The pouring of concrete can be a strange thing. Often we may think the pouring of concrete is no big thing. After all, we see construction workers pouring concrete all the time. So, what’s the big deal?
At McFall Masonry, we are almost always ready to pour concrete. In fact, right at this moment, we have one large concrete pour ready to be laid, and 2 projects almost ready for a concrete pour. Today, we were suppose to pour concrete for a large driveway, and we have been pouring this project for a while. The crews at McFall masonry were on their way to the job this morning, getting ready to pour concrete we had ordered for late morning. It’s springtime, so we can get the spring storms at any time and any day, which we did slightly overnight. We had rain around us, but not where we were going to pour and the direction of the rain seemed to be moving away from the job. The weather reports said the rain was over until maybe later this evening, with temperatures around 80 degrees. The concrete would be well dry by the time it would rain again, so what’s the problem?
At McFall Masonry, experience must take over at this point. Owner Dan McFall has 35 years of experience with this, and our lead man Jeremy has 18 years of experience with concrete. That’s a cumulative 53 years of experience. So why not pour concrete with all that experience?
At 6am, Jeremy and I were are discussing things, watching the news, weather apps, etc. and all looked good. After discussion, our instincts kick in and we decide to cancel the concrete pour. Three hours later, the storm pattern shifts and it begins to rain, then the flash flood warnings hit. Had we begun pouring the concrete, we would have had $2000.00 worth of concrete ruined, plus the labor expense of taking it all out and starting over again.
At McFall Masonry, we realize that we are responsible for the workmanship of your project, we own it until it’s complete,and we are completely responsible for judgment on all work performed at your home. Now, I will admit the customer wasn’t very happy when we cancelled, but I explained the reasoning that we’ve made hard decisions like this before. The customer wasn’t pleased at the moment because they were trusting the forecast and we were trusting our instincts. Well, to say the least, the customer is now happy that we cancelled concrete for the day.
At McFall Masonry, we have many years of experience, and we ask our customers to trust our judgment when in the construction process. I realize it’s cliché, but we probably have seen it all.
