From Exciting Garden Project to a Looming Disaster

[CluckNDoodle]

He finally got defensive with me at a moment when I was still being nice. That's when I finally got pushed over. I have my limits too.

 

[Cryss]

Did you fire him?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Did you fire him?

Sort of, I will be. I told him I don't want him doing any more work and that he needs to bring the rest of my materials or give me the money back. I've said it before and he showed up with what is here now and put in those corners. It happened when I wasn't home. My gate it now locked and he won't be entering without me being home and it's only if he's bringing my materials.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I will give him one last chance to be a decent human being and sever business relations cleanly. I don't care if he walks away with some money if all of my materials are here. I'll wash my hands of it but if he wants to try to withhold the remainder of my money for materials or the physical materials...well the only nice way to put it is that I have officially reached my limit.

 

[Cryss]

Sad, but necessary.

 

[littledog]

I'm new to this thread, but so very sorry with everything you've had to go through. If it were me, I would get rid of this guy ASAP. I don't know if I'd go through all the small-claims-court thing - it would just take up even more of your time, and probably delay your finding someone more competent to get your garden beds done. Just getting as many materials as you can corral while cutting your losses, might be your best choice.

This is going to be long, so please bear with me - we had a somewhat similar situation about 10 years ago - a near-disaster that eventually turned out good, only because the contractor we hired was licensed, bonded and insured.

When we bought this place, there was a very steep, overgrown, unstable slope between us and our neighbor, with a bunch of trees leaning dangerously over our house. So we wanted to get those taken out and a retaining wall built. The contractor came out for a consultation and we approved their design for a terrace configuration of 3 walls, each 4-ft high and spaced about 5 feet apart.

This seemed all great, until the subcontractors showed up. While delivering the pallets of concrete blocks, they drove their machine over our sidewalk and cracked it. Their workdays consisted of a few hours in the morning, a two-hour lunch break, and another two hours at most every afternoon, or sometimes they wouldn't show up in the afternoon at all. Plus they were relieving themselves behind our shed (disgusting, ugh) and leaving their fast-food garbage in a pile.

The work was taking longer than we were led to expect, but progress was being made and the results looked good, so we kept quiet. Finally, they were done and the 3-tier wall looked really good - on the surface.

Until a few weeks later when we had several days of heavy rain. We heard a crazy crashing sound outside our bedroom window, looked out, and the whole structure had collapsed. Blocks and dirt mixed in a pile all over our side yard. Luckily, there was no damage to our house, though it came close.

Since this was a licensed, bonded and insured company who did a lot of business in this area and cared about their reputation, the actual owner of the company came out to see their complete fail, along with the original contractor. It only took a week for them to decide they were going to make it right (I'm sure with lots of consultation and pressure from their insurance company, as well as researching state laws.)
It turned out they had never put in the proper drainage or compacted the backfill correctly.

Funny thing, their new crew who came out to rebuild the complete fail, got it done correctly in about a week. This time, they butted each terrace block wall up against a fill of gravel, with drainage pipes directing excess water to our lower field. They also backfilled with actual dirt and used a machine to compact it, instead of using random stumps and branches, then taking a pee behind our shed and going to lunch. I'm sure the speed at which they corrected their fail had a lot to do with Christmas coming close. They actually completed the final, corrected job on Dec. 24, working at least 8 hours per day and sometimes 12, in cold and sometimes snowy weather. The original job had started the previous August.

The corrected terrace wall has functioned well and been great for quite a few years now. In fact, we're pretty sure that the ice storm we had the next year would have sent those leaning trees on to damage our house.

Here's a side little tidbit that's funny: when the new, more competent crew was done, they ended up with a pallet of retaining blocks left over. And the contractor contacted us to schedule a time to pick them up, in terms of "finishing up the job." No, sorry, we paid for those, so they belong to us. Those blocks are still sitting on a pallet behind our yard 10 years later, we'll eventually find a use for them. Maybe to make raised beds in the garden?

