Yeah, the contractor padded the estimate. Further, it was a big housing
contractor, not a poor, struggling tower rigger ;-) They made a pantload of
money on a major renovation to my house, so I didn't feel bad refusing the
bill for the extra concrete. Finally, it wasn't a matter of the soil
conditions leading to a bigger hole. Either the excavator didn't get the
spec clearly from the contractor, or he was daydreaming during the dig --
there was no reason for him to dig down 9 feet!
_____
From: K7LXC@aol.com [mailto:K7LXC@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:19 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com; wc1m@msn.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Questions.Tower Installation & concrete cost
In a message dated 9/7/2006 9:03:23 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
> Of course, the contractor attempted to bill me for the extra concrete. I
refused on the basis that it was his responsibility to ensure the hole was
dug to the specification. He wasn't thrilled about it, but the relationship
continued after that, so I guess my refusal wasn't all that unexpected.
First, it's rare that you can get the exact hole dug that you want.
Excavators are NOT precision tools. OTOH I've had some excavator operators
that were dirt magicians and produced (in good soil) squared up holes.
Second, soil conditions vary widely and can work against you. I dug a 7
yard base hole in river bottom rip-rap and the thing sloughed a lot,
enlarging the hole from inside. It finally took 10-11 yards or so by the
time we filled it up.
Finally, did you get a fixed price bid from the contractor? If so, he
probably had some extra time and money built in for unexpected things to
happen, like your bigger hole. I prefer to work on a time-and-materials
basis so the customer only pays for what time and materials were actually
used without having to inflate the original estimate for the unexpected.
It's your prerogative to refuse anything to do with your job but it sure
makes it tough on us little contractors when we're incurring costs the
customer won't pay for. :-(
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower services for hams
Cell: 206-890-4188
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