Off The Deep End Pools - Patrick Carter

I received his name from a neighbor. Patrick Carter provided an estimate with all of the details including an 8" slab for the garage floor. When I accepted him to do the job, he began to push me to do the foundation differently than I originally ask for. I wanted a traditional footers, block, and slab; he said his concrete guy was pushing to do a monolithic (one-piece) foundation/slab all poured at one time. This discussion went on for several days, and I asked many questions about the footers that would result. I finally agreed; that was my first mistake. He wrote up a follow-up invoice and left off the the thickness of the slab. Afterwards, he said it would be 6" at a stronger concrete mix than what he had originally stated. I was OK with that. Later, when the concrete contractor built the forms, I pointed out the I thought it might be a little shy of the full 6". I had use a cheap $15 laser level that my wife held at the to of the wood while I measure several places to get an idea of the depth. He assured me it would be 6" and explained that they use the inside board as a guide. Next day when his concrete contractor did the job. Patrick practically begged to give him the payment before the guys were half way done so he could pay them; sadly, I trusted him and gave him the money. Afterwards, I saw that he was leveling the concrete up to 3 inches below the top of the board. I told Patrick that it was way too thin, it was not 6" as we agreed, it was closer to 3". He went out and stuck his fingers in the slab and told me he thought is was maybe 4 1/2 inches and acted like I should be OK with that. He never did anything about it, and I knew I was in trouble now. After He put the block up, I stopped him from going any further, and said the slab is not right and must be fixed. He agreed to to cut out the slab and fix it and he begged me to give him the money for the framing so he could have enough to fix the slab. He had the framing delivered and then refused to fix the slab after he had the money. I hired an attorney who ended up finding out that Patrick Carter was NOT even a licensed contractor as his business card claimed and he told me. I hired another contractor to finish the job, and we diamond cut and jack-hammered the slab. We found areas that were as low as 1-1/2 inch thick. About 25% of the slab was NOT even to the county codes of 3-1/2 inches minimum. Now I'm facing bringing him to court after the job is complete as he's made many false claims deflecting any responsibility. Thankfully, I have plenty of emails to show the communication. UPDATE: I took Patrick Carter to county court and won the case for $8400. With interest, the judgement continues to grow. I have not seen a dime from him; he moved his money out of the bank he was using from my canceled checks; he won't respond to communications. I filed the judgement with the county.