Have you ever paid someone a lot of money to do a job and ended up screwed.

[mx842]

I had to rebuild my shop after the old one burned down. After cleaning up the mess the first thing on my to do list was to put in a new floor so the guys putting up the building could do their part. I talked to a bunch of different cement contractors and they were all running behind schedule. I finally found these people called Creative mud, out of New Kent Va. When I called them the guy said they would be able to get to me in about a week and we came together with a price. This gave me time to get a few things done that needed to be done before they could do their part. I ordered several loads of stone to use for sub base, a bunch of re-bar and 6 rolls of wire mesh so all of that stuff would be there when they showed up.
I already had a good pad over most of the area where the new concrete was to be put down. I went around the whole outside border of the old concrete and drilled into the sides every 12 " and drove short pieces of rebar into the holes to help tie end the old with the new. I then laid 2 pieces of #4 re-bar on top of these short pieces extending out the sides of the of the old pad. The new pad was 4' longer and wider than the old pad and they dug an 18" wide x 2' deep footing all the way around the whole thing, then left. I asked when they would be back to put the stone in and place the re-bar into the footing and he told me in a couple days. I told him, you know you have concrete setup in 4 days and he said oh, we will have plenty of time. A day went by so I decided I would start putting the rest of the re-bar in the footings and at least get some of the stone put in to save some time. I didn't have much else to do so I really didn't mind. I placed 2 #5 and 2 #4 re-bars into this footing and tied them into the re-bar I had already put down. I also had a buddy of mine that is a surveyor come by and he put me in a bench mark off to the side and we put corner stakes in so the concrete guy would have marks to place his form boards by. I had already drilled the old concrete in 12' squares and had short pieces of rebar laying by each hole. He shot the grade as I drove the re-bar into the old pad. Keep in mind the concrete guy was supposed to do all this but as time was getting shorter, I figured I would go ahead and get a good start.
When I cleaned up the trash that was left from the fire and in doing so cracked the old concrete in a couple spots and they were supposed to cut these areas out and get the broken pieces off to the side. Time was really getting short, and I called the concrete guy to ask when he was coming in to get the rest of the pad ready and he then said I'll be there tomorrow. The next day he shows up at around 1:00 to start getting ready. When he pulled up, he said, damn you have almost got everything done I said Well we still have a long way to go. That afternoon they had about 3/4's of the form work done and at 5:00 they were done for the day. As he was leaving, I told him you know you have concrete set up for 7:00 am the day after tomorrow don't you. Yeah, yeah, I know we will be here at 7 in the morning and knock the rest out. Well, they were here bright and early and got pretty much everything done except for the cracked pieces of concrete they had to cut out and he said he would start on the other end and his guys would get that done before they got to those spots. Well needless to say that didn't happen and I got there about the time they were covering up the main part I wanted cut out. There were 6 concrete trucks in a line sitting there and he just said we had to go with it, and that it would be ok.
As they were finishing the floor I came in and misted the parts they were done with water and covered it with poly to help keep it from drying out too fast. It stayed that way for ten days until he came back to cut lines in it. I took the poly off and rolled it up and even asked if he could use it which he said yes. As soon as I removed the poly, I noticed there were already a few cracks starting to form in a few places and asked him about it. He said that's the nature of a monolithic pour they will always crack a little at spots. I then asked him why was there all these low spots that were holding water all over the place. He said that it's acceptable to have 1/4" +/- in spots in a concrete finish. I looked at him and said really? I don't mind a couple low spots but not a pond in the middle of my floor. The sad part is that I had already paid him before he left after the pour and now all I got were lame excuses.
The guys came in about a week later to start putting the building up and they decided to let the pad sit for at least another week before they started and that worked out ok because they had a little work to do at the last job they were on. The next week they came back and started putting the building up. They were done in about 3 weeks and that part looked really good.
Since then, there has been a bunch of new cracks form some traveling from one side of the building to the other. Some go for aways and then cracks shoot off like a spider web and spread out for 5' or more. One side of my building I have a covered lean to that's 12' wide. When it rains water will hit the concrete and travel up against the inside wall and it then goes under the wall and ends up on the inside of the building. This is one of the low spots he said was acceptable. The water puddles up in a section that takes up almost 1/4 of the shop floor. This weekend while that tropical storm went through, I spent the whole day trying to keep water out of the building. The guys that put up the building sent me some caulking in hopes of keeping it out but it somehow it still gets in. I have some more stuff that is supposed to be good for this sort of thing but haven't had the chance to try it yet.
With all the materials I supplied, re-bar, gravel, poly, wire mesh, and floor sealer I have upwards of $34,000 in this floor and it makes me sick every time I go in there now. My mil, lathe, and other machine tools are all rusting just sitting there from all the moisture. I just want to scream looking at this mess. The sad part there is not much that can be done about it now that the building is up.

