Opinion about welder I hired (HELP!)

[smithdoor]

You hire a rod burner
It shows he did not know what he was doing.
It takes skil and time to do job right.
That is basic fence work.

I hope did not pay for labor
Now find a good welder and get job done right.

Dave

To answer one question - he is being paid by a bid we agreed and signed a contract on. I have pointed to a few things and said "FIX THAT" and it has been done, but IMO, I should not have had to say it. As an amateur welder (SUB amateur.. ) even I know that is not acceptable practice.

I found a couple of pics. In first pic on left you can see only partially welded rails, and on right you can see the three rails that have been left open on the top end, and welded closed on the bottom end, which basically makes them water holders.

In the second pic, you can see the open ends on the bottom of the stair stringer. WHISKEY. TANGO.. FOXTROT???

Attachment 1717806
Attachment 1717807

[tapwelder]

Rail on top of the stringer would eliminate the need for plugs. It looks easy enough to accomplish. I don't think it looks bad depending on your perspective. I think it is/looks incomplete. Not knowing your region those open areas could be big issues in the future.

It actually looks like he cut the level on the tubing the realized it was not going to sit on the face of the post.

If it doesn't bother you, then just plug the holes.

I was taught never take an unfinished part to.a.job.site for this reason. It looks worst than it is. I.presume he is building onsite. So you/we see it naked, without editing.

[leightrepairs]

I think the answer to your question would be in the contract you signed with who ever is doing the work. Does this document spell out the requirements for all the joints to be seal welded? Who, according to the contract is responsible for the design, the creation of the "water holders" is a design issue. Are there any drawing as a part of the contract, these would be helpful in determining who needs to pay for the corrections, you or the welder. If the wording of the contract is vague and or unclear as to these details I would advise working with the welder in a friendly fashion to resolve the differences, which might even require paying a little extra.

[shovelon]

I think the answer to your question would be in the contract you signed with who ever is doing the work. Does this document spell out the requirements for all the joints to be seal welded? Who, according to the contract is responsible for the design, the creation of the "water holders" is a design issue. Are there any drawing as a part of the contract, these would be helpful in determining who needs to pay for the corrections, you or the welder. If the wording of the contract is vague and or unclear as to these details I would advise working with the welder in a friendly fashion to resolve the differences, which might even require paying a little extra.

I like to work with people in a friendly fashion. But I would ask this guy to at least shear me some caps so I could hire a professional weldor to finish the job. And not write the final check until said caps are in hand.

[123weld]

did u by chance get a pic, w/ the artist himself in it ? it looks good from a distance. look at the bright side, if you get some big buckets, maybe u can the craftsman back out, to connect it to the eves gutters, for collecting rain water.

[kolot]

Those would likely not pass an inspection from a building official or insurance carrier, aside from being unsightly, they are a hazard to catch your legs or clothing on, especially the sharp edges. no need of this. Lot of better design could be applied here even with the material available.

[Munkul]

Does it fulfil functional requirements? Yes.

Does it fulfil quality requirements? No...

I've never seen anyone think work like that is acceptable. Water traps are a no-no, full stop. Partial welds are acceptable sometimes, but not in that instance... water will drip out of those tubes and stain everything with rust in no time.

I'd tell him it's not satisfactory, on the grounds of poor design (what's going on with those stair handrail open box ends?? One winter will kill them!) poor fabrication (all box section being open to moisture ingress) and not enough weld.

If he won't fix it... pay him, get someone else to tidy it up and never use his services again.

It's plenty beefy looking, it's not going to fall apart... it just looks a mess!

[Stick-man]

Sorry... but in the real world we do hundreds of jobs every year that are done to our specs and our procedures... if we started doing things the way people with no experience wanted we'd go broke in no time at all While I don't do railings like the OP posted up I have seen plenty of work like that before on jobs... it's all in how someone does it and there wasn't proper planning on that job for sure if you wanted an aesthetically pleasing finished product... If you want something done a certain way then you had better be VERY specific about it and then see whether you like the bid... because a bid is a for them to do something their way... unless you discussed doing it a different way prior to the bid... The point is WE know how work is done most of our customers don't have a clue about how it is done period... we will gladly listen to their suggestions if they want to offer them up when we are already working on the project and sometimes we'll even be kind and tell them in a polite way why their idea won't work in the long run but sounds great!!!

