Foundation fiasco – parts 1-11

Part 1 –
I got bids on the foundation. They were $2300, $2800, $4200, and $5300. The guy who bid the highest also left me a message offering to build the entire barn for $16,000 without having seen the plans or hearing that I was putting an apartment on top. I thought about taking him up on it and then showing him everything he would be doing, just to see his reaction. Instead, I called him back and politely told him that his bid was way, way too high. I had a good feeling about the woman who gave me the $2800 bid. She seemed to know what she was doing and was good about meeting me on time and returning my calls. I didn’t have a good feeling at all about the $2300 bid.

Part 2 – I called Ms. Jones to take her up on the bid, only to find out that their backhoe had just broken and the part wouldn’t come in for about 2 weeks. That, plus her backlog of work meant that she couldn’t get to me soon. Looking at the other bids, I thought I could either go with the $4200 bid from a large company and assume I would get a good product, or take a risk on the $2300 bid. Being a cheapskate, it wasn’t a tough decision. Besides, I thought, how could anyone possibly screw up a 14’x20’ monolithic slab? That is about as simple as it gets when it comes to foundations. Every book I had looked at about monolithic slabs essentially has the same diagram. Nothing to worry about. Well, see parts 4-6 below.

Part 3 – I go with Hester’s Masonry (the low bid, in case you didn’t pick that up already). They want to get started right away, which made me think I might have been wrong about them. I rush to the land after work and lay out exactly where the building will go. The daughter meets me there the next morning (30 minutes late). We write the specifics on the bid sheet (16” below grade, 8” above grade, with a 45° angle from the footer up to the bottom of the slab. I told her where the approved plans were (permit box), but she didn’t want to look at them. No problem, I thought, since it really was such a basic design. The crew was there and ready to get to work as I left for work.

Part 4 – I go out there after work to see the progress. Instead of the design I had specified, they had dug a trench 12”x20”. I have no idea why. I called to tell Deborah that it was not correct. She assured me they would fix it. It wasn’t that big of a deal and easy to fix. Again, no worries on my part. This was on a Friday.

Part 5 – Taking Deborah at her word, I assume she will get it right on Monday (foreshadowing), and tell her that I will dig out the trenches for the pipes, which I do on Sunday.

Part 5 – Deborah calls me from the work site on Monday, again confused about the 45°angle
requirement. Now I’m starting to worry. I tell her where the plans are and talk her through
them. She assures me that she understands.

Part 6 – I go out there after work again. It is dark, so I shine my headlights at the site. As I’m
driving up, I notice that the forms have been moved, turned at an angle. Curious, I walk over and then see that not only have the forms been picked up and turned, but they started digging it again at the new site. I don’t know whether to

laugh or yell. I decide to do neither, and instead call Deborah and ask what the f&*k is going on, remaining fairly calm the whole time. She doesn’t have a good answer. Oh yeah, I also notice that a gallon of drinking water I had out there, and the 3 or so gallons of extra gas for the chainsaw, are both missing.

Part 7 – After stressing out all night, I meet
Deborah and her husband, Ervin, the proprietor who had a stroke a while ago and now relies on Deborah to run the business, even though she doesn’t have any idea what she is doing. After hearing them make excuses from such an inexcusable mistake (Chris Shepard was out that morning with his video camera, documenting everything and listening to me rant), I say that I think they need to refund my money. I didn’t like any of my options at that point. Deborah says she doesn’t have her checkbook, offers to meet me later that afternoon, then changes it to say she’ll meet me the next day. I am sticking to my guns, even though I hate conflict like that. Finally, Ervin asks me to give him a chance to correct it, and promises that he will be on the site the rest of the time they work out there. I do a quick calculation, and figure that I stand about as good a chance of getting my money back the following morning if they keep screwing as I do that morning it up, so I agree. I get them to describe to me exactly what they are going to do and tell them that I will get a full refund if they screw it up any more. I leave, confident that we have everything worked out, and ready to return that evening to look for any mistakes. It was sprinkling lightly. Soon after I got to work, it started to pour, so they didn’t get to do anything more than set up the forms again, correctly this time.

Part 8 – Still didn’t dig it out deep enough. Ervin says that code only requires the footers to be 16” deep. I tell him I’m pretty certain that they have to go below the frost line. He says that he has never seen a footer go that deep. I remind him that it doesn’t really matter, since we contracted for the 16” depth.

Part 9 – They didn’t dig out the front side, and instead filled it with gravel up to the grade. I guess that is what they do for a garage. Of course, I never told them it was for a garage, SINCE IT ISN’T! They argue again. I start treating it a bit like a game since it all seems so absurd. I also ask them to check for my mattock and shovel that have suddenly gone missing.

Part 10 – They come out and work on a Sunday, while I’m there. I show them exactly what I want, and feel like I’m teaching them how to do a slab foundation. The water is just barely trickling in at this point, and I feel like we are finally on the right track. They promise to come back today to finish everything, after it has had a bit more time to dry. They also say that they did not take my mattock and shovel, but they will check the other work site. I’ll never see them again, I’m sure. Oh yeah, and right before they leave, Deborah comes up to me and says that they have calculated the amount of concrete it will take, and it’s going to cost an extra $500. This didn’t surprise me, since it was clear from their numerous mistakes that they didn’t know what they were talking about when they bid on the job. I said I wasn’t going to pay for the extra concrete that was needed due to their digging the footers out 20” wide, instead of 12” wide with the 45° angle (I still don’t have my angle!). We settle on $250.

Part 11 – Since we all agreed on Sunday that we want to pour the concrete as soon as possible, and since Thanksgiving is coming up on Thurs, I schedule the termite pretreatment (can’t have any standing water for this) for either Monday afternoon or Tues morning, confidant that Hester’s will be done soon. I then call Deborah to tell her. I don’t know why her response surprised me, but it did. Turns out, they won’t be able to make it to the land today, after all. It was as if Mason’s promises (the guy doing most of the work on Sunday and the only one of the crew who seemed like he had done it before, despite Ervin’s somewhat regular mutterings about doing so many slabs and never having seen such a substantial footing before) were all in my mind. They promise to come tomorrow at 8. I was in Richmond while we were talking this through. Oh, and I had to call her 3 times to get an answer, with her promising to get right back to me after the first two tries. I drove straight to the land and dug out the remaining dirt myself. Hopefully, if they do come on time tomorrow, we can get everything done before the termite guy comes around 9 or 9:30. The inspection is supposed to be Tues afternoon, assuming it doesn’t rain. There was a 30% chance last time I checked.