Rant: The day we had to redo a 400-square-foot patio because the homeowner's dog dug under the footer before the concrete set.

We came back the next morning to find a 3-foot-wide crater and a very proud-looking golden retriever, which meant a full day of demo and resetting forms on what should have been a simple pour.

3 comments

3 Comments

adams.vera1mo ago

Oh come on, you've never had a simple job blow up like that? It's not about the size, it's the principle. That's a full day of back-breaking work for free because someone didn't watch their pet. Who pays for that lost time and extra concrete, the dog?

lindaburns1mo ago

Honestly a 400 square foot patio is a pretty small job. One extra day of work for a dog being a dog doesn't seem like the end of the world. It's just concrete, not a foundation for a skyscraper. The dog was probably just having fun and didn't know any better. Stuff like this happens on job sites all the time.

terryb1123d ago

That's exactly the thing though (and you're right Linda, it's not a skyscraper) but this kind of stuff is a perfect example of how people treat "simple" work like it's disposable. It's the same pattern with a plumber fixing a leaky faucet that turns into a corroded pipe nightmare, or a mechanic chasing an electrical gremlin for hours. Everyone expects the quick fix, but nobody budgets for the stupid stuff like a dog digging a hole where it shouldn't. The real issue is that we've all gotten used to thinking of labor as flexible and free, like time just expands to cover unexpected nonsense. So the homeowner sees a small patio, but the concrete guy sees a whole day of his life and his crew's wages literally getting flushed down a dog's crater. It's the principle of respecting someone else's schedule and paycheck, not just the square footage.