Jensen Concrete

Jensen Concrete and Construction arrived when they said they would. When they arrived, it was disclosed that their forms for the basement walls were not as tall as was expected. Prior to the pour, the town inspector took issue with how the rebar was placed in some of the forms, particularly as it was bent around the corners and was against the outer edge of the form. Rebar should be offset to the inside of the wall rather than being centered in the form so that it can provide reinforcement under tension during backfill and compacting. After the pour it was discovered that they ordered 5-sack concrete rather than 6-sack concrete as was specified in the bid. They also watered it down to make it easier to work with via the pump truck further reducing the ultimate yield strength of the concrete. They finished pouring the foundation walls at about 4-5 pm. At 9 am the next morning the forms had all been removed! Forms should remain in place for at least 3 days, and early removal of forms can reduce final strength by as much as 45%. I was in disbelief, and when I asked the company owner about it, he stated that the concrete wouldn't "dry" without removing the forms. Apparently he hasn't spent 30 minutes reading about concrete, or he would know that concrete cures by a chemical reaction that requires water and takes weeks to months to cure. Strength of concrete is based on 28 days of curing. If concrete is allowed to dry out, the curing process is interrupted and design strength will not be met. Where walkways for doors or garage doors were to be, they did not provide a form to prevent the concrete from flowing up to a level higher than the floor or bottom of the door. This I guess was their standard practice and their method of removing the excess concrete was to stand on the wall, and knock out the door and garage door openings with a sledge hammer. As they did this, the whole wall could be seen shaking. When I pulled out my camera, they immediately stopped. When the company founder (father) was asked about the practice he shook his head and said that his son was now in charge and he couldn't tell him what to do. Jensen Concrete failed to install an "uffer" ground, per international building code, in the footing and a second footing had to be poured along the base of the foundation and tied into the real footing to accommodate it. My first floor is supported by steel I-beams that span the basement walls and rest in beam pockets. The beam pockets were broken out when they removed the forms early and only a couple of the beam pockets had a flat surface for a beam to rest on. My overall experience was terrible.