Competing against Lowball sh❌tty Contractors

so here's a fun fact the space shuttle has an estimated 29 different Million Parts and it's assembled and put together by the lowest bidder and that also goes for the roads and bridges that you travel on every day and the retaining wall that you're about to see in this video before we got [Music] there all right good morning everybody today we're going to be ripping out this this wall all it and this wall over here here we got everything roped off ConEd off so that way everyone can be safe if this wall is all coming out or it's just going to come in around these Corners in and then this one's going to go all the way to the basically out to the end end of this walk path right here so there's going to be a wall yeah High all the way down until it dives off but just so they can flatten this out make it a little more easier there to manage then these pillars are coming out they're they're not going to be in there it's just going to be straight flat wall along curving in and and back on each of these and then this wall is going to come around here and then do the same thing as this one just Dives back into into here so that's this morning's thing so whenever they get over here we got to get equipment and all that other stuff pulled up here and then we'll start tearing into it and then hopefully this giant flag pole all stays in place all right so we're trying to get some of this mulch out of the way and we've basically dug down 10 in yeah at least 10 in worth of mulch in here and and a Pap thing around that around their flag pill bugs pouring out of there no they put a base under it yeah a little bit little bit of a base oh hey look at you big boy come on Sam's save the Frog program uh you're that much below the cap top of the cap I was hoping for a little lower cuz I got a 10 estimated wall here not a 44 but the way they did this when I measured it I thought it was a block sticking out of the like like the second block but you know is it level yeah so we want to go with top of the we want to get it we can go a little lower than that I suppose so if we got 6 in [Music] Buried end up with a 4T wall what was that 4 locking a tried to do if we did a 3 10 wall burying a full block this is where we'd be so we' be uh couple inches lower than that sidewalk you know the the c meeting up with the same elevation as the sidewalk Yeah Yeah well yeah but that doesn't so it's a goofy height for our for our block all right so we were digging trying to find bottom of the mulch and we found that they have it tied in with cabling and holding the wall up it's probably why this side hasn't destabilized now we're kind of just trying to find bottom of this flag pole here yeah I thinking this would be deeper but I don't know that it is this is really uh tied into some kind of metal plate you never know what people do before you get here you know no that's [Music] first yeah that that's that's running right into that well we start on that other side then and leave this for now got to do something Goofy with this flag pole well it's got to be 4 feet Le they'd go beneath the frost L yeah but if you go 4 ft that still kind of gets us down into our [Music] wall oh that's just an IH hook right there we could put a wrench on that and bust that right off well it's just tied into this uh this block is all I just you know I don't know if this is not very deep and then they just anchor it with a certain amount of weight I don't know I've never put in a flag pole or really worked the flag PS that's the bottom of [Music] it that never worked for flag P bottom well it could be not the bottom it could be there cuz they're just anchoring it with a clevis right there so we could easily take that out [Music] but you think the flag pull and the wall went in at the same time possibly proba yeah they probably could have been but I sure as hell don't want that thing falling back to the [Music] school no this is definitely or messing up the flag pole right that's a good pull well yeah but if anything if like see if we could lay it down gently or something if it does come out or whatever that's looking like it's the bottom unless that's just a ridge and it goes deeper look at that see it goes deeper it's kind to be 4 ft Yeah well yeah it's got to be below that at least below the frost heave yeah cuz otherwise you did heave it it would be he we got to dig a foot back and all the way down to the [Music] ground are they replacing this sidewalk as well no so we're probably going to have probably going to be undermining this one packing it back up too I'm just going I'm going to talk to Cole about the wall Heights you know that's why I was trying to hook the laser up again but retaining walls are structures that need to be engineered and have to be built to a very strict standard otherwise they are set up to fail and what you're looking at with this one is a complete failure right from the moment they finished building that retaining wall let me explain they physically connected that flag pull to that retaining wall why I don't know but the big no no that I do know is you can never and I mean never physically connect a retaining wall to any other structure you can't butt a retaining wall up to a house a building or a structure and tie it in because a retaining wall is completely different than a CMU wall a concrete masonry unit wall a retaining wall is designed to float a concrete masonry wall is designed to