Opinions on foundation work

[92stang5oh]

The "mason" came back this morning while i was at work to fix everything. I had my father, who had his own construction business for over 20 years, meet him there to go over the issues with the mason because apparently I was not getting through to him. Using a framing square and some string he showed the "mason" that the left wall was 4.5" off from being square and the right side was 2.5" off. The "mason didn't seem to understand this concept. He then told the "mason" that there are a number of code violations, most visibly the joints, both the sizes and locations. Again he made excuses saying he can patch them up. My dad then told him either we're getting a refund or we'll see him in court. The "mason" laughed and said I'm not worried about it I have plenty of money to go to court. My dad called me to let me know what was going on and put the "mason" on the phone. I gave him 2 options give me a 100% refund and we go our separate ways or hes fired and I will post pictures of the work with his name everywhere I can so any potential customers know what they are getting into (this is why i kept his name and the location out of everything). He did a complete 180 and basically said he do what ever I wanted if I promised not to post his a name with the pictures. He met me at my house when I got home from work with the entire amount I payed him. Now time to take down what he built and look for a new mason for the spring.

 

[92stang5oh]

That is one ugly job.

In a few of your pictures, it appears that there is no mortar between some of the joints in the rows of blocks.

Is this just an optical illusion? Or did they actually forget to put mortar there?.

If you look at the right side of this wall, at the top, and also at the bottom row of blocks in the center, it looks like there are joints with no mortar:

Jim

Sadly it is not an optical illusion there were countless joints with no mortar, his excuse was he can fill it in and plaster over it

There are so many fails in that foundation. I would fire the crew in a heartbeat. Hopefully you haven't paid them yet. And make sure you document everything with pictures because it will end up in court.

Can it be saved? No. Not with wedges, not with slivers of block. It has to be taken down and started over. Why? Because it appears they don't have the size of anything correct, this shows by the small block they have to put in to fill the void. Even on a ******* size foundation, at the most you only have to cut 2 blocks, and not a bunch to use as fillers.

Did they start with the corners and set them first, then run their line to maintain straightness and level? Is the footer even level? They should have set pins every so often so they could pour the footers to the top of the pins. Once your footer is level, then they can adjust ever so slightly with the first layer of mortar and block. Then they should check level as they go along. A good mason will always have his level with him. He will check for plumb and level as he goes along.

If I'm correct, they started at one end and started laying block and never set their corners first. This would let things start to run off drastically. they should have set up batter boards, set their corners at the set dimension of the building, and filled in a block at the end of their course run. This block would be set between two blocks. Then you start your next course. Another sure fire way to tell they don't know what they are doing is their vertical joints from course to course. The joints of one course should be in the middle of a full block, and not offset to one side like you show in pic #2 and #4. A couple of blocks are almost sitting on top of one another. The reason for having a full block, then the next block sitting on only half of the full block is for structural integrity. This has been compromised with their shoddy work.

Don't get taken to the cleaners with their ******** excuses. If anything, get the inspector in there now before things get backfilled. He will reject it for sure. I think a drunk monkey could have done a better job than these guys. Get it rejected by the inspector right away and shove that in their face. Let them tell the inspector that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Good Luck and keep us posted. I feel for ya man!!!

They started by building the 4 corners, except they did not attempt to make them all the same elevation. Needless to say all 4 corners were at different elevations.

 

[92stang5oh]

In the second and fourth pictures: They've placed a corner block in middle of the run around the area of the missing door. And then at the opening that I assume is for the garage door, they've placed a half corner block backwards. The groove on the end is exposed. It should have been turned around so that the groove can hold some mortar.

Your "masons" must be related to the crew that did the foundation of my house. (I'm the second owner.) The portion that is essentially a slab is fine. However, the half that is a crawl space has the long stepped wall climb the grade about 4 inches. The short end wall really shows the error as all the block courses curve upwards to the corner. This error started with an incorrectly poured footer. A smart crew would have fixed the problem in the first course. Instead they left it for the carpenters to fix!

