Hard dig complication Arizona

[mbdesa]

Some more videos in time lapse.

The PB construction Forman came by not long ago to supervise the excavator sub briefly and I inquired why this is considered a hard dig based on the relative ease of the excavator bucket going through the soil (at least in my lay person observation today), and he said they were maybe using a “special bucket”. He couldn’t give me any details as to what sort of bucket it was or what about the forks on it made it $2500 more special than a standard bucket.

It doesn’t look like a special bucket to me , but then again I am not an excavator and am not familiar with equipment like this so maybe it is a pricier bucket.

Anyone with more experience know about excavator buckets?

I dig for a living here in AZ, and that does not looking anything like a hard dig. Tight access leading to a longer dig, yes. But, hard dig, I just don't see it. That water they are spraying is doing nothing but keeping the dust down. I really think they are charging you for the tight access more than anything else.

 

[Redsurprise]

I dig for a living here in AZ, and that does not looking anything like a hard dig. Tight access leading to a longer dig, yes. But, hard dig, I just don't see it. That water they are spraying is doing nothing but keeping the dust down. I really think they are charging you for the tight access more than anything else.

So I was already being charged for tight access. The extra 2500 was for “hard dig” and for “hittting rock” , not the tight access. How long does a 75’ permitter small pool usually take to dig. This pool took 6 hours, maybe less if you count the breaks they took. No ripper was used. Wasn’t a hard dig in they way they are saying it was by the soil conditions.

 

[kul]

You’re going to have to decide how far you want to take this and whether you are willing to accept the possibility that this may cause a tension between you and the builder. If you are able to come to terms in your mind, even though it stinks, I’d suggest that route first. However, if you’ve already decided that won’t work, then good luck. I hope they resolve this issue for you because it does seem like it could be compromised on.

 

[mbdesa]

So I was already being charged for tight access. The extra 2500 was for “hard dig” and for “hittting rock” , not the tight access. How long does a 75’ permitter small pool usually take to dig. This pool took 6 hours, maybe less if you count the breaks they took. No ripper was used. Wasn’t a hard dig in they way they are saying it was by the soil conditions.

6-8 hours is right on target for that size pool. I’m really confused what the extra charge was for here. I would consult with your PB, show them the videos and ask them to better explain the additional charge. Have them show you in the videos what the excavator had to do differently from a normal dig.

 

[Redsurprise]

Just thought I would give an update on my pool after the dig. After complaining about the dig and asking for a better explanation as to why it was a hard dig and offering to share my videos, the PB said they would speak to the excavator and inspect the finished dig. The PB said they “beat up the excavator as much as they could”, removed the $700 overbreak charge since it was a clean dig, and lowered the excavation cost by $1200. So in the end only charged $600 extra (down from $2500). I asked what the $600 was for and they said still for “abnormal soil conditions” and the fact that it “took longer than normally”. I sort o of disagree and think the whole $2500 extra should have been credited back, but I didn’t want to argue and decided to consider it a win.

Thank you to everyone for the feedback on my excavation. Not sure what comes next (shotcrete?). Here is the pool at it’s current state of construction:

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Rough plumbing and electrical should be in. You will need to pass pre-gunite inspection with your local building dept. It looks like most of the plumbing is outside of the pool structure but you might ask your PB if they plan to pressure test the plumbing before they do the gunite shell. Some will wait until after gunite which, in my opinion, is stupid. But they will often claim that it only matters once everything is in place ... I disagree with that and think it's better to have an early warning of a leak when it's easiest to fix, but it's their call.

 

[Schwimmbad]

Well it wasn't quite what you wanted, but you did get it done for a lot less than otherwise. Nice job pushing the issue! That was an ordeal that you shouldn't have had to take on, but I agree, it is a win and you can put that episode behind you.

 

[Mdragger88]

Getting closer! Can’t wait to see more progress!!

 

[zero_sports]

It was not a hard dig, but you can consider yourself lucky that it ended up to only 600$ charge. You are always better to work with your PB and negociate after like you did. If you took your own excavator and something went wrong, then would put the fault on each other and you would ended paying more.

From personal experience, you always got screwed by excavator. I got screwed with the house, the pool and the landscaping... they have lots of possibility in their contract to charge you more. My PB charge me 1000$ extra because he founded a few bricks in the soil and called it contaminated soil as he could not dump it to his usual place.

 

[thewolf56]

I just read through this thread and I really felt for you while reading it. Hard digs on my cul de sac were $5k to $8k for 5' sports pools. My street was blasted out of the side of a granite hill, so was really not looking forward to the cost of a hard dig for my 6' deep pool. I did an OB, so I was outside when the excavators did their test dig, and I was very lucky they did their test dig where they did. In the deep end, they didn't hit rock until 5' (where they did the test dig), but when they started the actual dig, they hit rock at 6 inches on my baja step, but the excavation company didn't change the cost at all from the original hard dig quote. When speaking to my consultant, he said that the PB builds seem to have way more "hard digs" than the OBs and it may be connected to how jobs are bid.

I'm glad that after all of what you saw, you stuck to your guns and it was only $600 more.