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

[mx842]

What the OP describes sounds to me to be a case of bad concrete batch and not necessarily the installer. The concrete company can screw you rather quickly by shorting the amount of Portland cement used or by not using a correct sand aggregate mix. Too much water or not enough is also a cause for cracking and unusual settling during cure.

Commercial work always requires slump tests and lab analysis for strength during a large pour.

Your problem might have been the contractor but it might also be the concrete itself.

I was thinking the same thing. I went to the plant where the concrete came from but no one was there. I sat there for over an hour but nobody ever showed up. I'm going to run back over there this afternoon to see what I can find out.
Stop....I just called the batch plant and finally got someone to answer the phone. He pulled up my order and we talked for about 45 minutes. Of-course there was a little cover your azz talk, but once he figured out that I did have a little knowledge about concrete that kind of talk evened out. He said the cracking was probably due to the concrete drying to fast. When I told him I had covered it with poly as soon as they finished to help to keep it from drying to fast, he then said that could be part of the problem you want to let the concrete give up the moisture quickly so it could cure faster. Then I asked him, what....do you want to dry fast or slow? He didn't have an answer for that, and he moved on to well the concrete probably was poured too wet. I wasn't happy with any of his answers and kind of let him know, then he said he would send someone out to look at it and give their opinion. I don't know where this will go but at least it's a start.

 

[caver]

I paid a concrete foundation guy half up front. The concrete was included in the price. I had asked around and no red flags so I did. he's a young guy and I think that gave him an excuse to drag his feet. We were dealing with winter setting in and getting a concrete pump truck up a steep short grade. Well hunting season came around and I might as well have taken a month and went some where warmer. We did have some weeks of crappy weather but he had a window in early Dec and blew it off. Then it was late Januray he did the footings and got in a hurry mid March on the walls. I suspect the initial 1/2 down was used up and he needed more money so he finished it. I recently talked to a local plumber and he said yeah, I didn't use him for his recent house build. He used a guy over 60 miles away. I suspect some of these younger contractors have not been through hard construction times. They will go under or it will be a rude awakening for them. Maybe both. I found it odd he had spent money on a wire tie machine $2K + new... yet did not own a concrete vibrator. See I get pissed everytime I talk about him.

 

[Jchonline]

Best to go look at some of contractors recent work if you can before hiring them. We had some of the best in the area do ours, but we had to wait 4 months.

 

[Fixastuff]

Best to go look at some of contractors recent work if you can before hiring them. We had some of the best in the area do ours, but we had to wait 4 months.

I know a good concrete dude. He says if a contractor can get to you job in less than a month or two it means they're either new or bad at concrete work. All the quality crews are booked up solid.

 

[newbury]

He said the cracking was probably due to the concrete drying to fast. When I told him I had covered it with poly as soon as they finished to help to keep it from drying to fast, he then said that could be part of the problem you want to let the concrete give up the moisture quickly so it could cure faster. Then I asked him, what....do you want to dry fast or slow? He didn't have an answer for that,

We call that blowing smoke up your butt.

 

[jyoutz]

Years ago, I paid a deposit to a cabinet shop for new kitchen cabinets. I was told a month until installation. After about 3 weeks I drove to the shop and found the business was closed. I filed a claim for the deposit with the state board of contractors, and was able to recover my deposit from the business’s performance bond. I recovered all my money, but what an ordeal. I know this is an over generalization, but sometimes I feel that people are self employed contractors because they would be fired working for a larger company. Even the good ones seldom dhow up on time or keep the schedules they establish.

 

[mx842]

Well, a guy came out this morning from the batch plant. It turns out that I know the guy from a ways back and we had a nice chat. We walked over the floor and as I pointed out the many cracks he would take notes. He seemed to be more concerned with the places that were holding water than the cracking. His main concern there was the water that is getting trapped in-between the two walls that could lead to other problems like rusting out the panels and possibly mold formation.
After we talked and had our question-and-answer session he pretty much laid it in the finishers fault. When he first looked at some of the cracks he asked early on about how long the finisher waited until he cut the lines in the pad. I told him about a week he said well, that's where the problem lies. That long without relief lines cut, what happened was that the concrete relieved itself before the lines were even cut. I asked the finisher when he would cut the lines and he said in a few days. I said well, in my thinking it should be done within 24 hours and he just more or less blew me off and said up to a week would be fine. I almost bought me a concrete saw to cut the lines myself but when the guy at the counter told me the machine would be around $1500.00, I decided to let it slide. I went to home depot to rent one but two stores I went to didn't have one to rent.
A week later he shows up after all the cracks had formed to cut the lines. The guy from the plant did confirm that the finisher did order 3500 lb mix but he didn't order fiber for the mix. I kind of figured that already. I'm mad at myself because I normally on jobs like this go to the plant myself and place the order that way, I know for sure what I'm getting. This time I dropped the ball and let him order the concrete.
What it all boils down to is there is nothing to do but live with it. I could sue the guy, but some lawyer would end up with most of anything I might get and on top of that I'd have to spend 3 or 4 days in court, and I'll still have the mess I got now. I guess I'll just figure out a way to keep all that water from piling up against the building and forget about the rest. Thanks, guy's, for letting me vent sometimes it helps to let off some steam rather than just keep it bottled up.

