Gunite complete - crew left lots of excess in plumbing trenches - ok?

[JC707]

Hi folks. I noticed the gunite crew didn't wheel any excess off and alot of extra gunite was left in our trenches and has since dried rock hard over plumbing lines.

Is this OK or does the PB need to dig this out? Seems like it will make any future repairs a P.I.T.A. but will the pool plumbing lines be OK underneath dried gunite?

We are doing pavers and the PB didn't backfill any trenches yet and had Gunite come first. Next is tile then paver company is finally coming to backfill trenches and install a ton of pavers for us.

Paver company made it a point that they want to backfill everything and do all the compaction etc so that's what's in our contract.

Thanks!

 

[duraleigh]

That's sloppy work. I would ask the gunite crew to clean up.

Your paver crew will probably charge you if they have to clean it out. It will not compact properly if all that is left in there.

 

[kul]

Are the pavers going to go over the plumbing that got covered by some gunite? If yes, maybe just ask the paver contractor if they are comfortable with it. It’s too bad the gunite folks weren’t more careful.

 

[JC707]

One of the biggest reasons we went pavers is the ease of ripping em out if ever we need to repair some plumbing lines! Ugh so frustrating.

I'll run it by Paver company and ask. Pavers will be going over all the hard gunite in trenches let me see if they are comfortable with it.

 

[JC707]

PB text me back says gunite crews do that sometimes and it's all good.

I replied it's sloppy work in my opinion and will make future plumbing fixes a pain.

Waiting to hear back from Paver company on their take.

I need to see builder warranty on plumbing. If it's for 10-15 years I'll be long gone from this house by then so whatever lol

 

[JC707]

Totally regret not going owner build now.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I wouldn’t say it’s sloppy work … it’s basically unspecified work. Unless the cleanup of the rebound was specified, the gunite crew is going to leave it on site. It would cost a lot of money to haul away and dispose of all that excess. The gunite crew isn’t going to pay for that. And the PB doesn’t want to incur that cost either if he doesn’t have to. Now if you said upfront that you wanted all excess materials hauled offsite, then the PB would have built in the costs for doing that. But in this case, they made the call to do the cheapest and easiest thing - use the existing trench work.

 

[JC707]

I wouldn’t say it’s sloppy work … it’s basically unspecified work. Unless the cleanup of the rebound was specified, the gunite crew is going to leave it on site. It would cost a lot of money to haul away and dispose of all that excess. The gunite crew isn’t going to pay for that. And the PB doesn’t want to incur that cost either if he doesn’t have to. Now if you said upfront that you wanted all excess materials hauled offsite, then the PB would have built in the costs for doing that. But in this case, they made the call to do the cheapest and easiest thing - use the existing trench work.

Yah this makes complete sense joyful. And I never specified anything. Good lessons I am learning for any future pool build.

Problem with me is I am a very forward thinker so in my mind I am like OK what if there is a plumbing leak I will have to jack hammer this darn gunite up to get to the plumbing pipes.

I'll try to stop worrying about things that haven't happened yet.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

As aside, when the excavator dug out my pool, they hauled off about 4 dump trucks of material. On the last day, the PB had them leave behind a yard or so excavated dirt to be used for backfill of trenches and general grading (which is bad to use but at the time I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention). After the pool and backyard was completed, there was probably about a 1/4 of the pile left. I asked the landscaper who was doing some of the finishing work if he would haul it away to which I got an expletive-filled rant about how it was not his doing and he didn’t make the pile so it wasn’t his responsibility to deal with it (he wouldn’t let me get a word on edge-wise to offer to pay him for hauling it as I did not have a truck or trailer myself… he just wanted to be ticked off and yell at me … so I paid him for his work that day and never hired him again). Long story short - any unspecified detail will ultimately fall on the homeowner.

 

[duraleigh]

If it was my pool, removal of that debris would be a mandatory item, whoever ends up paying for it. It is not really compactible.

 

[JC707]

This same PB is building 5 pools on this street along with 1 other PB.

I know all of those neighbors so I went and asked to view pool. All of them had gunite in trenches even the PB who is different who used a different gunite sub.

I guess it's par for the course here but absolutely next pool build (most likely owner build) I will have them haul it off. And if I don't make it that long then in my Will I have will instructions for my kids to make sure they haul off trimmings/etc of gunite and not fill in trenches.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I don’t envy gunite crews. It’s loud and hot and everyone is suited up. The air is thick with cement dust and overspray. Heavy, wet concrete sludge flying all over the place. You have to work fast to keep up with the hoseman , trowel and cut the concrete, sling all the rebound out into buckets, tubs and wheelbarrows. It’s just a chaotic mess and everyone is huffing and sweating …

… and then the crew moves on to the next job leaving the tear-down crew behind to clean up the mess. These guys try to push 3 or 4 jobs a day if they can.

It’s not fun work at all …

 

[cfherrman]

I would say it's a bad idea since you want a sand like material around the plumbing to make sure it's properly supported when you backfill and the mortar should properly support it but won't move at all. I think if this was common they should have dug the pipe trench extra wide and put the mortar there so it's not touching anything at all.

 

[kul]

It certainly doesn’t seem ideal, but if you feel ok moving forward and the paver people don’t care then seems the issue is closed for now. Good that you have photos so you know what the situation is if a repair is needed while you are still the owner of the home.