I've got a contract on a new build from a tract home builder. The post tension foundation pour was today and the ready-mix plant went offline and the pour was interrupted for two hours in the middle of the pour.

The concrete was firm when the pour resumed but it was still dark in color and could be easily scratched. I read that as long as you can still get a vibrator to penetrate your're still good. Well that would have been impossible.

Is this ok? If the answer is complicated, can this foundation be inspected? Or do I just need to eat the escrow and walk?

Here is a short video of my wife poking the concrete prior to the pour resuming:

Thanks.

Anyone know any residential civil/structural engineers who could do an inspection in North Galveston County?

Did you have an engineer do your foundation design? If so, I'd get them in the loop and see what they recommend. If you did a geotechnical report they might be able to recommend someone also. Failing both of those options, Norex is in your neck of the woods and a good outfit.

This isn't a custom home. It's a tract home from a regional builder. They have their engineer but he wouldn't be independent.

Thanks for the recommendations!

Agreed this is not acceptable. Builder should redo the foundation. Builder may rely on the 10 year foundation warranty to avoid redoing it. The product they are providing is not the product you agreed to buy, warranty or not. This is their cost. Force them to fix or be such a pain that they terminate the contract and get your money back.

We tried contacting about a dozen engineers. They're all either too busy, unwilling, or uncomfortable writing a report 'pre-failure.' But off the record we've heard from one that two hour interruptions aren't uncommon when accidents happen on the Houston freeways and the mixers time out and have to return to the ready mix plant and dump their loads. Another engineer with a BS and masters in Civil from A&M isn't really concerned at all. I'm shocked but what do I know.

I'm not at all comfortable but if it's going to fail, it will likely occur due to differential loading sometime after the cables are tensioned. We're going to watch it like a hawk and hold off on listing our current house for a while longer.

Unfortunately we have almost zero leverage with this builder. They're the only ones building multiple garages on their lots and RV garages and large shops don't really exist in the suburban Houston market.

Second "pours" in building foundations Aggieland
Prof. Constr.Sci Struct.eng TAMU long time work-with experiences:
These are only permitted at planned construction joints, located usually at zero moment stress points and adhesion materials are employed between new/old work.
The above is for beam rebar caged & interlaced slab rebar slab-on-grade & also on deep piers systems.

Since post-tensioned work has mostly been a 3rd choice locally, due to volatile soils. Even deep-pockets-TAMU will not do this again (last attempt may have been Bizzel St @ New Main roads. So can't speak to experiences such as yours.

It may not be possible to demo all work that can't be sculpted into a remaining piece that offers a perfect construciton joint as described, then also suitable for post-tensioning.

Once you Google the pros/cons of this PT system, you'll see what some of these remarks are suggesting.

The lawsuits known to me vicariously suggest that these conditions may easily excuse you from any out-of-pocket money in court. A construciton lawyer may produce good results with only letters & time fees. You may be tempted to negotiate a trade w/same builder to another property, also PT foundation. I would not if he proceeds w/no qualms with the one described but then .... I hate PTs.

They only pulled the forms off the front today. Here are some pics:

This is the front of the neighboring foundation for comparison. It's nearly perfect relative to ours.

lb3 said:

---

This is the front of the neighboring foundation for comparison. It's nearly perfect relative to ours.

---

Yep, that's what it's supposed to look like.

I'm a Civil engineer (not structural - so don't take this as a professional engineering recommendation) and I'm also about to start construction on a custom home. I would walk away from that mess and that builder entirely. There is just no way those PT cables are any good if they are running in proximity to a cold joint that goes all the way across and through the slab.

IMO you are taking a massive risk buying that home. Even if it was a 100 year foundation warranty - do you really want to possibly deal with a massive foundation repair in the future if the foundation fails. Of course you don't. If we are talking $5 or $10K escrow to bail, I would bail. You could try to force them to fix it, but if this is their quality of work then you don't want them anyway.

ktownag08 said:

---

I'd be exiting that contract no question.

Truthfully, it's good you got an understanding of the type of builder you're working with at this stage than further down the line.

---

I had one of their homes built in 2003 which I was happy with it. And in their defense, the ready-mix plant going offline in the middle of the pour isn't their fault. I don't know if they have insurance and whether the plant going off-line qualifies as an act of god or not but I hope to ask the builder that question.

Regardless, walking isn't easy. In another time in my life, walking away would be simple, but I'm on a clock to find a new home, and this is the only suburban builder offering RV garages. I can't move to a rural area and do a custom build.

We've had two engineers off the record say it likely isn't a problem. I hate this and don't fully trust their opinions but I have no experience with concrete bonding or designing post tension slabs so their opinions are all I have to go by right now.

If the top layer doesn't buckle when the cables are tensioned, what is going to happen and at what time scale?

If there is a PE willing to inspect the foundation and stamp a report definitively stating the foundation is good or bad and throw their own liability on the table, I want to know their name. We've contacted a dozen engineers in the past 48 hours and if they will even talk with us, it's off the record.

Right now my only options are to accept it or walk away and move my wife and her business into an apartment until we can find an acceptable alternative option which doesn't currently exist.

fml

If the OP has problems in the future, what does that look like and how is that fixed? Most foundation problems vertical settlement issues, generally needing a pier. Is this two independent plates, which are weaker than a normal foundation and possiby have lateral stress isssues?

62strat said:

---

lb3 said:

---

They only pulled the forms off the front today. Here are some pics:

---

That's the crappiest foundation pour I've ever seen.

No way you should accept that.

how many cy was the full foundation pour? I would think they'd have all 8-10 trucks filled and on the road to your location by the time the plant 'went offline'.

That's bs.

---

They scheduled 2 lots back to back that morning and with two garages (40x21 and 45x21 ) on each of lot, it's probably closer to 40 trucks than 8-10. That said, they screwed up by doing all the beams for each structure before going back and doing the slabs.

FourAggies said:

---

If the OP has problems in the future, what does that look like and how is that fixed? Most foundation problems vertical settlement issues, generally needing a pier. Is this two independent plates, which are weaker than a normal foundation and possiby have lateral stress isssues?

---

The top layer won't slide off. It's more of whether the two layers are strong enough independently to resist cracking from the expansive soils since they can't share the loads like a clean pour could.

I worry about failure of the slab on top. Without the beams bonded to the slab to increasing the moment of inertia, the slab being under lateral compression would have a much lower buckling limit. I don't think the post tension cables would buckle the slab on their own, but if one corner were to see a bit of vertical movement, who knows.

Maybe I can get lucky and it will experience a catastrophic failure next week when the cables are tensioned.

Tough spot op, but some questions:
Is it worth your financial investment to go forward with this knowing the potential for issue?
Would you be satisfied in the end if the build is allowed to progress knowing the foundation could be a problem based on the current situation?
Can you afford the future repair if the foundation fails?

I hope for all the best here!