Fortress Update

Well, my highly unreliable contractor (Ruben Ponce) has done it again.

Earlier this week, through my own personal inspection and the help of a very experienced friend (Dick F.), I determined that the work done on the form and reinforcing steel for the roof was unacceptable. There were many problems. My contractor came out to my site, reviewed the list of discrepancies with me, and agreed to fix them – before the inspection scheduled for Wednesday.

Naturally, he never showed up on Monday afternoon, Tuesday, or Wednesday. But he did call me on Thursday morning to tell me that he had rescheduled the inspection for that same day (which was yesterday), and he was convinced that the work would pass inspection without any additional changes. He then said he'd still make the changes I'd requested, but I suspect that once the inspection was passed, he'd put all his efforts into convincing me to pour the roof as is.

Well, the inspector showed up yesterday, as scheduled. He did not approve the job. He found six specific discrepancies (five of which corresponded to one of the eight that I found, and one of which was a new one) that will have to be fixed before he will approve it. He also made quite a few additional criticisms of the job; things he said he'd still approve anyway, as they didn't violate any building code or regulation – but things that he would never allow on any job he was in charge of.

Sigh. So now I know that my own intuitions, and the judgment of my experienced friend, were closer to the mark than my contractor. And I still haven't been able to get my contractor out here.

Rope.
Tree.
Contractor.
Some assembly required…