It would be interesting to know why the concrete is disintegrating. As
an architect, the only thing I can tell you is to get the work redone
100%. Patching it with another product will not prevent the concrete
underneath to desintegrate. They're just hoping to buy some time and
hide what will happen next. Add a few more cycles of frost/defrost and
your concrete will become sand... and not support anything anymore.
What you don't see doesn't hurt you... You paid for it, you deserve to
get something in return...

In reminds me my own house after a water infiltration damage in the
kitchen. I had a weak point on the roof and I must had a hundred
liters of water that leaked in the exterior wall. The gypsum board
bubbled everywhere... The insurance guy came and he was proposing to
just "glaze" the walls and repaint. He was pretending the inside of
the wall will dry and be just fine. I didn't accept his proposition
and asked to have the whole wall torn down and redone. They accepted
after I threated them to bring them to court. When I opened up the
wall I had mold all over the place. Duh!

In your case, my best bet would be to have from now on everything in
writing from everybody involved. Ask for a written proposal from the
company who made the concrete post. Next, hire an independant
consultant (architect, engineer, etc.) to get another "point of view".
Compare and use that to force the company to do the correction or
else... it will end up in court.

Good luck.

Ben




"Andy" wrote in message . ..
I recently discovered a problem with my new deck's foundation and was hoping
you folks might have some advice on how to proceed.

Last year, I built a conventional 22' x 14' x 2'high single level deck. I
hired a local company to drill and fill with concrete the eight posts I
required for the foundation.

This year, I noticed that 5 of the 8 posts are disintegrating. The concrete
is was clearly not mixed correctly and can be easily broken apart with a
screwdriver. The remaining three posts appear to be OK. The posts extend
four feet under ground level and about 2 inches above ground level.

I am attempting to get the original company that drilled and set the posts
to fix the problem, but what they are proposing doesn't sound like a
solution to me. They want to put a layer of hydraulic cement around the tops
of the post to prevent further decay.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what could be done to salvage the
project?

Thanks!
Andy