The point: Isaiah Armstrong failed in every single facet of this relatively simple project, and produced stunningly bad work.

Additional Deficiencies and Timeline

Additionally, the following deficiencies with Isaiah Armstrong’s work and overall performance were noted in the following timeline:

1. When Isaiah Armstrong arrived at my house for our initial consultation on May 4, 2021, he smelled strongly of marijuana. I chose to overlook this at the time, as my opinion has always been that what people do on their own time is their business provided it does not otherwise impact their work. This, perhaps, was my very first in a chain of mistakes.

   Isaiah Armstrong also left his iPad on my back porch after the consultation, which we didn’t notice until later that evening, unfortunately after it had rained. Who leaves an expensive tablet containing all their business notes and doesn’t notice until the client contacts them?

2. Isaiah Armstrong failed to adequately communicate with me. From the time I signed the contract until his crew showed up, there was very little communication from Isaiah Armstrong, and what little happened was entirely due to me following up with him on when he would be performing the work. Isaiah Armstrong did not even contact me before showing up to begin working. The only way I knew Isaiah Armstrong had arrived was when I saw people walking around in the backyard.

3. Being that Isaiah Armstrong and his crew showed up unannounced with no communication to me as to when they would be working, I was not able to take time off work necessary to fully supervise the process. I instead had to trust that Isaiah Armstrong was competent to do the work and abide by the contract, a judgement I now see was in error, until I was able to free up availability.

4. When Isaiah Armstrong and his subcontractor arrived, they were not prepared to work.

   To begin, Isaiah Armstrong didn’t even arrive to begin work until noon. This is highly unusual, as projects like these usually begin at a relatively early time in the morning. Especially during the summer, it is common to have difficult work done early in the day before it gets too hot. Isaiah Armstrong did not even arrive at the job site until noon.

   Because Isaiah Armstrong failed to arrange a concrete delivery in advance, when he and his crew arrived on Wednesday, June 16 at noon, they then proceeded to leave to go purchase the supplies they needed. They did not actually begin working on this project until after 1pm.

   Furthermore, Isaiah Armstrong and his subcontractor did not have the tools that were required, and twice asked me to “borrow” tools, including for something as simple as a flathead screwdriver. What contractor does not have a simple toolkit with such common tools as a flathead screwdriver?

5. Isaiah Armstrong repeatedly in text messages indicated to me that he would be calling a concrete truck to deliver the concrete . However, when Isaiah Armstrong and his subcontractors showed up at my house at around noon on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, they did so without having arranged any concrete deliveries.

   When confronted about this, Isaiah Armstrong indicated that he would be purchasing bags of concrete. Isaiah Armstrong’s justification to me for this was that he didn’t want to “damage the lawn” despite me assuring him during our initial consultation on May 4, 2021 that I was not concerned about lawn damage and even indicated that there was an opening in the fence that was probably large enough to accommodate the truck.

   One of the largest reasons I decided to contract this project out was because I didn’t want bagged concrete, as I calculated that I would need roughly 141 80-pound bags of concrete to pour a 15x15 and a 3x9 slab at 4 inches, a total of 3.11 cubic yards, at which point it is cheaper, faster, more efficient and a better product to have a truck deliver ready mix to the site. This was communicated to Isaiah Armstrong during the initial consultation on May 4, 2021 that this was what I expected to be done.

   Isaiah Armstrong initially purchased 75 bags of concrete, then went back for a further “about 13” bags (as was told to me by one of Isaiah Armstrong’s crew.) Isaiah Armstrong used just 62% of the concrete that I calculated would have been required to do this job properly, which explains the poor condition of the end product.

   Additionally because Isaiah Armstrong used bags, and furthermore did not use a concrete mixer instead opting to mix the concrete in a wheelbarrow, the end product was inconsistently mixed which resulted in a rough, wavy texture to the slab and an inconsistent internal structure that will likely crack in cold weather.

   Isaiah Armstrong and his subcontractor further compounded their problems by not leveling the slabs out – most likely because they couldn’t, as due to the 2 hours Isaiah Armstrong took to get concrete three quarters of the way through what had been poured had already started to solidify.

   Additionally, concrete was not poured to the tops of the forms - again, the accepted standard practice for properly pouring concrete in situ in forms is to have the forms level, pour the concrete to the top of the forms, then smooth and level based on the forms. And as the forms used inconsistent sizes of wood, it was not possible for Isaiah Armstrong to know the depth of the slab that was being poured or be able to properly level it at all!

