I am in the midst of a NIGHTMARE experience with a contractor and am starting to worry that the problems are even worse than I initially realized.
BACKGROUND
The February 2021 Texas storm damaged our flagstone coping — moisture penetrated the stone and then froze so as soon as the temperature warmed up the stone started separating into layers and sloughing off in sheets. I hired a contractor with a great reputation (recommended by a friend and very good online reviews) to replace the flagstone with travertine. We weren’t in any big hurry, so we patiently waited until a slow spot in his schedule.
His subcontractor started the job in February of this year. When he was done there were obvious problems immediately — in some areas the mortar joint between the top of the waterline tile and the underside of the coping was .25 inch, in other areas it was nearly 1.5 inches. Even to the naked eye, it was obvious that the coping was not level. We pointed out these issues immediately and were assured that they would be taken care of. Two months later another subcontractor came out, tore out half the new travertine (breaking a bunch of waterline tiles in the process) and then laid it back down. This time the coping was level, but now the grout lines between the pieces of travertine are .25 inches and in other areas over an inch. This subcontractor was extremely sloppy — he left piles of excess mortar over an inch deep on the bottom of our pool and smeared all over our deck. Again, we complained immediately and were assured that the problem would be handled.
Now here we are over five months since the job was started and the contractor has now notified us that he is in the midst of a personal crisis and won’t be able to finish our job. For a while he gave us the run-around, assuring us that he was handing all his jobs over to another contractor who would take care of us. Now he’s just stopped returning our phone calls and responding to our text messages. Our pool looks like h*ll. We’ve hardly used it this summer because it is impossible to relax on a float while looking at the sloppy, substandard work that now surrounds the entire perimeter of our pool.
We’ve located another contractor who has agreed to fix the problem, but he is so busy that it may be months before he gets to us.
MY NEW CONCERN
About a month ago I noticed two small brown spots on the vertical wall of the pool (see photo). Each spot was about .25 inch in diameter and they were about an inch apart. I SLAMed the pool and scrubbed the spots like crazy but they didn’t budge and definitely didn’t respond to SLAMming like algae normally does. Since that time they have grown larger and now when I touch them with a brush it is clear that the spots are rust (fine reddish brown dust emanates from the spots when they are scrubbed). This has me very worried that water has penetrated behind the gunite shell of the pool and that corrosion is now emerging through the gunnite shell? Is this possible? For five months there has been a gap between the backside of the coping and our pool deck (see photo) — filling this was supposed to be the last step of the job but did not get done before the contractor abandoned the job.
Do I have a catastrophe on my hands? I want to be able to clearly diagnose any issues caused by the first contractor’s incompetence before I involve someone new. I am thinking my next call will probably be to our original pool builder — in retrospect I realize I probably should have had them do the coping replacement in the first place. There were a few minor clean-up issues we had with them after our initial build so I was annoyed with them but in comparison with the clown we’ve been dealing with this year they were fantastic. I am figuring they are the ones best positioned to tell me where this rust is coming from but I’m also a bit concerned that they will feel inclined to stick it to me for having not hired them to replace the coping.
I’d appreciate any insight or words of wisdom.
BACKGROUND
The February 2021 Texas storm damaged our flagstone coping — moisture penetrated the stone and then froze so as soon as the temperature warmed up the stone started separating into layers and sloughing off in sheets. I hired a contractor with a great reputation (recommended by a friend and very good online reviews) to replace the flagstone with travertine. We weren’t in any big hurry, so we patiently waited until a slow spot in his schedule.
His subcontractor started the job in February of this year. When he was done there were obvious problems immediately — in some areas the mortar joint between the top of the waterline tile and the underside of the coping was .25 inch, in other areas it was nearly 1.5 inches. Even to the naked eye, it was obvious that the coping was not level. We pointed out these issues immediately and were assured that they would be taken care of. Two months later another subcontractor came out, tore out half the new travertine (breaking a bunch of waterline tiles in the process) and then laid it back down. This time the coping was level, but now the grout lines between the pieces of travertine are .25 inches and in other areas over an inch. This subcontractor was extremely sloppy — he left piles of excess mortar over an inch deep on the bottom of our pool and smeared all over our deck. Again, we complained immediately and were assured that the problem would be handled.
Now here we are over five months since the job was started and the contractor has now notified us that he is in the midst of a personal crisis and won’t be able to finish our job. For a while he gave us the run-around, assuring us that he was handing all his jobs over to another contractor who would take care of us. Now he’s just stopped returning our phone calls and responding to our text messages. Our pool looks like h*ll. We’ve hardly used it this summer because it is impossible to relax on a float while looking at the sloppy, substandard work that now surrounds the entire perimeter of our pool.
We’ve located another contractor who has agreed to fix the problem, but he is so busy that it may be months before he gets to us. MY NEW CONCERN
About a month ago I noticed two small brown spots on the vertical wall of the pool (see photo). Each spot was about .25 inch in diameter and they were about an inch apart. I SLAMed the pool and scrubbed the spots like crazy but they didn’t budge and definitely didn’t respond to SLAMming like algae normally does. Since that time they have grown larger and now when I touch them with a brush it is clear that the spots are rust (fine reddish brown dust emanates from the spots when they are scrubbed). This has me very worried that water has penetrated behind the gunite shell of the pool and that corrosion is now emerging through the gunnite shell? Is this possible? For five months there has been a gap between the backside of the coping and our pool deck (see photo) — filling this was supposed to be the last step of the job but did not get done before the contractor abandoned the job.
Do I have a catastrophe on my hands? I want to be able to clearly diagnose any issues caused by the first contractor’s incompetence before I involve someone new. I am thinking my next call will probably be to our original pool builder — in retrospect I realize I probably should have had them do the coping replacement in the first place. There were a few minor clean-up issues we had with them after our initial build so I was annoyed with them but in comparison with the clown we’ve been dealing with this year they were fantastic. I am figuring they are the ones best positioned to tell me where this rust is coming from but I’m also a bit concerned that they will feel inclined to stick it to me for having not hired them to replace the coping.
I’d appreciate any insight or words of wisdom.
