Last week sometime I had pointed out to Ronnie that the engineer had "suggested" an addition wire grid on top of the slab rebar and tied to it, under these circumstances: garage floor, stained concrete floor, or tile. This is to minimize visible cracking in the slab or floor surface. (If you have carpeting or wood or linoleum, that covers up the cracking.) Ronnie had then agreed, but just to be sure he still remembered, I brought out the engineering diagram to him at about 9:20am, within 15 minutes or so after he started work in the morning, much earlier than usual.
OK, Ronnie said, and he also wanted to know what the engineer had specified at the slab rebar spacing, was it 16 inches? I showed Ronnie where on the diagram it was specified as 14 inches.
Around 11:20 Ronnie gave me a phone call. I had been trying to start my afternoon nap. He said that he needed to make another "draw" (in other words, more money from me). I asked how much he wanted. He said that the wire grid would run about $250 plus installation, then he would need money for the concrete pour.
I cut him off right there and told him I had already made $5100 in advance deposits, not counting the engineering cost, and that should be plenty to get concrete slab in the ground, in fact it should be almost half the total project cost, which had been originally estimated at $7200 (but had been increased due to slab upgrades, moving the forms, and increased square footage). I had initially paid a desposit of $3600, equal to half the estimated cost, and then already paid an additional $1500 for all the slab upgrades and moving. The $5100 should be plenty to get a 12.5x15 slab in the ground, and I wasn't going to pay him anything more until I see the concrete. Furthermore, I added, some of my friends have contractors who don't get paid anything at all until the project is actually finished. If he couldn't finish the slab given what I had already paid, I would get someone else who could.
Ronnie said he checked with his bank and the only payment he could see (in addition to the $1500 upgrade cost) was $1900, and that different contractors had different policies. I reminded him that I had given him two checks in early May, one for $2500, and another a few days later for $1100. He asked to see the records, so I put on my bathrobe and met him at the door showing him the two check carbons, dated May 6 and May 10.
(Nightmare: nearly two months into the project and there's still no concrete in the ground, and now looking like my contractor doesn't still have the money to cover the concrete pour after I've paid $5100 which seems to have been mostly pissed away. It still seemed like a pleasant dream in mid May, when he suggested we get soil test, then slab engineering, both very good ideas and not normally done when there is no building permit required, but really a good idea with expansive clay soil and 9 foot brick walls, as were then part of the plan. The the dream started turning sour as he kept promising the engineering would be ready "tomorrow," and then two weeks went by before he actually got the engineering and started work on June 1, for just 3 hours. It really turned into nightmare when two weeks ago, after I paid an additional $1500 on top of the original $3600, he disappeared for 3 days and couldn't be reached by telephone. It was at that point I decided I needed to start thinking about Plan B, getting another contractor to finish the work and cutting costs mainly by canceling the never-actually-estimated brick upgrade cost. I now have a lot of sympathy for those who forgo hiring builders and just do the work themselves, though that can turn out to be a disaster in other ways.)
Ronnie said he would work up some numbers and show me some paperwork. I told him I didn't have any more time to talk today, so he told me he would see me Wednesday morning and get the slab work done and talk to me about the costs.
Tuesday night I put on disposable gloves and cleaned up the liner, surplus vapor barrier plastic, and lots of bottled water bottles from the stinky trash can I had dumped over (to pour out the stinky rainwater) on Sunday night. I got it all in the trash container for collection on Wednesday morning.
I respect the hard work that builders do, and so I would not regret having to do such cleanup if they were completely good in other respects.
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