Concrete company poured garage opening at wrong location
Im new to the fourms here and the home building experience. My quesion is if the concrete company had a set of older plans and poured the slab with the garage opening in the wrong spot how is this fixable? My builder assures me they will make it right but do to the thanksgiving holiday they wont be back until monday. Do they remove the garage slab area and repour?
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I doubt that is a reasonable expectation that would hold up in court.
My guess is you get new concrete. That would be what I was expecting
Not quite sure I know what you mean.
Most likely they'll be able to put in anchors and build a curb where needed, and they'll be able to cut away the stuff that's in the way.
New slab? Not a chance.
Well, I'll be.
Right off the bat in your home building experience?
My condolences.
Best have a sit down with the builder since there's evidently different plans floating about. Be a drag to find the toilet in the living room.
Best of luck on the rest of your project.
I would doubt that they will tear out and repour the slab, if only the opening location is wrong. Much more likely that they'll cut away the parts that need to be removed and add the parts that need to be added. This can be done well or, unfortunately, it can be done poorly.
And, of course, the builder may try to get away with moving the opening to match the slab, explaining how that will be better.
In any event it would be good to ask the builder how such a screwup happened, and what he's doing to prevent further ones.
Congrats, you have learned one of the first lessons in building, always be on site when concrete work is being done, no excuses, it's always easier to do it correctly than to fix it. You aren't clear about the problem. What is the opening for, an entry door, the overhead door or something else? Is this a slab on grade with a stem wall, a block wall or a full foundation? It wouldn't be a big job to fill in an opening in a stem or block wall for an entry door and cut in another one but if the contractor was given the wrong plans, it shouldn't be their fault and you can expect an up charge. Another thing to consider is if the opening will be unaceptable or something that can be lived with, slightly altering other plans. You didn't say exactly what the problem is. If you are the general contractor or owner builder, it will be your responsibility to make sure everyone has the correct plans and they follow them. You have to be a step or two ahead of everyone else and do your homework before any work will be done, not after. It can be a difficult assignment if you don't have much experience. It's just a matter of clear and detailed communication, asking questions and knowing the sequence of the building process and being there before work is done. Things can move along quite quickly, walls and roof can be on in a day. Good luck with the rest but don't worry too much about the current situation, it might be minor.
Sorry I wasn't clear. The
Sorry I wasn't clear. I am not the contractor or anything like that, I am just the future home owner. The home is being built by Tilson and they use all their people for the process. The origianl house plans called for a side entry garage but the plans were altered to a rear entry garage. It is just a regular garage on a peir-beem post tension slab. If they try to charge me for their mess up I will fight it because the plans I signed off on and the only plans I recieved were correct. As far as being there when they pour, some people have to work. One would think that sense the driveway is in the rear of the house and there is a tree on the side where they decided to put the garage door, common sense would tell you to make a phone call, if it were me thats what I would have done. Anyway, its wrong and my builder says they can fix it somehow, im just not sure how you add grade to the garage floor and then slope the entry to the rear of the house and maintain the integrity of the slab. I was curious if any of you have heard of anything like this and how it is fixed.
A garage floor is never sloped correctly, so that's not a problem.
if you've just found out and the builder has already promised to fix it where is the problem? What anyone here thinks the problem is or imagines what the builder will do is just a fairy tale right now. Relax and enjoy Thanksgiving. For a national builder this is everyday stuff and no big deal.
The only way to do this right is to cut out that garage floor and pour it again. Anything else would be unacceptable to me. You certainly don't want a floor sloped toward the back of the garage. Trying to grind it down is harder and more expensive than replacing it. Pouring a skim coat on the top will fail pretty quick, spalling off and it might end up too high for the fire code..
careful with the proposed repairs
It is a garage on a pier-beam post tension slab.
Well, there's problem number three.
Garage opening at wrong location
I suppose they could remove the curb at the correct location and add a curb where the incorrect opening was placed, however, if the new opening is on a different side of the garage there will be a problem with the slope of the floor. Garage floors are sloped toward the opening to prevent water from running inside.
If you have a contract to purchase the house, I think you have a right to ask them how they plan to fix it before they do it.
