My mother hired a guy to build a 30x30 pole barn for her horses with a 20x30 pad inside, I met the contractor when he came out to give her the quote, seemed like a decent guy.
The location of the barn had about 18" of slope across the 30', the contractor originally said he was going to use a reputable dirt contractor, whom my mother has worked with before. She came home after work to find a guy in a skid loader leveling off fill that had been brought in. I raised some questions about placing a concrete pad on a fresh pad created with fill, they claimed it was "Architectural fill", which to me sounds like a joke.
After they built the barn they poured the pad, on top of the dirt pad. They did not use any rebar in the pad, they claimed they used fiber-mesh, which does not need any rebar.
Now, approximately 4 months after the pad was poured it has some pretty large cracks, and settling going on. At the crack control cuts there is a 3/4" step where the pad has settled, there are also some pretty significant cracks at different spots in the pad. To date all that has been parked on it is my mothers 1/2 ton truck, which is only there for an hour at a time.
In my opinion the contractor cut corners, they should have made a cut, rather than fill, the pad was not allowed to settle, nor was it compacted prior to the concrete work.
They also should have used rebar to tie the pad together, as far as I know fiber-mesh is not a replacement for rebar.
The contractor is supposed to come over next week while I am home to repair some of his ghetto welds on her horse stalls, I am hoping to get him to agree to repair the concrete as it has become a safety hazard for horses or people tripping over the step in the pad.
I would like to assure myself that I am correct in that "Architectural fill" is BS, as well as my above statements about the use of Fiber Mesh and rebar.
I dont think there are any building codes that apply to this, but the work was done in Colorado.
The location of the barn had about 18" of slope across the 30', the contractor originally said he was going to use a reputable dirt contractor, whom my mother has worked with before. She came home after work to find a guy in a skid loader leveling off fill that had been brought in. I raised some questions about placing a concrete pad on a fresh pad created with fill, they claimed it was "Architectural fill", which to me sounds like a joke.
After they built the barn they poured the pad, on top of the dirt pad. They did not use any rebar in the pad, they claimed they used fiber-mesh, which does not need any rebar.
Now, approximately 4 months after the pad was poured it has some pretty large cracks, and settling going on. At the crack control cuts there is a 3/4" step where the pad has settled, there are also some pretty significant cracks at different spots in the pad. To date all that has been parked on it is my mothers 1/2 ton truck, which is only there for an hour at a time.
In my opinion the contractor cut corners, they should have made a cut, rather than fill, the pad was not allowed to settle, nor was it compacted prior to the concrete work.
They also should have used rebar to tie the pad together, as far as I know fiber-mesh is not a replacement for rebar.
The contractor is supposed to come over next week while I am home to repair some of his ghetto welds on her horse stalls, I am hoping to get him to agree to repair the concrete as it has become a safety hazard for horses or people tripping over the step in the pad.
I would like to assure myself that I am correct in that "Architectural fill" is BS, as well as my above statements about the use of Fiber Mesh and rebar.
I dont think there are any building codes that apply to this, but the work was done in Colorado.