(The Negligent Blogger Part 2)
Since most of the excavation had already been taken care of, we believed that we could dig the footers ourselves by renting a Kuboto (mini-trackhoe) from Home Depot. However – besides fulfilling every little boy’s childhood dream of operating power machinery – it was a complete failure. The underpowered machine got stuck in the mud, took hours to dig a small fraction of the footers, and then popped a tread off.
Lesson Learned #1: Use equipment large enough for the job.
John trying to dig a trench for the footers using the Kuboto
The right-sized machinery for the job
After our brief struggles – and early surrender – John spent as much time trying to clean the machine as we did using it. Despite his efforts, Home Depot pronounced it “not clean enough” and planned to charge the full cleaning fee. When they refused to let him use their power washer to finish the job, he had to drive to another car wash. To further add salt to the wound, they insisted that we had returned it with the tank half empty and tried to charge us for that as well; when we went to top it off ourselves, it needed less than one gallon to fill the 15 gallon tank.
Lesson Learned #2: When renting equipment, do it for a long period in time, so that you only have to clean it once. (I also learned that half of 15 gallons is apparently one gallon)
In the end, we found a good subcontractor who promised to complete the work on a specific schedule. Naturally, they spent part of the first day filling in the measly trench we had labored over in the Kuboto. After a few days, they were behind schedule and tried to pin it on us. John wouldn’t let it slide, and the next day six workers showed up and the job got done on time. We’ve had too many subcontractors take advantage of us, either by charging too much, doing subpar work, or taking way longer than quoted.
Lesson Learned #3: When hiring help, you need to put your foot down. Hold them to the promises they made when trying to gain your business.
We were finally ready to pour the concrete, and we were on a tight schedule to beat an incoming series of rainstorms. However, every single one of the city’s inspectors were out for an annual day of training. Our structural engineer – who had been working with us on our plans – saved our butts and came out to approve it himself.
Lesson Learned #4: Having a good relationship with a kind-hearted engineer can really come in handy.
For the first time in this process, we finally added something to the property, instead of taking it away. Everything feels more real now that we have something concrete (pun intended).
Pouring the concrete!
The completed footers!
Leave a Reply