Just when I thought we would finally have a large project come in under budget, we got bad news about our foundation repair. When the last large repair was done four years ago, I protested vigorously that the work was shoddy. Most felt that as long as the engineer signed off on the work, we had no problems. Now we have doors that don't close tightly and walls that are cracked. The property manager at the time refused to remove the cardboard sonotubes to expose the concrete that was installed. Our new contractor has shown us the full extent of the sloppy job and it will cost a lot to correct the faults. We will likely be over budget when the corrections are made. Above you can see the cardboard being removed and also the shims that were used to compensate for not making the pier the correct height. Many of these piers will have to be removed and replaced.

When the cardboard was removed, voids can be seen that weaken the pier and allow moisture to reach the rebar which rusts and basically explodes the concrete.

These voids that are as small as this one have to be sealed at a cost of $118 each.  This is called honeycombing and is a result of not vibrating the wet concrete to reach a higher density.

They didn't come close to making this pier tall enough. All these problems were found under the first building started. I have no idea the extent of the problems under the other buildings. The contractor told me personally, at the time, that the engineer did not need to come inspect the work since they had a good working relationship.