It's too cold to build a barn, but we're doing it anyway!

[flusher]

ruhroh... safty police are going to ALL over your butt for that last one

Something like that happened when I had my garage/shop built in Jun05.
It was raining pretty hard when those guys were on the trusses.
Thought one of them would take a header for sure, but nobody got hurt.

 

[k6dyc]

Well, the barn is officially finished. There are two skylights that weren't in the original delivery and they should be installed next week. The holes for them are located in the lean-to overhang so the actual barn is sealed tight. And just in time as this morning we are getting the first part of a three day storm that is bringing lots of the white stuff.

I still have to do a lot of exterior and interior finish grading before I can get the horses in the barn area. The automatic waterer and the inside frost-free also still need to be installed. I will be able to work in the inside cleanup during the storm, but the outside will have to wait for next week.

This really isn't the time of year to build a barn!

 

[scott_vt]

ruhroh... safty police are going to ALL over your butt for that last one

HHmmmm ,
You mean REAL contractors take an occassional short cut to finish a job ? Actually it doesnt look to bad to me, no hungry alligators at the bottom of the ladder

Nice lookin barn Rick ! Thanks for posting all the pics!

 

[k6dyc]

What a nightmare!

Late last week I got home and immediately went to inspect the work the contractors did on the barn. Seems the crew finished up and went home. I called the company that provided the materials, who is also the general on the job, and the owner drove the 275 miles for an inspection. When he walked around the barn, all he said was "..this is total s*it!..."

There were some major issues, the biggest of which is that the metal panels are all overlapped backwards; apparently there is only one side that is designed to overlap an adjacent panel correctly to make a solid seal and keep out wind and water. Here are some pics of the panel overlap. You can see the seams are not sitting flat against the other panels.

Issues continued in next message...

 

[k6dyc]

The trim job is terrible. At every opening, the top trim doesn't extend over the side trim and leaves an opening at the top of the side trim for water, etc. The corner trim is just not wrapped well, and the ridge cap is crooked and doesn't cover correctly. Some trim areas don't even have any screws!

One entire side of the barn doesn't have the foam/rubber seal where the wall top plate meets the roof, leaving an opening. At least three roof panels have cuts in them, the man-door has a dent, beam bolts were not cut back, and they left the plastic protection covering on the wall skylight panels.

The gable end panels don't go all the way to the top in three places and the bottom of the panels doesn't line up with the side wall bottom at the corners.

The owner of the company I purchased from and who hired the sub who did the construction is very, very upset. Fortunately, he is also a very upstanding guy that has said he is going to make it right.

Next week he is coming personally with a crew to remove ALL the wall metal panels and replace them with new material. He will also remove the roof that is above the lean-to section which is where the damaged sections are located. A new door, and all new trim are also part of the repair process.

This is the first project for the sub that did the work, and now its the last.

 

[k6dyc]

Here are a few more pics. I'll try and keep you posted as the corrections take place.

 

[Renze]

They did a rough and crappy job... i hope you havent payd them yet ???

 

[EddieWalker]

Rick,

I'm real sorry that you have to deal with this. From your earlier posts, it seemed like you had some really good subs out there framing it up. Was this a different crew that came in to do the metal?

I'm happy that the owner of the company is gonna make it right, but I gotta wonder where he got those guys who did the job in the first place. It's pretty obvious they have never done this before and whoever was in charge didn't care what it looked like.

Not being in a cold area like yours, I wonder if maybe the weather was a factor? Freezing cold out and they just wanted to get it done as fast as possilbe so they can go home and be warm. It's just a guess, but it sounds like human nature.

Thank you for posting the pictures and sharing with us your project. I always learn more when things go wrong and what's done to fix them, then any other time.

Eddie

 

[k6dyc]

Renze, no, I haven't paid them the final payment, and it is enough to make me comfortable.

Eddie, the work was started by two guys that seemed to know what they were doing. The guy in charge said he was a carpenter that worked for a major builder running a crew, and was leaving to do stuff on his own. He did pretty well with the framing. The first sign of a problem was them leaving on the Thursday before Christmas and not returning on the day after. He called me Tuesday afternoon saying that his wife had been in a car accident and he spent Christmas at the hospital but she was OK. He said he would have to spend the week between Christmas and New Years taking care of her and setting up care for the kids.

When he didn't return the Tuesday after New Years I called the general and let him know I wasn't happy. The sub showed up the next day, but all alone and couldn't get much done. Finally, two other guys joined him Thursday and they worked right through the weekend and all the next week to get it done, and he was in a big hurry. He had other jobs waiting for him from the same company, or so he thought.

The impact of the weather was there I'm sure, but the cold didn't cause these issues (as you can see). This guy expected it to be a 10 day job and the foundation post excavation took 6 days all by itself. He was losing his as*. He probably didn't put the metal on incorrectly on purpose, he just didn't know. The shoddy workmanship however does reflect a lack of personal pride in doing a good job.

I can't say enough good about the general contractor and his handling of the situation. He has said that he won't put his name on this barn until it is up to his specs, and he'll spend all his profit and then some to make it right.

 

[bugstruck]

I can't say enough good about the general contractor and his handling of the situation. He has said that he won't put his name on this barn until it is up to his specs, and he'll spend all his profit and then some to make it right.

That is the bottom line. If the GC noted the errors and admitted to the poor assembly method, you should be OK. Good contactors get after problems and reslove them, the rest are... just the rest. The very best never have them. Hope this resolves to your satisfaction, it should.