Forte Waterproofing
I was brought in to represent friends who were left with a residential home job where concrete was poured two inches or less thick rather than four or five inches on installing a French drain system (interior perimeter drain tile with sump pump). Furthermore, they compacted the peagravel that was on top of the drain tile with water and their feet, by their own admission, rather than with a tamper which is the way to do it. As a result, the concrete has hollow pockets everywhere as the pea gravel would of course settle. The concrete was as thin as 3/4 an inch or less in some places, especially in the corners. The corners were the most hollow, but hollow pockets were throughout and the entire job needed to be redone.
They did come to attempt fix it quickly, as they realized they really dropped the ball this time. However, the owner argued with me saying that only a small section in each corner needed to come up that were MOST hollow and that water and feet are a sufficient way to compact pea gravel and that the reason why he only poured two inches of concrete or less (3/4 an inch or less in some places, like under the stairs where left that way the stairs would have collapsed into the drain tile over time ... the concrete was already cracked) because the concrete was two inches thick. When he had the concrete up in a few corners, I measured the thickness of the floor - it was 3 1/2 inches thick in some places and 5 inches thick in others.
The owner lied. Of course it benefits him to use less concrete because it is less labor and less materials. The owner went on to say that the basement wall, when reframed, should not be nailed down because he only put down two inches of concrete. The way he explained it, it sounded very much like a pat explaination - a false reasoning he feeds all his customers for why he pours back basement floors at half or less their original thickness. Furthermore, he promised when patching the corners that he would use acrylic compound to bind the new concrete to the old. He did not use any bonding agent, so the patched areas will develop cracking where old meets new over time.
He also had promised originally that he would run exterior drain tile an extra 20+ feet around a corner of the house, which he had not, and when he came back he was supposed to run this as originally promised and was paid in full for, but I was told to leave the property as he saw that I was catching all his errors, mistakes and broken promises, so I never saw if he did that or not.
The owner talks about an exclusive patent they have - but it is not a huge value added when he explained it to me. He is a good talker and salesman, but his detail orientation and ethics to do a job with integrity is much to be desired.
There is absolutely no excuse for not being able to nail a new stud wall to his work. The concrete should be the true thickness of the floor, not half or less the thickness. Imagine how much money he must be making by skimping on concrete materials by half or more for each job. Most people do not know what to look for - he leaves the place clean and floors level enough in most places that the untrained eye would not know any different, but I did, and I caught him red handed skimping on materials by his own admission.
Please follow the age old direction of "buyer beware" with this one. They charged $13,000 for this job, which is a full full price - but they sure did not leave the property with a fully complete job.
Shoddy original workmanship. Shoddy repair of original workmanship.
I am willing to remove this posting if the owner of the company sends the home owner a letter apologizing for his errors and shoddy original workmanship and shoddy repair of original workmanship and a refund of the entire $13,000. read more
