What should I do????????

[KYGTP]

Ok, to try to keep an long story short, My garage is not a year old and when they poured the floor it was all wavey and dips and such in it. I SHOULD of had them re do it, but instead, I made a deal with them on other work that was to be done on the project, that I got for free. HUGE, HUGE mistake on my part!!!!!!! But it is what it is now.

After "living" in it for a while now, I realize I have to get it fixed. I have three drains in the front half of the garage and NONE of them work, meaning the water pools everywhere. but the bigger problem is that after parking the car in there after driving in the snow, all the water sits at the base of my brand new lift I had put in Shop-vacing water all winter sucked!!

So, I called several companies that do concrete grinding to grind the floor down and "refloat" the floor, so to speak. I have had a couple of bids, one guy gave me "there-is-no-way-in-hell-I-want-to-do-this-job" price and the other guy was about half of the first guy. BUT, both of them know that when the work is finished, if the water does not drain to the drains, they are redoing it, and both companies agreed to write that in the contract!!!

I had the company that was lower come back out and look at the floor again, just to make sure he was not missing anything, since the bids were so far apart from each other. So he did and brought the guys out that would be doing the work too.

Now, he sent me a e-mail stating that he would stick with is orginal bid, BUT if they have to spend more that four days out here, then every day after that would be "X" amount. OR, he would give me a proposal with a "Not to Exceed" price, regardless of how long it would take.

The one worker guy, did make a comment that it would be very time consuming to grind all the humps out, but the VP said it can be done.

The space I am talking is 38' x 20', with three garage doors and a drain in the center of each bay.

So what do I do, go with the not to exceed, with is $1200 more in price, or go with the orginal bid and take the risk that is will only take them 4 days??

Regargless, I need to get my floor fixed to function, and then I can get my RaceDecking back down.

You can check out my garage build by doing a search under my name, I have a ton of pics up. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[jabberwoki]

Why don`t you rent a grinder your self? treat it like a panel on a car?

 

[KYGTP]

Why don`t you rent a grinder your self? treat it like a panel on a car?

I thought about it, but becasue it is 760 sq ft, and the grinders they will be using are industrial grinders running on 440, and have their own vac system, and they know what they are doing and I don't.

There are some spots that are raised up over 1/8" or more that needs come down.

Heck, my lift has a 1/2 shim under one of the post and the other post has nothing and that is supposed to be a high spot in the floor.

This is WAY beyond my scope of skills, that is for sure. So that is why I am not doing it myself.

 

[Edger]

That would require a lot of grinding. To take the paste off the top of the concrete is easy, to get into the aggregate is hard, to lower the level of the concrete is very, very hard, most people do not realize that.

Give Mark Wetherell of Global Polishing Systems LLC an email, he might do something because he has some magic solution that enables him to grind easily into concrete, email [email protected], www.globalpolishing.com

 

[KYGTP]

That would require a lot of grinding. To take the paste off the top of the concrete is easy, to get into the aggregate is hard, to lower the level of the concrete is very, very hard, most people do not realize that.

Give Mark Wetherell of Global Polishing Systems LLC an email, he might do something because he has some magic solution that enables him to grind easily into concrete, email [email protected], www.globalpolishing.com

Thanks, I will give him a e-mail. The problem is, is that they will most likely be getting into the aggregate to my floor, and that is why they say 4 10hr days to do the floor. They are going to seal the floor again and put some type of epoxy down as well, which I really don't care what the end result looks like as long as it is sealed and it drains. The RaceDecking is going back down after it is all over with.

 

[ConCretin]

From my experience it is very very difficult to change the profile of a large area of slab. You literally have to lay out a grid on the floor and take very precise grade shots. You must then fill the low areas, grind the high areas or some combination of both.

It is a difficult and time consuming process that would be very expensive to hire out. You could have someone run a grinder over the floor to smooth it up but it won't necessarily solve your drainage issues.

 

[KYGTP]

From my experience it is very very difficult to change the profile of a large area of slab. You literally have to lay out a grid on the floor and take very precise grade shots. You must then fill the low areas, grind the high areas or some combination of both.

It is a difficult and time consuming process that would be very expensive to hire out. You could have someone run a grinder over the floor to smooth it up but it won't necessarily solve your drainage issues.

Yes, yes it is.

They are not necessarily changing the whole 38 x 20 area, but more like 3 12.5 x 20, with the drain being in the middle, and they realize how time consuming it will be and that it will not be a easy thing to do, but they are willing to do it, I just need to figure out which way I should go, the "Not to exceed price" or the bid price with a "Per-Day" over 4 days price.

 

[ConCretin]

Yes, yes it is.

