Rant: That one foreman who cost me 3 days because he wouldn't use the digital layout tool

I was on a commercial foundation pour over in Denver last spring, and this old-timer foreman named Dave flat-out refused to use the robotic total station we rented. He said he'd been doing layout with a tape measure and chalk line for 30 years and didn't need no 'fancy computer junk.' Well, after he marked out the footings wrong by 4 inches, we had to chip out 12 yards of wet concrete and re-form the whole thing. Lost three full days and about $2,000 in extra labor and materials. That experience stuck with me because sometimes the biggest tech barrier on a site isn't the equipment, it's the person refusing to use it. Has anyone else dealt with a stubborn crew member who almost sabotaged a job by ignoring new tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas_price2d ago

Wait, was the concrete already wet when they had to chip it out?

olivia_white932d ago

Are you sure it wasn't just a bad batch of concrete that never set right? Sometimes they have to chip out stuff that's been sitting for months if it didn't cure properly. I've seen crews come back to a job site weeks later because the concrete was still soft in spots, and that's way harder to fix than when it's fresh.

nancy_wood1d ago

Olivia_white93, I gotta push back a little because I've watched crews intentionally demolish fresh concrete hours after it was poured just to redo a foundation layout that was off by three inches, and that was never a curing issue. Sometimes it's just a mistake in the pour and they'd rather rip it out while it's still wet than deal with the headache of it later.