 

[mx842]

Years ago, I paid a deposit to a cabinet shop for new kitchen cabinets. I was told a month until installation. After about 3 weeks I drove to the shop and found the business was closed. I filed a claim for the deposit with the state board of contractors, and was able to recover my deposit from the business’s performance bond. I recovered all my money, but what an ordeal. I know this is an over generalization, but sometimes I feel that people are self employed contractors because they would be fired working for a larger company. Even the good ones seldom dhow up on time or keep the schedules they establish.

Yeah, I could go that route and still may do it. He will say this and I'll say that and in most cases; maybe not in the case you told, but in a case like this they usually give the contractor the benefit of the doubt. The same was the BBB did when I sent in a review for his company, they refused to post it to their site saying the burden of proof is up to me and I had not given enough information to prove what I said in the review. That's why I never liked the BBB anyway.

 

[jyoutz]

Yeah, I could go that route and still may do it. He will say this and I'll say that and in most cases; maybe not in the case you told, but in a case like this they usually give the contractor the benefit of the doubt. The same was the BBB did when I sent in a review for his company, they refused to post it to their site saying the burden of proof is up to me and I had not given enough information to prove what I said in the review. That's why I never liked the BBB anyway.

Yeah, your case is more complex. Mine was simple: he took my money and closed up shop. But I think you have a case if you get a statement from another concrete contractor or a building inspector that the work is substandard. Then take that to your state registrar of contractors to make a claim against their performance bond. Or small claims court.

 

[IndyIan]

My buddy paid cash for a driveway paving job, they spread all the asphalt around with rakes and tamped a bit by hand, then "went to get the roller" and never came back! They actually seemed to know what they were doing as its all sloped correctly and amazingly flat for a rake and tamp, but you can see the rake marks in it still. When I first saw it I thought it might be a new "textured" finish or some new fad like that Live and learn!

 

[yomax4]

My buddy paid cash for a driveway paving job, they spread all the asphalt around with rakes and tamped a bit by hand, then "went to get the roller" and never came back! They actually seemed to know what they were doing as its all sloped correctly and amazingly flat for a rake and tamp, but you can see the rake marks in it still. When I first saw it I thought it might be a new "textured" finish or some new fad like that Live and learn!

I had a blacktop guy stop by one day and mentioned that he was booked out the rest of this fall but if I paid in advance for next spring he would knock off 15%. I'm starting to think that somewhere out there they all follow the small contractor hand book.

 

[newbury]

Recently there was a guy in my area that would come by, promise a job for a rate slighly above the average.
The crew would show up, do the driveway, then almost immediatley he would collect the money.

In an unusual scam, a man went door-to-door in Northern Virginia offering paving services and then hired a legitimate company to do the work — as he collected and kept the money himself, the company and police say. News4’s Susan Hogan reports.

Driveway paving scammer hired real paver, kept homeowners' money

The company got very mad.

 

[riptides]

Recently there was a guy in my area that would come by, promise a job for a rate slighly above the average.
The crew would show up, do the driveway, then almost immediatley he would collect the money.

Driveway paving scammer hired real paver, kept homeowners' money

The company got very mad.

Saw that. Only caught because a customer talked to a crew person.

 

[EddieWalker]

Cracks are from too much water added to the mix when the concrete truck is pouring the concrete. This is very common because the crew spreading the concrete wants it to be as easy as possible. You did not have any slump in the concrete, and it flowed easily.

All concrete will crack, but with proper slump, the cracks are usually so small that most people will never see them. Rebar installed on chairs so it's not laying at the bottom of the pad will hold the concrete together so the cracks are invisible. Wire is worthless and it's the first red flag of a job that's going to fail.

The biggest lie told is that they will lift the rebar if it's not on chairs, or they will lift the wire while spreading the concrete. When the job starts, they will do this for pictures, but usually stop pretending once the work gets serious, and then just walk all over it. Walking on rebar or wire will push it to the ground. Next biggest lie is that the rebar or wire will sit on the round aggregate rocks in the mix and remain there when people walk on them.

Cutting relief cuts into concrete after its poured just encourages the concrete to crack where it's not so ugly. If the concrete is poured with proper slump, relief cuts are not needed. Expansion joints allow concrete to expand and contract when it's out in the elements. When concrete gets hot, it gets bigger, when it gets cold, it gets smaller. Cutting lines into the concrete that has a building over it is more about hiding too much water then anything else