I have a question about some work performed for me. I had a concrete contractor pour two slabs for me a few weeks ago. The work was so atrocious that my wife and I decided the only solution was to get a jackhammer and tear out the slabs ourselves. After the ruin the workers visited on my house , pool, and yard, we felt we couldn’t trust the same workers to remove the bad work, much less redo it. I told the contractor not to come back. In the interim, we have torn out the bad slabs and are attempting to get our deposit back. I have plenty of photographs and physical evidence of the poor quality of work, and am prepared to go to small claims court.
My question is this: Have I thrown away a case because I told the guy not to come back?
BTW, I don’t want to come across as an enemy of contractors. I’m not, and I have to say: This guy’s work was so bad it gives all contractors a bad name.
Replies
I think most places you have to give the contractor a chance to correct his work. I won a court case (as a GC) where the homeowner had admitted saying, "you're finished working here".
There were lots of other things in my favor, but my attorney pointed out the homeown's mistake in admitting that in deposition.
Forrest
While you haven't necessarily "thrown away" you case against the lousy concrete contractor you would certainly be in a better position and would have helped your case if you had brought in some other concrete contractors to evaluate the work that was done that you could then have called on as "expert witnesses" to support your contention that the work was "so atrocious".
View Image
I think you lost any chance of the getting the deposit returned by not letting the init contractor have a shot at fixing the problem.
There might be a slim chance but I wouldn't figure on him covering your costs of the demo but nothing is going to happen unless you open communictions with him.
When I discussed the problems with him, he at first didn't seem to recognize there might be an issue. When the particulars were spelled out, he admitted he didn't know how he could fix the problems. He said he would call back with a solution but didn't.
A few of the problems:
There was around 2 inches of variation in the level of the floor, about a 20'x20' slab. Nowhere I laid down a four foot level could I not slide my finger underneath at somepoint in that 4 feet.
The floor was an inch higher than the door threshold within 12 inches of the door. (They swing in to the new floor). If the doors were re-hung, they would not open.
The floor drain line installed did not exit the wall to the outside, it only came halfway out and stopped midway through the wall. Too much concrete around the pipe to put a connector to.
The drainline sloped towards the floor opening, which was mostly blocked with concrete.
According to my wife who was at home at the time, the floor was not floated or troweled for almost 5 hours after the pour. It was just raked out, then a power trowel was run over it for a couple of hours. The floor was not smooth...
I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.
Hopefully, you documented the mistakes with photos. If not, you've probably screwed yourself by destroying the evidence.
I've been an expert witness several times on jobs where the contractor in question was totally incompetant and not capable of fixing his mistakes and others had to be called in to do repair work because the interior of the house was being destroyed (roof work). The rulings were against the contractor, even though his bad work had already been redone. But in all cases, there were lots of pictures of what he had done wrong. And in all cases, the HO's never got a cent from the "contractor"
Going back to his answer of what he could do to fix the problem, he said "nothing". Well, there is always something and that's what you've attempted to do. Start from scratch. He should have been jackhammering it up. He probably can't afford to do that and he's probably already spent your deposit. You might get a ruling, but good luck collecting.
http://www.quittintime.com/ View Image
Edited 11/14/2008 4:17 pm ET by seeyou
Our co. contract states that contractor must be given the opportunity to remedy.
I'll just add my .02, I don't know if this is a state law or just a contract thing but the contractor must be given a chance to fix his/her mistakes or so I have heard. Even though it sounds like your slab was pretty bad the contractor needs to have a chance at making it right. Since you have now run him off and tore out his work I don't think your are going to get much from him or a court. Sorry to hear of your bad luck, but there really are some good GC's out there that care about their work.