 

[Torvy]

I feel your pain...almost done building a house and once you get so far you end up having to dance with the girl that brung ya...

Maybe there is some way to fix at least parts of your problem. It really bites to put in money, effort and time and not get what you paid for.

 

[Thomas]

It's getting harder and harder to find business that keeps there word.

Good friend hire out lot bulldozing to be done and contractor said he could have job finish in 2 weeks,month an half later job little over half done contactor was slowly pulling equipment from the job left with mess,he took contractor to court won very little,judge said you should have had contact.

 

[5030]

I look at getting screwed as part of life but I try to mitigate it as much as possible. We have all been screwed before.

 

[newbury]

Can you build up the low spots?
I've a 15x40 concrete front porch slab that the previous owner put in about the 1990's or earlier. It had developed 2 depressions like shallow (1" max) bowls that took up about half the surface. Not noticeable until it rains and then I've got standing water. I've been building it back up with self leveling concrete.
Down in Mississippi it's gotten so the only contractors available are those who do poor work, the rest are booked until the next resurrection.

 

[2manyrocks]

I know a nurse who became disabled due to rheumatoid arthritis and sold her house. Moved to her brother's farm and was going to use $20k which was about all she had left from the sale of her house to build a tiny home on his farm. Some supposed contractor got her to pay him the money and did about an afternoon's work never to be seen again.

Been a few years since that happened. Back then, $20k might have actually built something.

I'm guessing he did just enough work to avoid prosecution for theft.

 

[Deere Dude]

Chop out a 12" square in the center, loosen up the gravel under it and make it a drain. I had to do something like that in a garage of mine and it worked, but I had crushed stone under it so drainage was okay.

 

[sd455dan]

I had to rebuild my shop after the old one burned down. After cleaning up the mess the first thing on my to do list was to put in a new floor so the guys putting up the building could do their part. I talked to a bunch of different cement contractors and they were all running behind schedule. I finally found these people called Creative mud, out of New Kent Va. When I called them the guy said they would be able to get to me in about a week and we came together with a price. This gave me time to get a few things done that needed to be done before they could do their part. I ordered several loads of stone to use for sub base, a bunch of re-bar and 6 rolls of wire mesh so all of that stuff would be there when they showed up.
I already had a good pad over most of the area where the new concrete was to be put down. I went around the whole outside border of the old concrete and drilled into the sides every 12 " and drove short pieces of rebar into the holes to help tie end the old with the new. I then laid 2 pieces of #4 re-bar on top of these short pieces extending out the sides of the of the old pad. The new pad was 4' longer and wider than the old pad and they dug an 18" wide x 2' deep footing all the way around the whole thing, then left. I asked when they would be back to put the stone in and place the re-bar into the footing and he told me in a couple days. I told him, you know you have concrete setup in 4 days and he said oh, we will have plenty of time. A day went by so I decided I would start putting the rest of the re-bar in the footings and at least get some of the stone put in to save some time. I didn't have much else to do so I really didn't mind. I placed 2 #5 and 2 #4 re-bars into this footing and tied them into the re-bar I had already put down. I also had a buddy of mine that is a surveyor come by and he put me in a bench mark off to the side and we put corner stakes in so the concrete guy would have marks to place his form boards by. I had already drilled the old concrete in 12' squares and had short pieces of rebar laying by each hole. He shot the grade as I drove the re-bar into the old pad. Keep in mind the concrete guy was supposed to do all this but as time was getting shorter, I figured I would go ahead and get a good start.
When I cleaned up the trash that was left from the fire and in doing so cracked the old concrete in a couple spots and they were supposed to cut these areas out and get the broken pieces off to the side. Time was really getting short, and I called the concrete guy to ask when he was coming in to get the rest of the pad ready and he then said I'll be there tomorrow. The next day he shows up at around 1:00 to start getting ready. When he pulled up, he said, damn you have almost got everything done I said Well we still have a long way to go. That afternoon they had about 3/4's of the form work done and at 5:00 they were done for the day. As he was leaving, I told him you know you have concrete set up for 7:00 am the day after tomorrow don't you. Yeah, yeah, I know we will be here at 7 in the morning and knock the rest out. Well, they were here bright and early and got pretty much everything done except for the cracked pieces of concrete they had to cut out and he said he would start on the other end and his guys would get that done before they got to those spots. Well needless to say that didn't happen and I got there about the time they were covering up the main part I wanted cut out. There were 6 concrete trucks in a line sitting there and he just said we had to go with it, and that it would be ok.
As they were finishing the floor I came in and misted the parts they were done with water and covered it with poly to help keep it from drying out too fast. It stayed that way for ten days until he came back to cut lines in it. I took the poly off and rolled it up and even asked if he could use it which he said yes. As soon as I removed the poly, I noticed there were already a few cracks starting to form in a few places and asked him about it. He said that's the nature of a monolithic pour they will always crack a little at spots. I then asked him why was there all these low spots that were holding water all over the place. He said that it's acceptable to have 1/4" +/- in spots in a concrete finish. I looked at him and said really? I don't mind a couple low spots but not a pond in the middle of my floor. The sad part is that I had already paid him before he left after the pour and now all I got were lame excuses.
The guys came in about a week later to start putting the building up and they decided to let the pad sit for at least another week before they started and that worked out ok because they had a little work to do at the last job they were on. The next week they came back and started putting the building up. They were done in about 3 weeks and that part looked really good.
Since then, there has been a bunch of new cracks form some traveling from one side of the building to the other. Some go for aways and then cracks shoot off like a spider web and spread out for 5' or more. One side of my building I have a covered lean to that's 12' wide. When it rains water will hit the concrete and travel up against the inside wall and it then goes under the wall and ends up on the inside of the building. This is one of the low spots he said was acceptable. The water puddles up in a section that takes up almost 1/4 of the shop floor. This weekend while that tropical storm went through, I spent the whole day trying to keep water out of the building. The guys that put up the building sent me some caulking in hopes of keeping it out but it somehow it still gets in. I have some more stuff that is supposed to be good for this sort of thing but haven't had the chance to try it yet.
With all the materials I supplied, re-bar, gravel, poly, wire mesh, and floor sealer I have upwards of $34,000 in this floor and it makes me sick every time I go in there now. My mil, lathe, and other machine tools are all rusting just sitting there from all the moisture. I just want to scream looking at this mess. The sad part there is not much that can be done about it now that the building is up.

