Mick!
TreeHouser
Well, as Patrick observed..
The Official Work Pictures Thread
- Thread starter MasterBlaster
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Burnham
Woods walker
So true, Mick 
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SkwerI
Treehouser
The forum is finally back up again! 
Over the last couple weeks I have been working on a job removing a house foundation and driveway. It needed to be removed in order to allow the new owners to start building a new house. I finally learned the back story, the previous owner was a hoarder and when a massive tree fell on the house in a hurricane, she took the insurance money and then abandoned the house. It took 10 years for the neighbors to get the city to demo the house.
So this lot is 2 doors down from the lady who used to clean my house. The new owner is acting as his own contractor and hired me to demo and remove the existing slab and driveway. I have done many driveways before but this was my first venture into reinforced concrete with rebar.
I rented a big concrete saw for $250 per day to cut the slab into chunks I could pick up with my loader. I knew the edges would be thicker but I wasn't aware of the separate footer underneath. The footer is 12"x16" with two pieces of 5/8" rebar. This is in addition to the two pieces of rebar in the thickened edges of the slab. So the thickened edges kicked my ass and Pablo (my Avant 528 loader) wasn't all too happy about it either. But after a couple extra days I got it all up, not counting the footer. At this point I had used up my allotted time from my bid and we still had this massive footer to remove. Pablo wasn't up to the task. We needed an excavator.
The owner agreed this was way more than either of us expected and it was beyond my original bid. He agreed to cover the rental of a backhoe and I talked him into covering the pay for an operator for a day. He set up a rental from Home Depot for a 3 ton backhoe/excavator for Thursday. I showed up at 7am to get the backhoe and the reservation had been cancelled. No explanation other than it wasn't returned the previous day. So we started calling around and found another one 20 miles away at another Home Depot. But they wouldn't rent it without the renter being there in person to pay for it. I agreed to pay for it on my card but then they wouldn't rent it to me because I did not have a smart phone to fill out the application or scan the qr code. This actually turned out to be a blessing.
If you are still reading, the owner found a bigger excavator at a rental yard a mile from the job. I went there and it was a 9 ton excavator with a thumb. It cost me $440 for the day. I loaded it into my dump trailer and we got started by 11am. By 4:15 we were done and I had the machine returned by 5pm. The guy I found to help me (neighbor's friend) was an experienced equipment operator with years on an excavator. He kicked some serious ass that day!
Over the last couple weeks I have been working on a job removing a house foundation and driveway. It needed to be removed in order to allow the new owners to start building a new house. I finally learned the back story, the previous owner was a hoarder and when a massive tree fell on the house in a hurricane, she took the insurance money and then abandoned the house. It took 10 years for the neighbors to get the city to demo the house.
So this lot is 2 doors down from the lady who used to clean my house. The new owner is acting as his own contractor and hired me to demo and remove the existing slab and driveway. I have done many driveways before but this was my first venture into reinforced concrete with rebar.
I rented a big concrete saw for $250 per day to cut the slab into chunks I could pick up with my loader. I knew the edges would be thicker but I wasn't aware of the separate footer underneath. The footer is 12"x16" with two pieces of 5/8" rebar. This is in addition to the two pieces of rebar in the thickened edges of the slab. So the thickened edges kicked my ass and Pablo (my Avant 528 loader) wasn't all too happy about it either. But after a couple extra days I got it all up, not counting the footer. At this point I had used up my allotted time from my bid and we still had this massive footer to remove. Pablo wasn't up to the task. We needed an excavator.
The owner agreed this was way more than either of us expected and it was beyond my original bid. He agreed to cover the rental of a backhoe and I talked him into covering the pay for an operator for a day. He set up a rental from Home Depot for a 3 ton backhoe/excavator for Thursday. I showed up at 7am to get the backhoe and the reservation had been cancelled. No explanation other than it wasn't returned the previous day. So we started calling around and found another one 20 miles away at another Home Depot. But they wouldn't rent it without the renter being there in person to pay for it. I agreed to pay for it on my card but then they wouldn't rent it to me because I did not have a smart phone to fill out the application or scan the qr code. This actually turned out to be a blessing.
If you are still reading, the owner found a bigger excavator at a rental yard a mile from the job. I went there and it was a 9 ton excavator with a thumb. It cost me $440 for the day. I loaded it into my dump trailer and we got started by 11am. By 4:15 we were done and I had the machine returned by 5pm. The guy I found to help me (neighbor's friend) was an experienced equipment operator with years on an excavator. He kicked some serious ass that day!
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CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
I stay away from Home Depot equipment. They ripped me off with no resolve on a lift that developed a hydraulic leak 2 days in a week rental. Brought it back the 3rd day. Was charged for the full week and got the run around right up through corporate with no resolve. Fug them.
Nutball
TreeHouser
Might threaten with a lawyer, see if you can get a lawyer bud to send an official looking email for cheap. That usually gets results from unresponsive businesses. They know it's not worth loosing lots more $.
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Not worth my time and money over 1k. However, scathing reviews and word of mouth will cost them dearly for very little of my efforts
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Yup
SeanKroll
Treehouser
They say be happy when 1 in 10 satisfied customers tell their friends... an unsatisfied customer will tell anyone that will listen.
Nutball
TreeHouser
I just remembered, AI could probably help compose you such a letter if ever something like that happens again.