The customer is only right if they are paying to be right... so if we are working on a bid amount we are right

I see your points, and I agree. While I think the pics posted of the work performed look like $hit, and I would never consider it acceptable. Unless you had a detailed print of the finished product, you're kind of at the mercy of the guys talent. I know a few awesome welders, that do things a certain way. Their way works, and is pleasing to their eyes, but I like a whole different aspect. Hopefully you can watch him and ask him, in a nice way without offense, if he could make it look like you want.

[Bls repair]

Is this up to building code specs if not it’s a do over.

[ronsii]

Is this up to building code specs if not it’s a do over.

Again... it all depends on whether or not you told him to do it to code... we look at jobs all the time and ask the customer do they want it to code?, do they need it to code? a lot of times they will get us to say we'll do the job after they say "No problems, no inspections... don't worry about codes just do it cheap!!!" then in the middle of the job they start in with the "Oh we need a special inspector for the epoxy holes.... or for the concrete mix, etc.... " and when we tell them it was not bid that way and it's gonna cost you another couple grand for an inspection they start whining and whimpering... it's pretty sad to see.... but if they had been up front and open in the first place there wouldn't have been any surprises... although you pretty much know it ain't a surprise as they knew exactly what they were doing with the bait-n-switch routine in the first place

[Bls repair]

Around here it’s up to the contractor to find out what code is and follow it . As for customer telling contractors how to build it the reply is he’s not an expert,your supposed to be

[ronsii]

Around here it’s up to the contractor to find out what code is and follow it . As for customer telling contractors how to build it the reply is he’s not an expert,your supposed to be

Not sure what kind of work you do that is REQUIRED to be always 100 percent code??? but around here and pretty much every city in a couple hundred miles of us where we also do work we do what the customer wants period! we 'inform' them of issues we see when they don't want to follow codes that we know about... but other than that we're not going to be a nazi and turn them in for wanting to save a buck on their own property. Same thing with permits.... if it's not in our bid it's not included... says so right in black-n-white we let them know if they want to pay us to get permits we'll be more than happy to do it... but it's gonna cost them!!! because we aren't permit getters!! some customers are fine with that... some will get their own... and some don't care to spend more and time on something they see as unneeded

Kind of funny how you say the contractor is the expert because I would wager that more than half the customers we deal with aside from the big corps we do major work for are 'The Experts' and they have no problem telling us so these are the kind we do NOT offer our knowledge to as it is probably different than theirs and thus wrong and we certainly would not want to offer up wrong knowledge

[ronsii]

Kinda funny but we are supposed to look at a few railing jobs tomorrow and I can just about say with 99 percent certainty they will NOT go with the price for 'To code" railings!!! they instead will want me to copy what a lot of the other guys are doing for ramps

If for some weird reason they actually do want to go code I will post back here and let you know though

[ezduzit]

...he is being paid by a bid we agreed and signed a contract on...
As an amateur welder (SUB amateur.. ) even I know that is not acceptable practice...
Attachment 1717806
Attachment 1717807

That is really ugly work.

You should have provided at least a sketch of what you expected and not gone with lowest bidder. Now that he has finished the job it is a little late to point out how it should have been constructed.

Since you know how to weld, perhaps you can work it over so it is marginally acceptable.

[123weld]

To be completely fair... This is a pic of part of the nearly finished product, and I am mostly thrilled with it. But I am paying for it, and I want what I want. It wouldn't be as nice as it is if I had not been picky about the previously mentioned problems.
Attachment 1717808

well, the owner is "mostly thrilled about it", and he thinks the problem area(s) are "nice" , due to his pickiness. hey, sounds like everyone got paid and what they wanted, so its a happy ending