Sorry to hear this.

I made a similar mistake hiring a guy that I had seen a couple small jobs he had done and knew he and the crew he put together were out of work, a couple vets and a couple police officers that were also laid off, I thought this will work great. He convinced me he had 30 years experience and knew what he was doing as far as concrete work.
30 by 48 pour and everything went well at first. I did all of the leveling compacting and he helped lay out and tying all of the rebar. The day of the pour I said you are the expert and stayed away.

When I looked a day later walking in one area I almost stumbled in one area, because the change in level put a straight edge on it and it was out over 2 1/2 inches in 3 feet.... I was sick. Then the area where the lift was to go sank almost 2 inches as well because we had made it several inches thicker there.

After questioning he admitted they didn't shake the concrete at all, and apparently one of the guys just decided to pull a leveling rake right as it was setting up causing the changes. He said I will tear it out and put in new,

I asked if he knew how much the concrete cost me, and if he was bonded and he said no, when I told him it was about 7k just for the amount poured, he quit asking questions... I bought some floor leveler which cost more than the regular concrete and some repair stuff he thought would work and at least made the garage usable after that he just quit answering the phone. Eventually will have to move my lift posts- since the material under them is beginning to degrade.

I will Never hire a "Non Bonded" crew again regardless of other admirable reasons to hire for anything big.

 

[yomax4]

Going through something similar. Winter is near and my contractor and his 2 man crew have only showed up 3 4hr days out of 19 working days. 3K sq' concrete and a 40x48 shop. Poor workmanship, same dips in concrete and the water runs away from the drain. They just put in 3 windows and 2 were installed upside down. They tried to tell me that was ok. WTF? They skip all over from sheathing to roofing to windows to overhead doors and none of it is done. I told him I was going to look at having someone else finish up and he needed to write me a 20K check or he would be hearing from my lawyer. Well, they promised the world and only 1 guy showed up the next day and said the other 2 were in jail for 5 days. He said he would do as much as he could which was not much. He did manage to crank the Rap music for 3 hrs before he left. So much for pay as you go. My advice to anyone paying as they go, Be sure to have it laid out on what gets done before each payment. This has been going on since May. Poor work ethic the norm now days.

 

[plowhog]

After putting in a rear driveway I had to re-route our irrigation ditch water. This required a new concrete water distribution box with slide gates and a concrete channel/approach.

Called every contractor in town and I couldn't find ANYONE to do concrete work. Finally a concrete delivery company put me in contact with ***** who they said could do the job.

$7,000 later the slipshod work is in place and I fight it constantly because it was not done right. I need to tear it all out and have a reputable contractor re-do it all.