Why do people force me to be a Jerk?

OK,so about 10 days ago I had my backyard fenced in with 6 foot treated fence and heavy duty gate. I've had a hodge podge set up on both sides and back for 30 yrs now. Dogs would fight with dogs behind me through knot holes in the neighbors fence that looked like it was made from wood pallets and on other side the neighbors little dog would get in between her wire fence and wood fence she had in between.

I had a bunch of concrete in back yard that a driveway company didn't take when they redid driveway and sidewalk from years ago. So it was stipulated that the fencing company would take old concrete away and take 5 railroad tie's and lay them in between new fence and old to keep weeds down.

The first day they took down wire fence that was mine and gate and put in the post's. It started to rain very heavy one hour before they were done. 2" in 45 min's. They had mini bull dozer and a drivable post hole digger. My backyard got shredded. They left and I noticed after it stopped raining that they had taken all 5 ties, all concrete and mud and stacked it 4 foot high right up against my neighbors back fence. I was fit to be tied. Then my basement (Waterproofing started today) had 4 in of sewer water in it. I called off work.

Fencing company was coming back at 1 pm next day. I spent whole day moving mud and concrete and laying those ties down single behind where fencing was. I was mud from head to toe. I then went and hosed basement down. Threw down ODOban and hosed it down. I get call saying they were coming and wife promptly left. She knew I was not going to quietly complain.

There were 6 guys including owner and I was ready to take them all on. I pointed at all the concrete and said, You were supposed to take that **** with you. I was gritting teeth pretty hard. He did probably the best thing. Mr Coulter, I see you worked your ass off. I'm going to have this pile gone today and we'll move those ties also. I said ties were fine, just concrete. Yes, Mr. Coulter I'm very sorry. I went in and showered, ate and settled down. When I came out They were putting up gate. A real nice one. He said for my troubles he upgraded the double gate. He said my house will fall before gate. All concrete was gone and he left me a dozen boards in case something breaks.


I shook his hand and said thanks. He smiled and said, Man you were pissed off and I don't blame you. I said, Well you did a great job and took concrete so now were good. I was hot though!

Now second part! I'm having basement done as I type. They dropped one guy off to jack hammer basement. Long period I hear nothing. I go down and he is sitting on bucket texting. I hand for a few and go back up stairs. 30 min's go by. No sound. I go back down and he's still texting. I told him that I took 4 days of vacation so I could get my basement done and not come down and watch you text people. He said, Hey I'm on break. I said Bull****. and if I don't hear work being done I'll call and cancel this job today. He's been going pretty steady now for 3 hours. Why do people force me to be a Jerk? Both companies I used have great ratings and reliable vouchers.

Well, Tomorrow a full crew of 4 in basement so hopefully I see more work done. At least the guy in basement knows not to putz around

Right after they left. Rain and heavy machinary tore the back up. See in back the pile of concrete?



After fence up and cleaned up a bit

The 'after' picture is beautiful. Sorry you had so many hassles, and it might have been that if you weren't willing to stick up for yourself the end results would not be as nice.

Thanks Lucille. Basement guy just left. He was probably 22 to 24 yrs old. I do believe at 53 I would have had jack hammering done. It is about 3/4 done. Boss will be here tomorrow. Should see more done.

Holy crap. I'd kill for that kinda water out here.

Oh, and I'd also probably strangle the contractors before hubby got a chance to yank on my leash.

Colt,
You should let the owner or lead man know what was going on yesterday and how long the guy was there and not working. They probably don't know this fool is wasting time and money playing on his phone. I know if it was one of my guys I'd want to know. Sounds like he cost the company a bit of money yesterday on top off aggravating a client.

There is no work ethic among the young these days.

Before he retired, my dad was the foreman of a PG&E crew. All the young apprentices that came in wanted to sit around an text all the time. He finally made them leave their phones in the truck or go find another crew. He even had one guy complain to the boss that my dad was "working him too hard." My dad asked the boss "well, what are you here for?" and walked out (40+ years seniority over the boss).

I hope you are able to get the rest of these projects done without these kids slacking off so much.

The original kid came today along with another older worker. They busted butt today. When they picked guy up yesterday I could tell his boss was not happy. Basement is total wreck atm. It also rained and with concrete out they had mud every where. OCD started kicking in so left, lol.

Major, Major meltdown today. Basement Waterproofing company called me 3 times to apologize.

The workers over last couple days have been saying you need to remove this or do this. Most were 5 min jobs and I just did them. Then today they said you need to remove walls around bottom staircase. I had mini fit then. I said look, I paid to have my GD basement waterproofed not to be your GD minion. I then went off about 3 days worth of concrete and gravel in basement. Why don't you clean up every night so you can move a little quicker down here?

An hour or so later the guy knocks on door. The sewer pipe broke where they were jack hammering. Now it is clay and about 100 years old. He then tells me I have to get it fixed before they can finish.

I can not print what I said immediately afterwards. In fact I probably couldnt say it in Hell either.

Now where sewer broke was at cleanout. This company was supposed to install a new cleanout and a sewer back water preventer. I said why can't your plumber make repair when he put's new in? They said it would be 2 days before they could have it put in.

Another blast of profanity, throw something and go upstairs. While I'm on cell phone trying to find plumber my house phone is ringing from basement proofing owner. I finally get a company that can be there in an hour. Owner calls second time and I basically went off on him and asking him if it's normal in this business for this kind of crap? I tell him to cancel the sewer back water device and his plumber.

Plumber comes and he's my age. I give him a sanitized version of what happened. He said let me call around and see what I can do for you.

Comes back with quote for 2500.00 with out cement or 2900.00 with cement. This includes top of the line back flow preventer and a cleanout plus run camera through from house to street for anything else. He says he will have to break a few more feet of concrete and it is included at cost. He grinned and said, I'm sure you dont want them to? I said good call.

Basement Owner shows up and says they will re concrete his work and taking 1625.00 off the final bill. The good news is plumber will be here at 9 am and basement guys said they will be here at 7:30 and start clearing a path for plumber and that all the concrete chunks and gravel will be gone from basement tomorrow night.

I'm getting to old and cranky for this guys!

What a horrible day
And those are some expensive numbers

I am hoping that the rest of the job goes off without any more glitches or expenses.

When this is all done it looks like you will have the equivalent of a new home and nice looking, but I know that is small comfort right now.