Demo floor means exactly that. Didn't he know the floor was concrete when he looked at the job or when he put that in writing?

How is he planning to remove the pan and beams with concrete on top of it?

Was this a "lowballed" estimate to get a foot in the door? How big is the area that it will cost 10k to remove and repour new floor?

It's about 22x12ft.

Contractor is stating he did not know it was concrete or at least he didn't know it was 4inches thick. He says demo floor meant remove the tile to expose the sub floor. As homeowners however we knew it was a concrete slab and that's part of the reason we wanted it down.

This is part of a bigger project with this contractor and in all honesty a lot more time and discussions were put into the other part (kitchen). Very little time was spent discussing sunroom as it seemed pretty straightforward.

When pressed about the pan and beams he says he's going to put a new pan under the old one. They are saying the rust on the beams is just superficial and with the proper support and adding

beams it will be fine. While it sounds like a horrible idea to me, if a structural engineer passes it off should we as homeowners be ok with it? The more I research concrete slabs on 2nd floors the more I see it's not necessary a horrible idea. But is this different because it's 4inches? and because it's floating and exposed to elements more so than an interior room?

*Pics had a mind of their own as far as where they got inserted*

In the heat of the moment he threw out 10k. The project manager doesn't think it will be that much but he says it is definitely not in the quote we were given. He estimates more like 5K for the manual labor to move concrete to dumpster as well as the number of dumpsters we will need.

If it were your house, what would you do?

Thank you yet again for any insight. This is our first project of this scope.

Following.

First things first: Engineering report. You need that baby to give you an idea as to where you are going. And where you are starting from is going to dictate the COST of the project.

To be fair, demolition of "flooring" usually means to take off the existing FLOORING to the level of the SUBFLOOR (which currently is 4" of concrete). Subfloor preparation means CORRECTING the subfloor for minor damage/leveling....not full removal nor replacement. That would be demolition to the STUDS (or metal pan in this case). A complete REMOVAL of the "element" (the structure) and then a complete rebuild is a very different event and would have been spelled out in detail.

It may be possible to add a new pan underneath, clean up the posts, deal with the footings (structural engineer needs to deal with this as well) and remove the existing flooring for $10K. It may not be possible to do ANY of it for any price. It all hangs on the engineer's report.

The report is needed. But be aware that the report can CHANGE the SCOPE of the project. And any change of scope/project (driven by a report or by the homeowner's "will") must accept a new bid/price for that part of the project. The builder must be allowed to change the cost of the project as demanded by engineering reports. It's not the builder's fault that the scope of a project changed. Therefore the homeowner should allow a "change order" to take place.

Don't panic yet. You have chosen this builder for many reasons. S/he is not necessarily out to gouge you. S/he is only trying to cover costs and make a small profit to continue making a living in this industry.

Have the engineer come out and assess what is going on and what needs to be done to make sure you home is safe and secure and ready to pass code inspection. Once that report is in place, the builder can bid on the new scope of the sunroom project.

As the homeowner you can then decide on whether or not to move forward with the added costs (if any).

You might just find the builder will come up with a decent solution for a decent price. Which is part of why you chose to work with him/her in the first place. Give him/her the benefit of the doubt. It is too early to speculate as to a "bait and switch" tactic (which I do NOT think this is).

Thank you for your advice. It is actually good to hear that we had the "flooring" term incorrect. We were starting to doubt our contractor but it sounds like this misunderstanding could still be completely innocent and not us being taken advantage of. Again, I appreciate your time in writing the above advice.