Hit my first snag...
I've been asking around about a concrete person to do my slab for the garage, and found a guy by the name of Mike Smith with Custom Concrete Services who seemed to come highly recommended. So I contacted him to get the ball rolling.
Mike stopped by here last week and I told him what I wanted. 30x50 foot slab for a prefab metal building (garage/shed) with a 20 ft apron. He quoted a total price of $11K, which I thought was kind of high, but he comes highly recommended and I accepted it. After the hand shakes and words spoken about how we are both men of our word and no money needed to change hands then, he agreed to come by today and start setting up the forms while we waited for the permit (which I am working on now).
Well, he shows up this morning promptly at 8am and asks if I have anything showing the actual dimensions of the slab. I had gotten a preliminary foundation drawing on Monday from SteelMaxBuildings (this was prior to the
soil borings being sent to them), so I showed that to him. Seriously, I thought Mike was going to have a stroke. Started going on about how the foundation was WAY overkill and WAY more than what he was expecting to have to do. Now I don't know this stuff from a hill of beans, but all I do know is that I am trying to get a darn building put up and I believe the designers of the building might know something about the pad and foundation they recommend for it. So once Mike started telling me that he needed more money for that slab, I just told him to pack it up. So much for the talk of
the handshake and a deal, I guess. I would like to think the best of the guy, but honestly I felt like I was being hustled and I was not going to agree to pay more money for a job already agreed upon.
So back to square one now with this part of the plan.
Got a packet of stuff from the permit office, and this looks like it is going to be a pain in the butt as well. Lord help anyone doing something major like building a house. No damn wonder that construction is down. Probably from so many contractors going insane from the hoops they need to jump through.
So now I just got off the phone from the place supposed to do the building erection (G&L Steel Buildings) out of Quincy. There is something in the permit packet I got saying that all contractors (sub-contractors?) must be licensed in Wakulla County if they are going to be doing work in Wakulla County). So they called there to find out about it and the owner (Lucia) said that the person on the phone was just downright rude to her. Didn't want to even listen to what she was trying to say. Yeah, I saw a hint of that myself. The people in that office seem to have a chip on their shoulder for some reason. You know the type, I'm sure. More interested in trying to find things to stop you from doing what you want rather than helping you get it accomplished with the minimum of hassle and headaches.
Going to be fun....
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