Introduction and need opinion

[crixer]

I finally joined, been a lurker for a long time. Moved into this house about a year ago and have been slaving away working nonstop for years. Kids are almost all out of the house and I thought I’d finally start building my dream garage. I collected some cars over the years and bought a maxjax lift. I’m not a concrete expert so I thought I would go overkill with having a concrete guy come in and do two 4x4’ 12”deep pads with rebar. They quoted me 1600 bucks which seemed high but they some good reviews. I got along with the guy when he came out and was telling me it’s an easy job for them to do.

I couldn’t take the day off but I have a cam in the garage so it captured their work on one of the pads. Of course they got paid and off they went. I came home and checked the cam footage. Looks like all they did was Jack hammer a 4x4 square and cleaned out the largest chunks leaving the smaller chunks, added some dry bags and spread it around and then covered it up with 5 or 6 bags they mixed with water.

I uploaded about an hour of them doing the second pad to YouTube. I’d appreciate any opinions. I’m thinking I’m going to need to have another more reputable company come out to redo everything and contact my lawyer.

 

[Snapped-off]

Welcome, and good luck.

 

[crixer]

Thanks! I’ll get there, just bumps along the way.

 

[LSU]

Welcome.

 

[mike93lx]

No one is watching an hour of concrete work at you house that was filmed in a potato.

At least point to highlights or specific issues.

How did you decide on a thick pad under the lift posts? (that's not the right way to do it, BTW)

 

[ConCretin]

I uploaded about an hour of them doing the second pad to YouTube. I’d appreciate any opinions. I’m thinking I’m going to need to have another more reputable company come out to redo everything and contact my lawyer

Obviously a hack job. Yes, you are going to have to redo the work. Your original slab was better than what you have now.

With regard to calling your lawyer. Don't bother. You'll spend 10x what you paid those losers on lawyers fees and likely collect nothing.

Chalk it up to experience and move on.

Sorry you are having to deal with this. Might not have been necessary to begin with. Maybe reach out to the GJ crew ahead of time in the future.

 

[crixer]

I don’t expect anyon to kick back with a beer and watch the entire video. I apologize if that was how it seemed. I thought people would kinda skip through it to get an idea.

I’ve seen other people do that kind of prep for the install. What is the correct way to do it?

My uncle is the lawyer, wouldn’t cost me anything. I would most likely just do small claims court out of principle. I know I’ll never see my money again, just pissed that they did me dirty.

 

[mike93lx]

I don’t expect anyon to kick back with a beer and watch the entire video. I apologize if that was how it seemed. I thought people would kinda skip through it to get an idea.

I’ve seen other people do that kind of prep for the install. What is the correct way to do it?

My uncle is the lawyer, wouldn’t cost me anything. I would most likely just do small claims court out of principle. I know I’ll never see my money again, just pissed that they did me dirty.

The posts should be mounted to a single slab, that extends fore and aft considerably. Prevents tipping.

Read their specs and do some reading here before you do the repour. Lots of resources.

You will be wasting your time and your uncle's time with this. If both of your time is not worth anything, go for it

 

[58Yeoman]

Welcome to the forum. Don't feel bad, it happens more often than not. Two years ago, I had my 180' driveway 'oil and chipped' by a local company. I wanted it to be just like the county road out front of my property. Yeah, right. Two years later all the chips are still loose and not sticking to the 'oil.' I called another local company and they came and did it the right way for almost half the price ($4000 v. $2300). I'll bet I scooped up almost 2 tons of chips before the second company came and redid it. You can see where the first company's rocks didn't stick. That's my tractor scooping up all the rocks from two years ago.

 

[Jayman17]

If you could take them to small claims court without costing you anything but your time, and did not require a lawyer, I would do it. I didn’t watch the video but sounds like they didn’t do what you hired them for and were deceptive about it. I wouldn’t let them get off without some output of effort on their part. Good luck

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I’ve seen other people do that kind of prep for the install. What is the correct way to do it?

I can't imagine that the MaxJax requires more than 4 or 5" or concrete. If your existing floor was that thick you needlessly spent a lot of money and made things worse. If your pad wasn't that thick, your idea was fine...but the execution of it was poor.

I would have somebody come in and cut out the 4x4 holes with very clean vertical edges, add rebar and pin it to the existing pad, and then repour with at least 3,000 psi concrete.

It's a lot of work, but you can do it yourself if you rent a jackhammer, a construction saw, and a Hilti. Instead of two 4x4 pads, you could also cut out the middle and do one massive 4x12 pad or so. I don't think you'd need that. But if you're in "overkill" mode that would certainly be more than adequate for that lift.

Good luck...and welcome.

 

[mike93lx]

I can't imagine that the MaxJax requires more than 4 or 5" or concrete. If your existing floor was that thick you needlessly spent a lot of money and made things worse. If your pad wasn't that thick, your idea was fine...but the execution of it was poor.

I would have somebody come in and cut out the 4x4 holes with very clean vertical edges, add rebar and pin it to the existing pad, and then repour with at least 3,000 psi concrete.

It's a lot of work, but you can do it yourself if you rent a jackhammer, a construction saw, and a Hilti. Instead of two 4x4 pads, you could also cut out the middle and do one massive 4x12 pad or so. I don't think you'd need that. But if you're in "overkill" mode that would certainly be more than adequate for that lift.

Good luck...and welcome.

The slabs really need to be keyed into the floor if you do something like this. Pinning rebar is not enough for the loads that a 2 post puts on the floor

 

[Natty Bumppo]

The slabs really need to be keyed into the floor if you do something like this. Pinning rebar is not enough for the loads that a 2 post puts on the floor

Interesting. That never came up when I did this.

My contractor (who is also a relative and loaned me all of his tools) didn't think I needed to key in my new pour since the slab is under 6" and not a commercial application. Also consulted Rotary when I did this and they never mentioned keying in the new pour.

 

[mike93lx]

Interesting. That never came up when I did this.

My contractor (who is also a relative and loaned me all of his tools) didn't think I needed to key in my new pour since the slab is under 6" and not a commercial application. Also consulted Rotary when I did this and they never mentioned keying in the new pour.

Then send it.

Lots of these threads are posted with people thinking that thicker is better and they don't consider the overall slab. A single 4" slab is far better than a 4" slab with two little sections cutout for any thickness of concrete. 2 post lifts don't just put downward pressure on a slab. There is a hell of a lot of upward force on the outside bolts

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Then send it.

Lots of these threads are posted with people thinking that thicker is better and they don't consider the overall slab. A single 4" slab is far better than a 4" slab with two little sections cutout for any thickness of concrete. 2 post lifts don't just put downward pressure on a slab. There is a hell of a lot of upward force on the outside bolts

Agreed. I did not add the 4x4 sections to increase thickness. I had a crack running through the slab after the pour that I couldn't not avoid when installing the lift.