Anyone in the buissness should keep better track of the weather!!!! Was your builder PUSING to get the job done! The blame does not always go where it needs to. Although the concrete guy should have known about the weather!!!! Sounds like your buddy is right! That concrete was hard long before they got back. Water cured concrete is the hardest!! That picture framing you are talking about are control joints to help hide movement and cracking!!

There is a good cahnce the crew did the best they possibly could for conditions.

There is no way in Hell that they can control the weather! Anytime I here this it is usually from somebody sitting behind a desk and not working in weather. suprises come up from the weather man all the time.

and it is entirely opossible that it was still trowelable the next morning. I have troweled crete a couple times the next AM when the temps are low so the set time is slowed. Trowelable, broomable, surface does not mean it is workable deeply enough to runthe edges with a turnoer trowel, if that is what he meant by framing.

And after all this - if there is a reason to replace it, the unreasonable neighbor who compplained to the cops is the one who should be sued to bear the burden of cost. When crete is opoured and a crew is willing to work all hours of the night to get it right, they should not be punished for the work of aan idiotic neighbor.

Excellence is its own reward!

Thanks for the replies. I talked to the builder and I told him that I couldn't live with it the way it was. I told him that I wanted it ripped out. He didn't even blink and said ok. I guess when you're spending around 240K for a house, it needs to be right. As far as the weather, I think it was a poor decision to pour in a murky misty day when rain was inevitable. I think no matter how much me or the subs or the realtor or mortgage broker, or anyone *****ed and moaned, the builder should have rescheduled the pour. I think thats what happens when you try and rush to beat a closing. Funny thing is, today I ran into a new neighbor while looking at the house, and after I told him that the driveway had to be repoured, he said that he had thought it was such a pretty house to have a crappy driveway. :-) Anyway, I'm sure there is more to the story, about why the police, neighbor would run off the mexican workers without knowing that they were supposed to be there. Why the workers never called the sub? and a hundred other questions. I guess the builder could go after the sub, the neighbor or the police, but that is his decision and not mine. The only thing that I know is that if I have problems down the road, I will pay for it. If they replace it now, then they pay. Its actually an easy choice when you think of it that way. I still wonder if he would have ever told me.... I think the builder must know that its crappy, because he didn't even blink when I told him I wanted it ripped out. I would have expected him to talk me out of it. I still wonder also about the edging. If the crete was too hard to edge, than how could he have gotten the finer particles (cream) to the surface with a trowel. I think I can't go wrong with the advice of my builder friend...If in doubt, rip it out.

easier to see it that way with more information.

I hope that neighbor likes the sound of the jackhammers

Excellence is its own reward!

I'm in the trades and many times the weather looked fine only to turn on us. We have worked late to get the job done and 90% of the time neighbors were understanding. I wonder if the police had the common sense to have seen the situation the workers were in and even tried to reason with the neighbor. I expect you will hear from this neighbor again in the future when the kids make a little noise or step on his grass. Ordinances usually will not allow work that late at night but common sense is something this country is lacking more and more.

Ron