not move it has mortar it's adhered together it's stuck together like glue and if that wall Floats or moves that mortar cracks and the wall goes into a state of failure that's why a CMU wall needs a deeper Frost foating if there's Frost heave but a retaining wall on the other hand is designed to allow the blocks to slightly move and undulate with the frost heave and the changing of the seasons and to go right back into shape if they get out of shape but to do that successfully means that the retaining wall itself has to be built properly in the first place that means the right geogrid the right base material the right drainage aggregate the right structural fill behind it all of these things have to work in unison to create a retaining wall that can withstand the pressure of moving and that means that that that retaining wall although it's allowed to move and groove and to float and to do whatever it wants to do can't be tied to something else because now you've taken all the principles of the engineering of that retaining wall and you've made them null and void and I've seen this time and time and time again if you are a retaining wall contractor and you want to start building retaining walls over 4 feet tall for your own sake please and thank you take some in engineering courses understand some basic geoengineering so that as you as you're building the wall up you understand soil Dynamics how to compensate for clay soil versus sand soil gravel how to understand what a surcharge on the back of a retaining wall is how to build a retaining wall that has a slope on it or to have any kind of pressure or to have a double Terrace retaining wall there's a lot lot lot that goes into these retaining walls and the average length landscaper is skinning by and not doing his homework and due diligence before tackling projects like this and what you just seen with that flag pole is an example all right so after very great discussion theyve decid they have decided that they want flag pole gone and and so we got to wait till all the kids and stuff are gone at around 1 or 1 or two to be able to actually get it down cuz they want to try and save the pole so we're going to have to do some very gentleness but that one they want that gone and then we're going to we're going to rip out the wall feel this moving when he loosens it yeah I know I could feel it moving too so I think the Wall's going to collapse on me and then the flag pole is going to fall yeah yeah flag pole come that way wall goes that way squish Bruce in the center oh yeah that's exactly what they're definitely using it to hold up the wall man yeah oh hey Cole and another guy out here the flake pole is tied in with the wall with metal bracing and they want to take the flake pole out now but they're they don't want to do it till about 1:00 so we can still tear our wall out and start basing on the other side I said the day it's paid for the wall is going to be I don't know man I don't I don't really know she struggles to lift anything really she's about good she's about she's geared for pushing that's about it I almost want to push on the push on the wall a little bit with the loader just to get release some tension on that for you so it's like for how much you're screwing out of it you should be already out of the out of the other side of that club we the that thing is just fighting you the whole way that's what I say I think that that wall has tension on it that's why she's being a coming I don't know yeah I feel this wall moving every time you loosen that so that anchor is definitely holding this wall up hopefully the pole ain't moving backwards I haven't really looked at that can't say I've ever anchored a wall to something I know we've done where we've anchored garages garage walls to soil behind it cuz the wall was blowing in why don't why don't you get out of there Bruce I'll we'll push a little bit on the wall here and it'll it'll let go but then this whole Wall's probably going to fall this direction cuzz if if it's under that much tension it's not under a great deal of tension no but enough can you back that excavator up real quick case this wall CL which ex oh the you could actually see the wall moving as Bruce was loosening it up anyway that's not the worst case scenario I've ever seen I'd say one of the worst ret painting walls that I've ever seen I got bid I got beat out on a bid on a job in St Paul Minnesota it was just a residential project and I happened to be in the neighborhood and I was doing other work other development work and so I stopped by the project to see what the company was doing that beat me on this retaining wall Bid And what I found out so I bid the wall to put in versalock standard units 6 in of Base 12 plus in of drainage a get behind it pinning the blocks together putting a cap unit on gluing it in place and doing that whole riger roll Excavating demolition the whole nine yards what it came out and found out that the other contractor that beat me was doing was they were using a CMU unit concrete masonry unit they were dry stacking it so these are hollow blocks and they were just sticking one h no mortar just sticking one hollow block on top of the other but they had no drainage aggregate behind the wall and nothing below the wall they were just slapping it on pure dirt this was retaining wall that was meant to last at best that summer because the first free free St cycle that Frost heave is going to move those blocks