I'd suggest firing the crew, demoing everything, and starting over.

They didn't seem to grasp the concept that the blocks have different ends for a reason.

 

[Colin Len]

^WOW! I have to say that is a great outcome (all things considered), I was really worried for you that you were gonna be in a for a long battle to get your $ back.

 

[92stang5oh]

Does this clown have a license? Where are you located? I have been a mason since 1964 and a mason contractor since my father retired in 1986. The slop you have shown in your photos was not done by a mason. I have labors that would do better work than what you have. Your job looks like jobs I have seen done by non lic. boot trunk operators. Over the years I have had to fix many screwed up jobs done by this type of fly by night operations.

It also appears that you have been overcharged. I my state the most I can collect up front is 1/3 of the contract price, balance due on completion. It sounds like you have already paid about 50% of the price.

If you had real masons on the job the work I see would have been completed in 2 days with supervision and 3 men. That includes footings and the block walls.

I hope for your sake this is only a foundation to be framed above. If this is a masonry garage, you need a real mason contractor not a bunch of boots.

He claims to be licensed, wish i could say who he is but part of our agreement for a full refund is keeping his name and location anonymous.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Nicely done! While it ***** you have to start over, at least you got your money back. Hopefully the next contractor will be on point!

 

[92stang5oh]

^WOW! I have to say that is a great outcome (all things considered), I was really worried for you that you were gonna be in a for a long battle to get your $ back.

He'll never admit it but he knows how messed up his work was. Once I told him how I was going to post the pictures with his info in them he knew his only option was a full refund.

 

[92stang5oh]

Nicely done! While it ***** you have to start over, at least you got your money back. Hopefully the next contractor will be on point!

Just hoping the next contractor can salvage the footing after I take down the blocks. He over sized the footing, 2' wide by 20 inches deep, using 15 yards of cement. Probably by accident, he seemed to struggle with ordering the correct amount of materials

 

[emtmark]

I'd say still out him. He's done it to you he might very well have done it to everybody. This isn't hurt feelings time this is potentially people with out of spec/code foundations that do not know about it. You got your money back which is best case scenario for you. I'd be pissed if somebody knew he was a jackwad and diddnt say anything. The fact he caved so quick rather than just redoing it right, to me anyways, that he doesn't know how to do it to begin with. Hate to see people get hurt because he was involved. Anybody can screw up those with class fix it and move on.


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[emtmark]

He claims to be licensed, wish i could say who he is but part of our agreement for a full refund is keeping his name and location anonymous.

Your agreement is null. Protect other people.

Minimum is report to contractors board or whoever oversees licensure.

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[Bondo]

He did a complete 180 and basically said he do what ever I wanted if I promised not to post his a name with the pictures. He met me at my house when I got home from work with the entire amount I payed him. Now time to take down what he built and look for a new mason for the spring.

Ayuh,.... Congrats,... So glad to hear that,....

Hopefully the footer is worth savin',....

You, 'n yer Dad should check it over for size, square, plumb, 'n level,....
After all, if the footer ain't true, the rest of the build is a hassle to get near right, much less Right,...

You can always drill, 'n pin the footer for the rebar,...
Speakin' of rebar, is there any in the footer, 'n if so, how much,..??

 

[peterl]

I hope he did not repay you with a check.

 

[Strouty]

Once you know you have the funds, turn him in to the local CEO and post pictures with the info anyways. All you are doing is putting his BS on someone else that may not be as smart as you are. This guy needs to be held accountable. That was really crappy work and obviously he knows how to BS people, what happens to the Grandmother he is going to do work for next?

 

[jeepinerdeep]

Got yer monies back = Good day.

 

[Kevin54]

Once you know you have the funds, turn him in to the local CEO and post pictures with the info anyways. All you are doing is putting his BS on someone else that may not be as smart as you are. This guy needs to be held accountable. That was really crappy work and obviously he knows how to BS people, what happens to the Grandmother he is going to do work for next?