They are not necessarily changing the whole 38 x 20 area, but more like 3 12.5 x 20, with the drain being in the middle, and they realize how time consuming it will be and that it will not be a easy thing to do, but they are willing to do it, I just need to figure out which way I should go, the "Not to exceed price" or the bid price with a "Per-Day" over 4 days price.

Sorry, I guess my response wasn't very responsive to your question was it?

My personal approach when contracting for work that is difficult to quantify is to do the work on a T&M or hourly basis and possibly a GMP. As a contractor being asked to provide a lump sum price, I naturally build in a contingency, The more variables - the higher the contingency. As a customer, I don't want to pay the contingency.

I would ask the contractor about his experience in similar situations and for a detailed description of the process he will use. If it makes sense to you, go with the 'not to exceed' and monitor progress and cost carefully.

 

[Chloe]

Replace Old Springs. Your garage door’s springs are argualbly the most important and the most dangerous part of tour garage door.

 

[KYGTP]

Replace Old Springs. Your garage door’s springs are argualbly the most important and the most dangerous part of tour garage door.

Random thought??

 

[KYGTP]

That would require a lot of grinding. To take the paste off the top of the concrete is easy, to get into the aggregate is hard, to lower the level of the concrete is very, very hard, most people do not realize that.

Give Mark Wetherell of Global Polishing Systems LLC an email, he might do something because he has some magic solution that enables him to grind easily into concrete, email [email protected], www.globalpolishing.com

Well, I got up with Mark, which got me in touch with a guy named Jason. By chance we was heading through Cincy last weekend and stopped to look at the mess of a floor I have.

He is a consultant that knows a ton of people in the business, from grinding, to replacing.

It looks like the floor is going to be coming out. After LONG thought, I figured that anything else will be sub par. SO I got up with some contractors that take concrete up and replace and it looks like that is what I am going to end up doing.

I am SO freaking mad at myself that I let this happen, but I have no one to blame but myself, but in the end, the floor will be right, it will drian like it was supposed to and I can put my Race Decking back down.

I will end up updating my garage build thread once all this get going.

Thanks for all that replied

 

[Edger]

Amazing, I did not realize it was that bad, still I recommended that to a few of my customers come to think of it because cutting down and filling up would have been very costly and not the 100% solution that replacing would have been. Anyway, it has been an interesting post.

 

[welder4956]

Have you thought about using something like this?

http://www.quikrete.com/PDFs/DATA_SHEET-Self-Leveling Floor Resurfacer 1249-50 -51.pdf

 

[Frank The Plumber]

I would pull out the floor, when you get done grinding it you will have to float the grinding with a filler, by the time you get done with all of this BS you will have a floor with patch on it and road snow and salt. Sooner or later it will pop.

 

[KYGTP]

Amazing, I did not realize it was that bad, still I recommended that to a few of my customers come to think of it because cutting down and filling up would have been very costly and not the 100% solution that replacing would have been. Anyway, it has been an interesting post.

I wish I did not have to pull it out, but one of the lift post is sitting in one of the lowest spot in the floor.

Have you thought about using something like this?

http://www.quikrete.com/PDFs/DATA_SHEET-Self-Leveling Floor Resurfacer 1249-50 -51.pdf

At first I did, but after looking at all my options, I decided that over time it will end up coming up and cracking.

I would pull out the floor, when you get done grinding it you will have to float the grinding with a filler, by the time you get done with all of this BS you will have a floor with patch on it and road snow and salt. Sooner or later it will pop.

You are not the first to tell me that, that over time from all the road salt and snow will over time break down anything that is put down on the floor.

I am going to post up some pics here soon, just need to get them off the camera.

 

[KYGTP]

Here are some shots of the floor. The pictures do not do it any justice.


First, you can see the this one post of the lift had to have almost a 1/2 shim under it to just leval it out when they installed it. This is where all the water goes off my car in the winter

Here are a couple, I tried to show how bad it is JUST in this one spot, the whole floor has dips and valleys in it.

Here I tried to give you a idea of how bad it is with a scale:

The other after unloading my Grand Prix GTP off the trailer and washing it from being at the track on the previous night, I still had my slicks on when I pulled in and decided to "Mark" the floor, since I knew at some point it is all coming out.

There you go, a MESSED up floor for ya...........

 

[Edger]

OK, I get the picture, it is like a choppy sea, normally dips are not as severe, must have been a learner doing the finishing.

 

[darkk]

If you are covering the floor with race deck afterwards anyways, is the floor thick enough to just grove it to the center and just lay the race deck covering over it after?

 

[KYGTP]

OK, I get the picture, it is like a choppy sea, normally dips are not as severe, must have been a learner doing the finishing.

That is exactly what it is like ALL over the floor.

If you are covering the floor with race deck afterwards anyways, is the floor thick enough to just grove it to the center and just lay the race deck covering over it after?

I thought about doing that BUT, the lowest dip is as low as the drain.