I apologize if I sound "holier than thou" when it comes to hiring people to do work. Most of us obviously want to give people a chance. But there are so many people who need and deserve a chance, the ones who waste that chance deserve to give it up to others.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I'm new to this thread, but so very sorry with everything you've had to go through. If it were me, I would get rid of this guy ASAP. I don't know if I'd go through all the small-claims-court thing - it would just take up even more of your time, and probably delay your finding someone more competent to get your garden beds done. Just getting as many materials as you can corral while cutting your losses, might be your best choice.

This is going to be long, so please bear with me - we had a somewhat similar situation about 10 years ago - a near-disaster that eventually turned out good, only because the contractor we hired was licensed, bonded and insured.

When we bought this place, there was a very steep, overgrown, unstable slope between us and our neighbor, with a bunch of trees leaning dangerously over our house. So we wanted to get those taken out and a retaining wall built. The contractor came out for a consultation and we approved their design for a terrace configuration of 3 walls, each 4-ft high and spaced about 5 feet apart.

This seemed all great, until the subcontractors showed up. While delivering the pallets of concrete blocks, they drove their machine over our sidewalk and cracked it. Their workdays consisted of a few hours in the morning, a two-hour lunch break, and another two hours at most every afternoon, or sometimes they wouldn't show up in the afternoon at all. Plus they were relieving themselves behind our shed (disgusting, ugh) and leaving their fast-food garbage in a pile.

The work was taking longer than we were led to expect, but progress was being made and the results looked good, so we kept quiet. Finally, they were done and the 3-tier wall looked really good - on the surface.

Until a few weeks later when we had several days of heavy rain. We heard a crazy crashing sound outside our bedroom window, looked out, and the whole structure had collapsed. Blocks and dirt mixed in a pile all over our side yard. Luckily, there was no damage to our house, though it came close.

Since this was a licensed, bonded and insured company who did a lot of business in this area and cared about their reputation, the actual owner of the company came out to see their complete fail, along with the original contractor. It only took a week for them to decide they were going to make it right (I'm sure with lots of consultation and pressure from their insurance company, as well as researching state laws.)
It turned out they had never put in the proper drainage or compacted the backfill correctly.

Funny thing, their new crew who came out to rebuild the complete fail, got it done correctly in about a week. This time, they butted each terrace block wall up against a fill of gravel, with drainage pipes directing excess water to our lower field. They also backfilled with actual dirt and used a machine to compact it, instead of using random stumps and branches, then taking a pee behind our shed and going to lunch. I'm sure the speed at which they corrected their fail had a lot to do with Christmas coming close. They actually completed the final, corrected job on Dec. 24, working at least 8 hours per day and sometimes 12, in cold and sometimes snowy weather. The original job had started the previous August.

The corrected terrace wall has functioned well and been great for quite a few years now. In fact, we're pretty sure that the ice storm we had the next year would have sent those leaning trees on to damage our house.

Here's a side little tidbit that's funny: when the new, more competent crew was done, they ended up with a pallet of retaining blocks left over. And the contractor contacted us to schedule a time to pick them up, in terms of "finishing up the job." No, sorry, we paid for those, so they belong to us. Those blocks are still sitting on a pallet behind our yard 10 years later, we'll eventually find a use for them. Maybe to make raised beds in the garden?

I apologize if I sound "holier than thou" when it comes to hiring people to do work. Most of us obviously want to give people a chance. But there are so many people who need and deserve a chance, the ones who waste that chance deserve to give it up to others.

Wow! What a miserable experience! My husband keeps insisting this happened because of where we live. Neither of us are from here but we've heard numerous stories about bad experiences locally. I'm actually kind of glad I get to tell him (again, with proof) that unfortunately there are good and bad people everywhere. I'm so glad yours ended on a good note but it's terrible that you had to go through that!