95....Good for you. Most times the outcome is way worse. Thankfully you got your full refund.

Like Strouty says.....turn the SOB in. He will push his ******** excuses on the next person that he does work for. The guy needs to be out of business if he is going to do work like that. I hate to see anyone put out of business, but I hate worse to see people taken by people like this. I'd drop his name every chance I got. To the block place, to concrete companies, to lumberyards. the reason I say that is that many a time, people will ask who they recommend, and they will normally have a list of names and what their specialty is. I'd also check with the Building Department and see if this guy even has a license, and show them the pics of what you had to deal with.

Again...great for you that you got your money back

 

[gregtwojeeps]

Good news OP !

But the next mason still has to contend with the out of level footings. Would this be a good time for pouring good, level and squared concrete stem walls and not have to worry about "shimming" up block to correct the footer problems ? Or not ?

 

[Cobra5150]

Have you got your cash back or just his check? His check may be as worthless as his work.

 

[bczygan]

The mason was the lucky one. He got off easy.

He didn't have to remove the block walls he screwed up, nor the foundation. You were no where near "made whole".

I would post him far and wide and in detail.

Bill

 

[ozyborn]

I am not a bricklayer but have done a few walls. When I did my garage footings and blocked up walls, mine was far better than that. Even managed a "not bad" from one of my friends fathers. Later I found he was a bricklayer for 45 years. Since then I hire it done.
Get a good one and be finished with it.

 

[coldh2o]

Good news OP !

But the next mason still has to contend with the out of level footings. Would this be a good time for pouring good, level and squared concrete stem walls and not have to worry about "shimming" up block to correct the footer problems ? Or not ?

+1, this sounds like a great idea.

 

[Cyberbear]

Halt all construction until you have a building inspector take a look and write up a report listing the faulty work. You're going to need legal assistance on this one I believe, and don't pay the contractor/mason any money for the crappy workmanship. It sounds like they are a bunch of amateurs learning on your job.

 

[ishiboo]

Be nice to him.

Get something in writing which shows that his involvement in the process was mutually cancelled and he is not owed any money from you.

You don't want a lien showing up somewhere down the road.

That work was AWFUL.

 

[macdabs]

Can you tell me what state he works in? His work looks like the guy I fired on my foundation after the third row of block.
Mac

 

[Kensgarage]

Pathetic. That could have been formed and poured quickly and you'd actually have something.

 

[Radix2]

Saddest part of bad work like this - with all the shimming, filling involved, he put more time and effort into it than if he did it correctly...

 

[101mph]

That is garbage work of the highest order.

Get rid of him.

Edit - Unfortunately he has some of your money so this will likely end up in court. I wouldn't give him the chance to "make it right". If that's the kind of work he does the first time why would anyone think he would do a better job the second time.

 

[readhead]

101, he is way past that. Read the whole thread.

 

[ishiboo]

That is garbage work of the highest order.

Get rid of him.

Edit - Unfortunately he has some of your money so this will likely end up in court. I wouldn't give him the chance to "make it right". If that's the kind of work he does the first time why would anyone think he would do a better job the second time.

I think you missed it. The guy has already been fired and has returned all the OP's money.

 

[101mph]

Oops...didn't catch that.

That's great. I'm glad it worked out that well for him.

 

[joes169]

Saddest part of bad work like this - with all the shimming, filling involved, he put more time and effort into it than if he did it correctly...

That was the point I tried to make earlier, which is why I elluded to the notion that the crew was not likely actual masons.

As for the OP now, I'd take the money and be content, things could be FAR worse. Getting rid of the block that's there is going to take some labor, but it shouldn't cost you much to DIY. You could probably bury it inside later if there's enough room at backfill.

Building on a footing that far out of level is a PITA, but it's not the end of the world. An hour or so on a concrete saw cutting block will get the first course close. Patio blocks or 3" solid block laid flat would make for less cutting. Just make sure you let the next mason know how out of level the footing is before proceedign with the next contract......

 

[rburke65]

Cyberbear.....read the post.