Firing the PB

[moomoo]

Anyone ever fire their PB, and/or fire them and go OB instead? highly considering this...any input would be appreciated.
Also, hitting and pulling up water lines is a common thing, I understand, but how common is it to pull the main line from the house itself?? and then refuse to pay for it

 

[JoyfulNoise]

It all depends on how your contract is written. If you fire the PB you could incur additional cost up to the point of termination and, if you don’t pay, they put a mechanics lien on your home. It’s not easy.

Also, every utility line in your yard SHOULD HAVE BEEN clearly marked by BlueStake (or whatever utility marking service is used in your area) BEFORE ANY DIGGING happened.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

Yes, it happens more often than you think.
First you need to educate yourself on the OB process before making that choice and understanding what is expected of you and your time commitment.
The process is fairly straightforward but it truly depends on how much you want to get involved with the decisions that will have to be made, you are essentially trading your time for savings, I find that in the end the savings aren’t as much as expected because those savings are reinvested into the project, but depending on how much you’re willing to spend on education of the process that the end job will be more of what you expected and of a superior quality.

 

[moomoo]

appreciate the responses! From drawings provided by the septic inspector when we bought the home, we had an idea of where the waterline was going to be. The excavator should have stopped pulling on the line and had the supervisor stop and cut the line or vice versa when they noticed the line coming up, but they kept going(the line was 8' in the air when I went outside). So it required our plumber coming out to make sure they didn't pull the line from the house itself as I heard it snap from inside the house! They spent about 4 hrs digging and repairing it. Of course, he cited the contract about any/all lines being rerouted are the responsibility of the buyer. Which, I understand, but that was negligence and should not have gotten to the point it did to begin with. The other thing that got me is that there was never a response to my text about what happened nor any type of follow-up to make sure we were ok and had water restored.
The other issues, they are franchisee of a national brand and I was following "the process" for a gunite pool directly from the website. Apparently, our PB's process is different. Such as No rockbed for increased floor strength and he uses shotcrete vs gunite. There had never been any mention of shotcrete and he dismissed the rockbed stating it may just be a regional thing and it was not "process." So I was under the impression we were getting a gunite pool. He said he could do gunite, but it's about $300/yd more and wasn't sure about when it could be done. Of note, he owns a shotcrete company...Rebar stage just finished today. I have a decent idea already on the process as I had entertained doing it myself to begin with, but decided against it for time-sake and headache-sake (or so I thought).

 

[Newdude]

I had entertained doing it myself to begin with, but decided against it for time-sake and headache-sake (or so I thought).

Same.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

There is effectively no difference between gunite and shotcrete once the shell is formed. In many cases shotcrete is superior to gunite because the cement formulation is mixed at the factory and hauled in on a truck where greater control over the components and water/cement ratio can be maintained. This has a huge impact on ultimate compressive strength and shotcrete typically yields a more uniform and stronger end product. Gunite is typically only used when the distance to truck in cement is too far.

What they did with the water line is ridiculous but not unheard of. When our pool was built the excavator pulled up and unmarked electrical feed line that ran from our main panel to it guest house. It torn the line out of the main panel and two hot leads shorted to the common bus on the panel. It destroyed several power supplies in my house and both of my garage door openers. The PB covered the panel and line repair (didn’t need to run new lines, just conduit repair) but I was on the hook for all the damaged equipment inside the house. It annoyed me but I wanted to get the project moving and not litigate who was more at fault.

 

[SoDel]

I can feel your pain. My build also caused a lot of unnecessary destruction, but in the bigger picture, nobody got hurt and the costs were small in relation to the overall project. Extremely annoying, but that’s how the cookie sometimes crumbles. The one thing that sticks with me though is the PB did not prepare us for how bad it was really going to get, and for how long.

It may be that your builder is ok but just didn’t set expectations as far as like, they are going to completely tear up everything under and near where the pool goes and are not going to give a second thought to anything not marked or anything they are not contractually responsible to fix. Water under the bridge at this point but it seems like a common issue.

 

[sktn77a]

Reading your more detailed explanation, I'd say stay the course. Your problem, sadly, is on the minor end of the scale when it comes to pool building problems!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

appreciate the responses! From drawings provided by the septic inspector when we bought the home, we had an idea of where the waterline was going to be.

I will flag this as an important point to make …

At no point in any construction project that requires digging should any credible builder work off of “drawings” for buried utilities. Homes are built to plan, as best as possible, and it is not at all uncommon for the builder to make modifications to the official plans when they encounter the actual work site. That means any of the utilities can be moved quite a bit without there needing to be any updates to the officially recorded plans. This is precisely why BlueStake and other utility finding services exist - to map out the ACTUAL location of critical buried infrastructure to avoid damage and harm. That’s why in almost every state in the country there are public service announcements made about “Call Before You Dig” because workers can actually die (electrical and gas lines) if they hit the wrong utility.

In this case, it was water and it set you back the cost of fixing it. No one was hurt. But if it had been a gas line which is typically high pressure before it makes it to your meter, the resulting potential fire could have caused catastrophic damage not only to your home but others as well.

After an incident like yours, I would have demanded a stop to all work until utility markings were done.

 

[Newdude]

After an incident like yours, I would have demanded a stop to all work until utility markings were done

They may or may not have cared.

I showed my GC where my electric was and told him where it was hand dig. He said he was using the excavator anyway and oh BOY did we go at it.

He puffed his chest that it was his jobsite and I LAUNCHED that as both the property owner, and a utility employee, I was forbidding him to machine dig within 10 ft of the lines. I would also gladly certify to the electric company that it was marked and stubbornly ignored by a [names redacted for family friendly purposes].

 

[moomoo]

yeah, he certainly isn't the best communicator, and gets flustered and annoyed when questioned. His partner is much better in those departments and balances him out. Either way, I just don't have the time to manage the project. Which is honestly what really erks me as I know I would save $30k rather easily having OB the project. The lifetime shell warranty and other things that I likely would not get having OB'd it are also why I have stuck with him. He does build a nice looking pool, I will give him that. We are 2wks in and already have tile, coping and the encapsulation in.

 

[poolmagazine]

I've seen this happen a thousand times over the years with builders. The utility lines should have been clearly marked but mistakes do happen and more often than you'd think. If you don't pull the project and he's being a little contentious, I'd ask him to split the costs on repair work and provide him a lit path on how to make it right for you.

 

[PoolGate]

You can always take it to small claims court (when the build is done, of course).