Days 15 & 16

Dustin went back to the lot on Tuesday after work to look at the concrete. Not surprisingly, the rain storm from Monday night had caused mud to run down on top of everything. It was pretty hard to see the footings, but most of it looked good. However, there was one foundation wall on the right side in front of the garage that was not smoothed out at all. It looked like loose gravel embedded in the top layer. Dustin was really concerned that the guys might have been running out of concrete at the tail end of the pour. The last bits of concrete may have been too dry to fill in sufficiently. That would mean possible air gaps in the foundation wall, making it unstable. In addition, Dustin peeked inside our plastic driveway pipe to discover a large puncture and caved in area of the pipe. What was going on!? He took several pictures of the funky concrete and the inside of the pipe to share with our builder.

Inside pipe. Cave-in on left.

First thing Wednesday morning, I called to report the problems. Dustin also texted a pic of the concrete. Our super was surprised about the driveway pipe. He said that those things are supposed to be a lot stronger than that. Ya think? Also, he said he would call the concrete guys right away to find out what was going on.

The kids and I met Dustin at the lot in the afternoon. I was excited to see the guys there working on laying the block and brick crawlspace walls. Shortly after, our superintendent and the production manager showed up. At that point, we were able to get the whole story from the men working. They told us that normally when concrete is poured into a mold, some water rises to the top as it settles, leaving about an 1/8 inch layer to smooth out with a rake. Then it sets up slowly and hardens within an hour or so. The workers said it was going along great until they poured the last of the concrete from a different truck. Within five minutes, the footings were harder than rock and no liquid ever surfaced. They said it was as though the concrete supplier had mixed a quickener into the mix instead of a retardant. One of the guys told us that it was structurally sound, but was embarrassed because it looked like an "idiot" had done the job. Ha! Despite how the concrete looked, the inspector had come that morning to investigate it and determined that it was good.

Our production manager said that the picture Dustin sent had freaked him out a bit, but wasn't as worried once he saw it in person. When you scrape the loose rocks off the top, you can see that the the concrete is solid. It just looks ugly. That particular wall is also nearly 17 inches deep, much deeper than the required 8 inch minimum. He told us that if they had any doubt about its solidarity, they would rip it out and re-pour, because it will cost them a whole heck of a lot more to fix it later. And they will be responsible for anything that happens to the foundation for years to come. So, one problem solved! As far as the driveway pipe, no one knows how the thing got destroyed, but they decided to rip it out and replace it with a concrete one.


Our experiences with this process so far have reinforced the fact that as the home owner, we HAVE to be there every day checking EVERY detail. Even though we don't understand all the construction techniques, it's our responsibility to call into question anything that doesn't look quite right. But it also helps to have a good builder that takes your concerns seriously and fixes things when necessary.