In early August, I entered into a verbal "no money down" contract with Sam, the owner of Trimax Construction, to pour a simple square concrete pad for a garden shed. He was in the area doing neighbours walkways, and I DID NOT DO ANY RESEARCH UP FRONT (my mistake). It was agreed that he would place 3-4 inches of gravel subbase, provide a small ramp on one side, and not pour concrete into the fence. On August 3rd he poured the pad (after that morning I spoke to his men to make sure that there was gravel).
However, he screwed up by: 1) Did not include the gravel subbase agreed upon 2) Poured the concrete directly into the fence 3) Did not include the ramp.
Even worse, the pad was NOT level (out by 1 inch front to back, and out by 2+ inches mid to side (over 8ft)). When we talked to him about the problem, he was bullheaded, would not listen, but eventualy admitted he did not put down the sub-base we agreed to. He claimed it was "better" because it was thicker, and VERY QUICKLY stated that he would remove it if we didn't like it.
We were uncertain about what to do and given how hot the discussion was getting, we said we would discuss it later. Aside from yelling at us from down the street, he did not try to talk to us again. After doing some research into the Ontario building code, trying to assess the risk of having no gravel and now noticing how screwy the level was, we called him again. He blew up, and in anger he unilaterally said he was going to remove it, because "we would never be happy". He tried to make us feel like we were the problem, but at least he was taking it out.
By this point in time, we did not trust him, so we told him he was not to remove it unless we were home. However, on Aug 10th, he trespassed and broke the slab into LARGE unweildy pieces, doing some damage to the lawn for good measure.
Next followed approx 2 weeks of some of the most bold dishonesty I've seen. He said that he was going to remove it, however there were various excuses. There were many times where he had both the equipment and staff available to remove it (dump truck, concrete saws, trailer). On his last day of work in the area I approached him again, and he eventually stated he would not do it.
During this whole process, to try and help, we offered various amounts to have him remove the mess he made (up to $300, which we figured was fair seeing as it was HIS screw up). I now have quotes to remove the ruined slab, of around $1000.
What I want to bring to everyone's attentions is not so much the sloppy job he did, but the way in which he conducted business. From the first time we spoke to him about the incompetent job, it appears that he had it in his mind to break and leave the pad. Particularly nasty was the spiteful way in which he broke up the pad so that it would maximize the expense to remove it (the pieces were mostly table size, and at the same time, it was no longer possible to use a concrete saw to break into smaller pieces). It was as if he knew exactly how to break it to cause me the most problem.
Also think about the weeks of smiley face stories in front of me, and my neighbors, about the bin coming later, about "this dumptruck taking away rubble cannot take away cement", etc.
This man is dishonest, does sloppy work, and cannot be trusted.
Along the way, I took photos of his workmanship, audio recordings of his promises, and a web-cam video of him tresspassing and breaking the pad. I will upload the pics if I can to show that this is real.
Do NOT trust this man.
