or beams of any sort. The garage builder said it would not be stable to build on.
I have for a week called and left messages but the person who did the foundation has not returned the calls. The trusses for the garage will be in in 2 weeks so I started calling foundation repair companies as it seemed I would not have the original guy back to fix it. Now I am getting estimates of thousands of dollars that we do not have to repair this foundation. Some say beams, some drillings in the side with footers attached, some steel beams need to go in.

I have been trying to find the standard codes for GranburyTexas but have not had any luck. Can you please tell me what I should be looking for and what you think can be done to correct this. Right now the backside is jagged and has at least 2-4 inches between the concrete and dirt pad in many areas. He left a 3 ft long and 3-4 ft wide area where his workers were scraping the concrete onto the ground. That is solid and I am not sure how he expected her to clean it up.

He told me that Fri afternoon he would have to be back the next morning to finish. He said the concrete they gave him had too much heavy rock; therefore, on a job that small the rock tends to come to the surface faster. He said that he should have thought about it but didn't and so he was going to come back and smooth and glaze it. Does not look glazed, has already started cracking on the surface, and looks really bad. He had gone to Home Depot several times and bought concrete which they were using water and it to try to smooth areas. I can tell the difference in the look where that was used. Apparently he did not order enough concrete.

I also now have to figure out what to do about electricity and other things and I really do not know what to do. I have been off work with a back injury and my daughter is having to help me with bills. This is too much for a 23 yr old to have to deal with (moving company, dealership, foundation, etc....too many problems).

Thanks for your help.

Linda, tired and frustrated

 

[Lloydthumper]

I know you gave a pretty good description of the shoddy work but do you have any pictures you could post of the area's in question.

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

Sorry for your frustrations, Linda. Many of us have been there in one way or another. We need pics before we can offer valuable suggestions... otherwise we are guessing.

 

[boiler7904]

Can your daughter stop payment on the check or is it to late for that?

With every thing that you describe, it might be cheaper and easier in the long run to jcak hammer it all out and start over on the foundation and slab for the garage.

 

[Lloydthumper]

I have had a couple of dealings with contractors like that I would put money on it if you look at the time stamp on the check it was taken to the bank with in the hour of him leaving. I hate people like that. They give good contractors a bad name or at least expectations.

 

[Kevin54]

Not to sound like a real Richard but when you go with the cheapest you can find you end up with the cheapest you can get. Basically you are screwed. You will probably have to get a lawyer, or else just right it off as a bad experience and count your losses. Now what you may be able to do is go with a pole barn a little larger than what you originally wanted. Go outside of the pouring that is already there. Drill holes for short pieces of rebar into the side of the existing floor, pin it with short pieces, and after the pole barn is built, have a new pour around the perimeter of the existing floor. Then later on down the road when funds are a little better, either have the existing floor tore out and redone or pour a skim slab over the top of everything using a bonding material between. I know what it is like to be ripped and believe you me, if it was legal, some of those contractors should be lined up and shot. And it does make you sick to your stomach knowing that you have to shell out more hard earned money just to live with someone elses screwup. I made up my mind a few years ago, and I tell them right up front.....if you do good work, you get paid. If I am not satisfied, then you take me to court and not visa versa, but no money for disatisfaction. Good luck and post up some pics if you can. It may be easier to give a solution to a problem if we see what the problem is.

Kevin

 

[kbs2244]

On the legal side:
Stop payment on the check if you can.
Get lots of pics, with dates, of both the over all layout, so the slope can be seen, and details of the sides showing the voids under the slab. Get one showing haw the rain puddles on the slab.
Get a lawyer and sue.

On the practical side:
I would say it is a choice of Boilers tear it out and use the pieces for fill or Kevin’s making it bigger and filling in underneath around the edges.

Maybe a combination of the two? Make it about a foot bigger on all four sides, break up along the sides to expose the voids, then pour a cap over the whole thing. This may mean a new permit, AND TRUSSES.
(Unless you want a foot of exposed floor all around the building.)

Whatever you do, even if it is nothing but watch it get worse, take dated pics.

 

[bmwpower]

Did you sign a contract for the work to be done?

 

[Steve in Mi]

Sorry it hasn't been a smoother road to travel of late.

I have been trying to find the standard codes for GranburyTexas but have not had any luck.

If the work was done under building permit contact the building inspector to; 1.) make a report of the shoddy contractor that did the work. The local inpector can sometimes apply a little pressure on the contractor to make the repairs if he expects to obtain any future building permits in this juristiction, and 2.) get a straight scoop answer from the inspector on what will have to be done from this point forward to pass his inspections. Sometimes these inspectors will be a big help and valuable source of information to getting the project back on track. Sometimes not but in any case if you are permit building they will have the last word on what will pass and what will not be issued a permit to occupy. Best wishes.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Stop the trusses... now

They probably haven't started making them yet. Put a stop to them right away, until this is settled. The last thing you need is trusses sitting out in the weather while you hash this over. Personally I like the idea of digging out footer trenches around the slab, drilling and putting rebar into the edges of the slab and pouring the footers up to the top of, and shoving all you can, underneath, the slab. You would have a bigger garage and less waste of $$$ that way. A foundation 18 inches wide and say 24 inches deep (as an example, yours depends on the soil in the area and other factors) amounts to about $1200 of cement (at $100 a yard) plus backhoe, forming work, etc, everything you should have had and may or may not have paid for in the first place. My guess is $3000 to $4000 should do this, but, that is my guess from my armchair in Georgia. Get someone out to look at it in person........

Second choice would be the jackhammer, but that is more money wasted to break up and dispose of money already spent.

Seems to me the garage builder would want to be in charge of the whole project. Piece meal construction is probably not good, it makes you sort of but not really, a general contractor, Of course it is too late now.

The other thing is to take your daughter out of the loop in the garage construction. Its apparent she has way too much to deal with for the near future to attend to garage construction also.

Charles

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

Charles-
When I first read the OP, those were my thoughts exactly. I was hoping for pictures so I could tell whether or not that plan looked workable.

Another option I thought of would be to build the forms a few inches higher than the floor surface, and in addition to doing what you've recommended, do a 3-4 inch skim coat right over top of what's there in order to eliminate the low spot and poor finish work. Problem solved!

 

[Kong]

What's going to happen in a year or two?

Considering that the work you can see is ****, I would think that the stuff you can't see is worse.

Put a stop payment on the cheque ASAP.

Take pictures, remove it and start from scratch.

Sue him for your costs to remove the work he did.

KongBastard

 

[wilbilt]

It sounds like they just poured a flat slab on the pad? Were there no footings required?

Is this clown a licensed contractor? If so, contact your state licensing board. He will either have to fix it or lose his license. I've seen it happen.

 

[mpraddict]

Notice this was the users first post, and there have been no followup posts to answer questions asked for three days.....
Maybe I'm just too cynical