Mr. Coultish talked us into upgrading our wooden wall destroyed in the storm of Dec 2008 with a concrete retaining wall.
He gave us a quote for $13,500 which was higher than 2 other quotes, but lower than a third quote. We decided to go with him because our insurance company was paying for half and said that he was their choice and we would be protected if anything went wrong.
What followed was a nightmare. He half built the wall, but left the work unfinished and a mess. He did not build a drainage system behind the wall, nor did he fill the space behind the wall with gravel. Instead he dumped his waste behind the wall, left a bagfull of nails in our driveway, and a hill of debris 5 ft diameter and 4 ft high in our drainage ditch, blocking it.
We paid him an extra $600 to remove the debris, he returned, cleaned behind the wall, and placed a plastic pipe behind the wall. He did not connect this drain pipe to anything and did not cover it with grave. He was ill tempered and remarked that the hill of debris was already there, to which his partner added: yeah, some of it was there. He never returned and the 2 shovels that he borrowed to clean behind the wall disappeared with him. It is now over a year and the wall is still unfinished by the insurance company.
Now we have found out that he did not get the necessary engineering report for the job.
On top of that, we discovered that he built the wall on top of an old rotten drainpipe from the previous wall!
The insurance company is now looking into getting the missing engineer. We don't know, nor does the insurance whether he even bothered to get a permit. Perhaps the wall has to be ripped apart as when it rains, all the water seeps under the wall and not through the drain pipe. This is damaging the foundation and basement of our house.
Is this a nightmare? No it is reality.
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