Off the Job

Willson/Bailey pulled off the job a while ago, as noted. As of two weeks ago, Scott Bailey has sent us a letter telling us he will not complete the job (for which we have a fixed-bid contract) unless we pay him an additional $126,000, and even then he would not actually finish the work, reducing the scope of work significantly and leaving off structural strapping required by the engineering drawings, not to mention putting in a foundation design that is not safe according to our geotechnical engineer.

Most importantly, when Scott Bailey pulled off the job, he took his sign down from our front porch. Maybe it's because he's ashamed of how the worksite looks. I would be.

That's one heck of a steep back step.

There's the pile in the back yard. It's shrunk in recent weeks, running off in the rain into the pit under the house.

Some of it has slumped to the side. The rubble mixed in seems to be stabilizing it.

So do the weeds growing all over it, but we don't see much point in mowing or weeding the pile.

There's a smaller pile out front, from which neighbors have been helping themselves to sand.

And bricks. I know everybody tells us to save the bricks because they are precious golden things, but they're in bad shape, it's too much work to clean them up, a process which will make them be in worse shape, and bricks are actually pretty cheap to buy when you need them.

One of the things that makes me most angry is that there are piles of materials around, materials that in theory we have paid for, rusting and rotting. And Scott tells us he can't afford to finish the job.

The water has subsided in the upper parts of the soil, but it was an exceptionally wet winter as predicted, so it's not all gone.

There are still sand boils in the excavation. Our geotechnical engineer believes the water problem was exacerbated by using heavy equipment on delicate soil under wet conditions.

Noel mentioned this one last week: the water is pooling in the tarps. This seems to be the least of our problems, but it sure is not comforting.

Have I mentioned that Willson/Bailey left debris all over the place? The site is a mess, and we have seen no evidence that anybody has come by to check on the conditions since Scott walked off the job.

So what's going on, anyway? Right now we have consulted with a lawyer who specializes in construction law. He has sent Scott a letter asking for documentation of the alleged massive losses on the cost of the excavation. We have not heard from Scott in response to the letter, yet, but ideally he will get a lawyer to read over the contract and change orders and that lawyer will talk some sense into him, or at least explain exactly what he's contracted to do and what his possible losses will be if we go have to go to court.

posted by ayse on 05/23/05