6. The subcontractors hired by Isaiah Armstrong argued aggressively with each other right from their first moment in my yard and in general did not display any level of trade professionalism one would expect from a professional.

7. One of the subcontractors approached me and asked about the size of the slab that they would be pouring. When I informed him that the contract specified a 15x15 slab, he seemed surprised and indicated that he had been told it would be a 15x10 slab. Isaiah Armstrong did not communicate the scope or details of the project to the subcontractors he hired.

8. When Isaiah Armstrong left to get more concrete at around 4pm, he was gone for nearly two hours despite both Home Depot and Lowes being located just 10 minutes from my house. During this time, his crew napped, including one napping on my back porch. It should be clearly noted that I do not begrudge people taking breaks, and even provided Isaiah Armstrong and his crew with a cooler of ice water at my own expense, but a 2 hour break during which the crew naps on my back porch is wholly unacceptable and speaks solely to insufficient and poor project planning.

9. When confronted about their behavior and shoddy work, Isaiah Armstrong’s crew and subcontractor became belligerent, rude and aggressive, causing me to fear for my safety as well as the safety of my wife and child.

   At this point, I called a friend who is an experienced tradesman to offer another opinion on Isaiah Armstrong’s work as well as to offer backup during a confrontation. Isaiah Armstrong’s contractor indicating that he had been “doing concrete for 20 years” and that I, as well as my knowledgeable friend, had no idea what they were talking about. As it should be clear by now from the detail of this document, this was not the case.

   After this confrontation, I opted to do whatever was necessary to avoid any further confrontations and to get them off his property as soon as possible, in a safe way, without anyone getting hurt. This meant staying inside, with the doors locked, having as few words and as minimal interaction with them as possible, and in general doing whatever was necessary to get them to leave as quickly as possible.

10. Isaiah Armstrong and his crew worked well after dark, which perhaps explains why the smaller slab was not measured properly. I estimate that they finally finished their “work” around 9pm. Due to the lack of daylight, I was not able to property inspect the work at that time, but they demanded the remaining $1,250 payment at that time. Seeing no other option and wanting them off my property as soon as possible, I issued the remaining $1,250 payment via check.

    Any belief that payment of this amount indicates acceptance of the end product that I could not even properly inspect due to lack of daylight should be seen as having been made under duress, after multiple arguments with a number of large, intimidating men with my wife and young daughter inside.

11. On the morning of June 17th, 2021, when the full extent of Isaiah Armstrong’s incompetence, breach of contract and damage to my property was revealed by daylight, I contacted Isaiah Armstrong via text message, indicating that the work was unacceptable as delivered. I also placed a stop payment on the check Isaiah Armstrong demanded the previous evening.

    Isaiah Armstrong said he would send his crew out to “do another coat.” While you can pour more concrete over existing concrete, certain conditions must be met, and given the extremely poor quality of the work, “another coat” would not have been even remotely sufficient to fix the manifold failures and would only result in further damage to my property and further financial damage to me.

    At this point, I had zero confidence in Isaiah Armstrong’s tradesmanship or ability to deliver the results promised in the contract. Therefore, I terminated Isaiah Armstrong as a contractor on this project for breach of contract and extensive damage done to the property.

12. During the process of demolition, I discovered further evidence of Isaiah Armstrong’s shoddy workmanship. Despite me having marked off the locations of the sprinkler heads in the area with red flags, Isaiah Armstrong and his crew just poured concrete over a sprinkler head. Had proper site preparation work been done, this sprinkler head could have been easily removed. But since no site preparation was done, the head as buried. They also poured concrete directly over paper bag cuttings.

13. I showed photos of Isaiah Armstrong’s work to multiple structural engineers and concrete professionals. Their responses have ranged from amusement to horror, but all confirmed my view that Isaiah Armstrong’s work is wholly unacceptable in any context, is not to code, and is definitely not to the level of work one would usually expect from a professional or even a well-versed amateur who had done the necessary research on the proper procedures for successfully pouring a concrete slab. One said he had never seen anything like this. Another said he would be surprised if the slab lasted a year.

    Indeed, Isaiah Armstrong’s performance in regards to the contract he signed with me represents a profound level of incompetence, a profound level of negligence, and a profound lack of commitment to professional standards not often seen even by experienced field engineers who routinely deal with general contractors.

    It is, in a phrase, simply stunningly bad work.