Contractural Ethics

wbsbadboy

Over the past two weeks I have been doing a final grade on a set of apartments. this has been a grade this part and after the electrical is done backfill it partially then wait for the gas people and back fill that then wait for the bla bla bla to get their heads outa there...... well its been frustrating.
The other day the general came to the site to check on what I had been doing and so we both together ran the transit over everything. All ok. He gave his approval of the grading. The only thing left now is the concrete flat work and then I come back ...AGAIN and complete the grading prior to sod.
This morning I get a call from my boss and he is steamed to say the least. The flat work people showed up and did not like the grade for their concrete. Apparently they spoke to the general and he said to cut it as needed to make their concrete work. After they were done he calls my boss and tells him to have me come moove the excess dirt off the property and that we would have to finish the job and not get paid for the remainder of the work because I had screwed up the grading by not figuring for the concrete.
Mind you now this is the same guy that helped me run the numbers with the transit. And then gave his mark of approval.
Now I have done a fair share of flat work in my days and I always remember that if the grading is not right then you make it right. But unless it is totally screwed ie: roughly cut or not any where near level. you do this as part of the job. And if it is wrong then you call the tractor guy to come fix it.
So I want to know what the general concensis is out there. Is he right in witholding the remainder of the agreed on price or not.

dayexco

that all depends on the wording of the contract. if it stipulated that your firm would be responsible for staking, grade checking........i'd say you're hung. him being a nice guy and helping you out i don't think will relieve your company of the responibility if spelled out in the contract that that portion was your responsibility. were you given a definite "done date" in your contract? a specified daily liquidated damage amount assessed to you if not completed by that time? BUT!!! before i would allow them to deduct any of the value out of my contract, i would demand an itemized list of actual backcharges submitted by the concrete sub. the general can't just grab numbers out of the air and say..."you owe me this much". i've seen court cases where liquidated damages have been assessed against a contractor, only to have a court throw them out because the owner of the project was unable to prove a financial loss by not having them completed in that time frame.

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someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

wbsbadboy

It is not that the grading was not done properly. It was. The concrete contractor did not like the way I had graded it is all. He wanted all the flat work to be flat period. No rolls or smooth transitions like I had it. Hell the general even put in a drainage line because I convinced him that the place would look much nicer with some curve to the flat work.
Now he is going against everything we had discussed and agreed on. Along with saying that the grading was never approved by him. Good grief he held the damn transit stick and did the math right along with me. If the grading was screwed up he must be a total idiot to leave it that way. Besides that I wrote the numbers down. I have not shown him this but I figured that he would remember me doing that.
This is starting to feel like one of those twilight zone episodes. Everything I know that I have done correctly and had approved is now wrong and unapproved.
The remainder of the contract value is less than the concrete guy is charging him to redo the grading. This is the reason he says we have nothing more comming in the way of payment.
As for completion time frames he has delayed our progress so many times it isnt funny. Now its really not funny.
The contract reads "For work to be considered as completed, the sub contractor must have the approval of the work done, by senior management, for the site work is performed at......(parts removed for clarity)... In the event that work must be done in stages the verbal approval of senior management, and /or an authorised state or county inspectors' signature, on an approved job card, shall be considered as sufficient to continue to the next stage. ......(parts removed for clarity)... If a sub contractor reaches a "draw" or final stage then the proper forms shall be submitted for final approval, by senior management, and endorsment authorising payment will be required."
I think that I met the qualifications to be approved to proceed to the next stage.

dayexco

maybe i missed it in your post...who was responsible for staking, grade checking? if it was you, when he was running around with you.......it was nothing different than if you'd grabbed a guy out of the parking lot of 7-11 and said, hey got a few extra minutes? gimme a hand...unless you tell me something different, i think you're screwed like a housecat

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someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

tgeb

I agree with Day up to a point, and that point is that the General should have notified you and requested the sub-grade be adjusted and given you the opportunity to make it right prior to handing the flat-work sub a blank check that you have to make good on.

Also around here in housing developments you must adhere to the site grading plan and can not make grade changes no matter how much better it will look or even if you're fixing a drainage problem due to a mistake on the plans, you must follow the plan.

Good luck getting this straitened out.

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Tom

www.gebcon.com

MC Excavating

I would have graded the site per the grading plan. The elevations on the sheet are there for a reason. Thats the plan.

Now did your contract state that you where going to grade it to within 1/10th of a foot or just a rough grade to within 1/2 of a foot or what?

As for the accepted changes you made to the grades, I would have got his approval in writing with the time, date, and signature. Even if its on a napkin.

We all make mistakes all of the time. Now learn from your experience and try to not make the same mistake again in the future.

wbsbadboy

Ok maybe I gave the wrong impression. This is not a big tract home project. There are no grade stakes to go by. It is a set of 8 apartments. Each has two units facing park st. And two units facing the alley. All the units are within 1 1/2 feet of each other in grade level.
I drew a picture so you can get an idea of what I did and what the concrete people did. The grey area is what they took out back to the orange line on the right side of the drawing. This is duplicated on both sides of each set of apartments. All their grading is to the red line level. That is a lot of dirt that we now have to transport and pay to get rid of.
This whole ordeal has me so mad I could chew a horse shoe and spit drywall screws.

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MC Excavating

Isn't there a grading plan?

You shouldn't really need grade stakes if theres a grading plan. You can then use the finished floors of the units as a bench mark or existing top of curb.