SOUTHERN NH POURED CONCRETE

**see update below I hired this company at the recommendation of my contractor. I provided very detailed architectural drawings for our building plan. Bob Slater (owner) came out to the site and explained how everything would work. Bob talks a good game, and gives great confidence in his team's skills. Unfortunately, a lot of things went wrong. Some of it may be due to incompetence. Some of it for sure was due to the fact that Bob was also in the middle of doing a multi-million dollar home in the lakes region that he was constantly bragging about. When things went wrong, I felt as though I was too small of a job for him to take seriously, even though to me this was the most expensive and most critical piece of my construction project. There were too many issues that went wrong for me to list them all. I'll try, but I'm sure I'll leave something out. There were many nights over many weeks where I couldn't sleep because of how angry and frustrated I was with this project. There were architectural elements that were left out without notifying me. The concrete planks specified in my drawing were substituted with another brand. I was assured at great length that these would be better. In the end, I have to disagree. More on that later. There were several times that I stayed home from work to meet with one of Bob's subcontractors, only to have them not show up. On these days, Bob's cell phone would mysteriously not get answered. I started calling him from other people's phones so he wouldn't know it was me, and answer my call. Our basement floor was poured with the expectation that water would flow out of the basement toward the door. Instead, water tends to flow in, toward the walls so that it puddles on the floor. Our garage floor is worse. The slabs that were installed sagged in the middle so that water pools in the center of the floor. The concrete planks that were originally specified were designed to have a peak in the center so that water would flow out. This is only one of several reasons why I'm unhappy with the substitution of plank vendors. When initially discussing the job with Bob, he went to great lengths to describe how they would prevent concrete from the poured garage floor from leaking down and ruining my new basement floor. When the subcontractor came to pour the garage floor, none of these things were done and there was a mess to clean up in the basement. I spent several hours cleaning up after them and I'm still not satisfied with how it looks. Now I've discovered that when it rains, water flows into the channel between the garage floor and the precast slabs. This causes water to drip from several locations on my basement ceiling. My contractor has discussed a few remediation options that will hopefully prevent this from being a complete disaster. Overall, I regret choosing this company. I gave them a few points for the fact that the walls look good, and the final product is almost what I wanted. I'll have the rest of my life to look at this completed job and see all the things I asked for but didn't get. And every time I'm in my new basement, I'll be looking at the several tons of precast concrete slabs above my head wondering if they will come down. UPDATE 5/20/13 I followed up with Bob about the issues I was having and he came out to take a look last fall. He agreed with me that the problems were unacceptable and offered to fix some things. The problem with the garage floor was caused by a change in materials from the vendor that supplied the pre-stressed planks, which required a different installation process. Bob hired a company to come to our house and resurface the floor so that it drained out correctly and did not leak. He also got reassurance from the manufacturer that the installation was safe. I'm very happy with the outcome of this. The issue with the basement floor was caused by a sub-contractor, who is apparently no longer being used. Bob offered to tear up the floor and pour a new one. In this case I chose not to take him up on it, because of the impact it would have had on our yard and house. In the end, I think Bob went out of his way to do the right thing. He was surprised by the way things when wrong and spent his own money to fix things as best as he could. I'm happy with the final product now that the garage floor has been repaired. It's possible that my experience is out of the ordinary for this company.