No doubt they can fix it, butI doubt they want to go to the expense of tearing out the slab. The question is whether the homeowner (you) will be happy with the solution they come up with.
We could speculate on their intentions indefinitely, but it won't help you one bit. Their proposed solution could be a good one, or it could be a half-assed quick fix.Only they know.
My suggestion is to be there Monday when they arrive and ask them point blank.
This is about 4 yards of concrete, cut it out and fix it right. You will be living with that floor for years and I assume you are spending a couple hundred grand of your hard earned money. Don't accept a half azzed solution
I bet they will cut out the areas that are too high and pour over everything else to give you a wall curb and the proper slope. The good news is that if it's done well you won't have any problems down the road and it's a non-issue. The bad news is that if they don't pin things together correctly and don't take out enough of the high concrete you'll be left with a very thin overlay that can crack and delaminate down the road. Good bonding techniqes can make the repaired area quite strong.
If it were me I'd be there with a video recorder when they do the fix so you have evidence down the road (you'll probably have to sue them if you have problems) and you will most likely have to live with whatever fix they are doing until it fails.
If you want a new slab you may have to get lawyered up now, have another concrete contractor determine that's the correct course of action (he will also serve as an expert witness when/if it goes to court) and a letter from your lawer saying the fix is substandard and you have an expert that will say so in court will grease the wheels to getting it cut out and repoured.
You will want a lawyer familar with construction and he will already have a concrete contractor that he's worked with in the past. Medium and large builders have there own lawyers that will be able to put together their own defense that will probably state that the repair work is done to industry standards and site a multitude of concrete industry guidelines and standards that were followed, perhaps even having their engineer site some engineering standards that were met and his professional opion that the work is being done correctly. If the conctete sub is lawyered up he may already have another licensed concrete contractor who will say the work is being done correctly and to standards xyz and abc. See a trend here? That's how it goes when push comes to shove. A good attorney will warn you about what the odds are of ever seeing a dime......one thing's for sure - the lawyers will make money.
No one takes responsibility if it costs a dime to fix.
Don't you hate humanity? We are ALL (self included althought I think I work to oppose it) depraved (theological word). Someone once built a structure on my land blocking a narrow access road, and naturally when I pointed it out to the offender, "it was my fault". Been there done that game more times than I can count. I once sold a 2 ton truck to a "down and out vet" for 5% down. Then no future paymetns came. When I repeatedly asked for the money, he got a lawyer! Finally got the truck back with shreaded tires with 75 bucks for my trouble. So good luck. And then naturally the dirt bags (not necessarily anyone involved in your situation) who screw up and then want to make their mistake your expense, know that to fight them will cost you thousands of dollars in legal expenses. They like it that way!
I think in your case you are likely to at least get some satisfaction and not a screw-you, but a total fix ???
So whats the latest ?
I'm dying to find out what the outcome was. Do you have pictures?..... and lastly was there any (much?) slope even put in the garage slab. Most don't have any ever really put in and unless you have a garage lower than the surrounding area you should be fine
Relax. Not your job to freak out. That's why you aren't the gc, builder or the contractor. Now is the time to make sur that they fix it correctly keeping in mind all of these tips. If they do it wrong it might not show problems until everyone's gone.
Improperly poured concrete garage floor
I don't know if the work has been done, but one way to help with problems down the road is to have the contractor "bond over" the work he is doing. If the work fails within the bonding period and he refuses to do anything go back to his bonding company and they will pay you the amount of the bond. Then go out and get a good contractor. You can insist on they bond for the full cost of tearout and replacement of the interior garage floor. Good Luck.
Bad Rough Opening
It is highly unlikely you would get a new slab. I am assuming that the slab was poured with a slight curb forming the exterior walls somewhere between 4-12 inches tall, but possibly more. What typically happens in a situation like this is the concrete contractor or in some cases the general contractor, will have to remove the curbing that impedes on the opening through the use of concrete saws, or other concrete equipment. That exposed rough looking section of slab is then smoothed back out to match the finish of the rest of the slab. If some "curbing" needs to be added to close in the opening, it is simple enough to drill into the slab and epoxy either anchors or rebar into the existing slab, while building small forms to outline the new pour location.