Is gps an excuse for no skills?

[lgammon]

i just got done with a little job grading around a building. the grading contractor used gps dozer to grade the site and put in his contract that he would only grade from 10 feet out side of the building and beyond. i spent three days with a mini ex and a skid steer making sure the water drained away from the building and in to the yard drains. i was blown away with the fact that they didn't see this as there job. i feel sure that this was over looked when the gc accepted there bid. it seems that they had no idea how to grade any thing, and they left a young kid and the gps dozer to do it. is this what gps means in the future? that you just have to do the big wide open areas and the fine work is someone elses problem?

[JimBruce42]

Sounds more like a lazy contractor/operator than an excuse for a lack of skills. I can't believe that they would just leave the pad without making sure water would run off it. Sounds like a lack of pride in their work and product. Hopefully for you it's an exception to the rule.

[stock]

Was this work included in the process of works or bill of quantities? It might have been assumed by the design team that the contractor would do this work, but never issued drawings or instructions for it to be done so the contractor might have only done work that he was paid for........

[biggrader]

May have been they didnt have small enough equipment to do the final grading next to a building. Probably not the best idea to run next to a building with a d8 or such. or it could be what JimBruce said? One never knows.

[lgammon]

we are a small grading company. our biggest machine is a 953, surly if you have d8 and bigger you would have a few small trim dozers or even a 320 around that you gould fix that last 10 feet with. just seems like a really crappy thing to sneak into a contract for no reason.

[vapor300]

This happens all the time, and its not the grading outfits problem, its whoever designed the jobs problem. We get paid to finish it to whatever model they gave us, we dont get paid for that extra stuff. We are actualy having that problem now, the design they gave us puts are parking lots and roads 4 feet under the grade all around them, so all there streets and parking lots are going to be under water come time to put rock in them??? Now is that are fault??? And we are doing 4 parking lots and the road is around a mile long, what are we supposed to do spend a day with a hoe cutting weep holes in it??? And we would have to cut 4 foot weep holes!

[djkeev]

Most likely he has collapsed a foundation at some point in the past with the vibration and weight of his machine. Stay 10 feet back from the new building, no collapse. He needs to get a smaller machine for this work. Sorry you got the short end of that contract!!

Dave

[Davvinciman]

Was this work included in the process of works or bill of quantities? It might have been assumed by the design team that the contractor would do this work, but never issued drawings or instructions for it to be done so the contractor might have only done work that he was paid for........

If process of work is like "Scope of work", that is what will define what the contractor, any contractor, has to do. It doesn't matter if his machine is too big. He would have to rent one to do the work required. Were there a lot of obstructions that kept him from finishing around the building? Risers from utilities that had not been cut off? Even that would not matter if it is in the scope of work (which is what we call it where I am). I had to work a street with risers that had not been cut off and the previous pipe contractor refused to do it until later. Cost me a lot because I had to handwork all those areas.

[KSSS]

Someone should have thoroughly read the bid. If that contractor put in his bid that his scope of work started 10' away from the building and the GC accepted this provision by hiring him for the job, then its hardly the fault of the contractor. Sometimes if the excavator who dug for the building is not the same that does the parking lot or exterior work there has to be a division of work somewhere. It is the GC's responsibility to ensure that the entire scope of the project is covered. Apparently in this case it was not, did they hire you to fill this gap or did you dig for the building and got stuck making up the difference? Did they pay you for this or did they twist you to give it to them? You seem a little bent over it, heck follow this guy around and pickup the ball he apparently likes to drop. Three days with a couple pieces of equipment is a decent little job.

[Davvinciman]

Someone should have thoroughly read the bid.

You got that right. Contracts are the biggest "bone of contention" because everyone will read them differently. One GC I graded for wanted me to do the offsite work and claimed it was in my contract. I pointed to the place where it said "...no offsite work was included...". He said, Yah, the offsite work is included.
You have to give him an A for effort.

[fiat41b]

gps does not always work close to buildings interference of satelites you have to have 7

[dirtfan]

Guys, I have seen almost every scenario that you can think of, over the past 40 years. And believe it or not, every situation that each of you have described has probably happened.
I have seen exclusions for everything from no gravel installed in the base for the roadway, to no topsoil in the yard areas. (Never could figure out how that guy ever finished a job)
My advice is, when you bid a job with multiple grading contractors on it, which if there is more that one, there will always be some gray areas that no one thought of at bid time. Be sure to put in your own exclusions and pricing for extra work.

As far as GPS, it is a great tool in the right hands. A great time saver. But it is like any other computer program that was ever put in use. (GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT) It is essential that an experienced person build the model to the detail requirements of the job. This usually takes someone with some operating experience that understands what the machines are capable of.

[firebird380hp]

yep the system is no better than the info. put in it......if you dont know what it's suppose to look like when it's finished your screwed.