I'm over the guy I was working with, I was nice to him for a long time and more than understanding. My husband even gave him his own time to try to teach him on the job and he either dismissed it or didn't get it, but either way, he doesn't need to be doing any more work at my house. I'm sure no one will be surprised that he didn't bring any more materials the other day. We had 6 days of clear sunny skies and now he won't be able to bring the materials because it's going to start raining for a couple days. He's a liar and even if his intentions were to finish the job he's still not worth my breath or my kindness anymore.

Fortunately my husband is capable of doing it himself, it wouldn't be a much faster rate since his health isn't what it used to be but it would be a MUCH better job. So I already have a great solution to the financial deficit due to the guy having half of my budget by getting my husband to do it and now I'll get better work too! I should have just asked my husband to do it to begin with but I wanted to spare him the headache, that didn't happen on any level, lol.

 

[CindyinSD]

Alas, this is why builders have such a bad rep. My dad was one. We always had more jobs than we could accept because there were so darned few honest and competent builders out there. And that was in the '50s-'90s. It's obviously worse now. Everyone's got a building horror story who's ever hired anything built. Seems that every ne'er-do-well out there thinks he can build what you want.

You need to hire a truck and round up a few friends to help move stuff and go to his place and help him load your materials (if he ever actually bought them) onto the truck. Then write him off. I guarantee you there's no point suing him--blood from a turnip... not gonna happen. Don't do it again. This is one excellent reason to get a loan for a major project, like a house. The bank pays the draws when the specified work has been completed and inspected, not before, no matter how many lies the "builder" might tell them.

 

[Jerry H]

Wow! What a miserable experience! My husband keeps insisting this happened because of where we live. Neither of us are from here but we've heard numerous stories about bad experiences locally. I'm actually kind of glad I get to tell him (again, with proof) that unfortunately there are good and bad people everywhere. I'm so glad yours ended on a good note but it's terrible that you had to go through that

It's not just you here's a couple for you
I owned a business for many years and as part of that set appointments with customers at their house. I'm one of those people that always has to arrive 10-15 minutes early to everything so I usually would sit out in my truck in front of their house until the appointed time. You would be surprised at how many times I heard "wow you actually showed up and on time we called other companies for estimates and they didn't show up some called with excuses and others we haven't heard a word from" I'm not sure what the deal was with those companies but it certainly helped mine lol.
We moved into our present home in 2014 and I told my wife when things settled down a little and I got some of the other more important farm projects done I'd build her a covered deck/ porch what ever you want to call it. Well of course the health problems started in 2015 with more knee problems and surgery and every year since it's been something with multiple hospital stays and surgeries. With all this going on she suggested we hire it done and I kept protesting telling her they wouldn't build it the way I would they call things "good enough" instead of right and that drives me nuts. You know like square is square and good enough isn't square or level is level close enough isn't level that sort of thing. I finally agreed that with my health it would be better to hire it done so I called three licensed contractors and guess what not one of them even showed up for the first appointment and none of them bothered to even call back. Needless to say I with help of a brother in law and a neighbor built her a 12x46 covered porch/deck that she loves. I also helped the neighbor to correct some things on his deck and put a roof over it. I have helped my sister and brother in law with lots of projects in the past has she has some planned for us in the future as well.
So it's not just you or just your area it's everywhere. When I had the business we lived a couple hundred miles from where we live now so it's not just one area here either.
I'm sure your husband will do a much better job then that clown you hired and at the rate that guy was working it probably won't take much longer. Hopefully he can find some help to make it a little easier on him. We have several other building projects planned and I know better than to even waste my time trying to get somebody to do them.

 

[Folly's place]

And when (if!) you find a company who shows up on time, does good work and generally is terrific, recommend them to everyone, and have them back for every project! We have found such a gem, and it's great.
Getting three estimates? Really? When only one shows up? We have the same problems here too.
So for us here, Ritts Done Right Construction.
Mary