and they're going to pop off and since there was nothing adhering one block to the next block that wall was going to be in a mess Down Below in fact I even filmed it and in fact I got threatened to be sued if I didn't take that video down so if you one of my longtime subscribers and you remember way back in the day I showed verbatim step by step everything that this other company was doing I even blurred out their faces well that video I had to remove or I was going to get sued over it but let's get back to this project [Music] all right so now we're going to remove the flag pole look here we got Deo we got the Kabota skid and we got their their big loader are here to do use for the bottom cuz it's a lot of concrete on the bottom I guess I got to go back but yeah so we're going to catch it this whole thing is going to be probably live H so if you're watching this with me it looks like Timmy's the pitchure in the excavator and Alex is The Catcher in the skid loader I wonder if that's how they normally operate [Music] now this this move is actually a little harder than it Timmy's making it look because as the Pole's coming down he's manipulating the thumb so that it's not pinching it or bending the pole just in case somebody like one of you guys wants a giant flag pole come get it [Music] now [Music] well they at the end of it [Music] hey that's the biggest fishing pole I ever s like oh who you want the bucket of the loader I think that'd be a lot [Music] easier want you to LIF your bucket in the ha [Music] the motor can you walk it over there you want me to throw in the motor or you want me to try walking it over [Music] there don't want toop it on I take take like that just put her in rabbit and the grass hey hey put it it on the on the parking lot wanted it on the grass going to roll right down that Hill if you [Music] problem we got the pole not so much the end kind of uh what you call it a steel plate or something plate right there yeah the whole thing is just deteriorated inside there it's just you can see how loose it is they want it out I was just thinking about I know yeah P got a little scratched and lost the end of it but I think that's pretty reasonable for bringing it down without damaging too much have you guys ever gotten beat out on a bed and then went to the actual and found out what your competition was doing and you just tell me your story I want to hear your story I mean it happens in commercial construction as well I mean we are required to build to a certain set of standards and those standards are not being met even here you can see in this video they're not meeting those standards but I went out to a project in inber Grove Heights at a college and this was a massive massive retaining wall and it wasn't even one season the wall was already splitting and you could look between the cracks of the retaining wall and see that the contractor that built this 14t tall retaining wall that was hundreds of feet long used PE gravel I can't make this up so the thing is if they're cutting Corners there where else are they cutting corners and the thing is is don't do that because if that wall ever fails as soon as it's found out that you didn't Build That Wall the right way you were liable it doesn't make a difference if it's one year or 5 years or 10 years doesn't make a difference if it's past your warranty as a contractor you are required to build things the right way so these guys that are lowballing us and beating us on these bids and cutting these Corners well they're not going to be around when the phone call comes in hey what did you do so tell me your story if you've ever gone up against one of those guys what have you seen other guys doing out there that beat you on a bid let me know in the comments below but that's going to call it for this video hope you guys enjoyed going along for the ride I enjoyed taking you along for it but we're not done on this project we got a couple more of these coming down the pipeline before we wrap this project up and right now we are working on a phenomenal project I don't want to give too much away but this is really cool I just was out to the site the other day checking it out and the boys are putting so it's a work of art this is more understanding soil Dynamics engineering a geogrid how to build things the right way but the next one is more of a reflection of their soul their spirit it's so cool what they're doing but I don't want to give it away but that's it for this one God bless go get them you guys all right so we found some concrete under this and we were digging down and we found something similar on this side at least on this side though we little we'll be able to float over it we still got our foot right still about our foot foot clearance so the other side we're just going to have to got to take out or we got to do something float over the top but we're only able to float like yeah I know 2 in of class five over that box are six not class 5 3/4 3/4 but yeah we're that's just a little too that that's a little too risky for us and everything below that is super wet and nasty too so we probably need to do a oil correction all nasty just squishing not back all right so we're wrapping up for the day this project over on this side of the school is officially wrapped up Sam just got the caps on these ones finished today here and now this side is officially done and the other now we have the other side to do and that's other footage so all right