CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION DEFECTS
FLOOR LEVELING REPAIRS IN POST-TENSIONED CONCRETE DECKS
In contrast to the general contractor and the concrete subcontractor’s desperate attempt to avoid responsibility and rely after the fact on an unrelated structural bid exclusion, Holloway Consulting’s findings and opinions here as the Colorado concrete construction defects expert and contractor standard of care expert were that it was clear that these contractors knew they were responsible for achieving floor finish, levelness and flatness consistent with the AIA GMP Contract’s requirements. For example, after several of the lower floor slabs had been poured, the Owner walked the job and discussed the obviously out-of-level slabs with the general contractor’s superintendent who acknowledged the unevenness of the floors even before the shoring and re-shoring had been removed. However, after the concrete subcontractor had performed some floor leveling, the general contractor decided to proceed with drywall and finishes seemingly in the hopes that additional floor leveling would not be required. Such risky and deficient job management delayed the job and resulted in the general contractor and its subcontractors having to rip-out tile, fireplace surrounds, carpet, thresholds and baseboards before leveling the floors.
The substandard slab finish and slab levelness variances, with many areas out of tolerance greater than 1-inch, helped to provide the context in which to review the overall poor quality of the concrete subcontractor’s work and the floor levelness construction defects issue. Many problems arose with the concrete subcontractor’s work, and the general contractor and the concrete subcontractor had an ongoing dialogue on these problems. For example, at various times while reviewing job progress, the Owner, general contractor, Architect and the structural engineer each separately observed that numerous areas of concrete work were out of contract tolerance.
It has been Holloway Consulting’s experience both as the GC and concrete construction defects expert that the need to level post tensioned concrete slabs in such hotel structures is common and should have been scheduled and priced by these contractors. In terms of time and cost impacts, the primary element was not that floor leveling had to be performed, but rather that the general contractor did not perform the work when or how it should have been. Rather, the general contractor unilaterally chose to perform the leveling very late in the job, after the contractual substantial completion dates had past. Worse yet, the general contractor had to hire subcontractors to remove existing work such as thresholds, carpet and baseboards prior to performing the leveling.
Holloway Consulting’s findings as the Colorado construction defects expert regarding these concrete construction defects continue here