If there weren't so many, it would be kind of cute. We have leaf impressions in our driveway, and we love running across them while walking the dogs.

No advice. Don't know how you could prove whose pet it was anyway.

There are products that would allow you to put a skim coat on the concrete, they aren't too costly by themselves, but the labor to mix and spread it evenly is what costs real money.

We put tile on our front porch, but that was my labor, so it wasn't too expensive of an upgrade for us.

I think it's kinda cute. It gives the porch character.

Have the concrete ground.

The only thin coatings that stick around (especially if freezing occurs) are the epoxy ones, and even they will be lifted by freeze-thaw cycles.

Tile the porch - I know costs more money, but would also look very nice.

Bdpeck--
My DH did tile a while, and he's planning to do our bathrooms and laundry. I guess to do tile here, we'd still need to ground down the concrete? Otherwise the tile would sit too tall over the brick, right?

I too think it gives character. I don't think you should mention anything to your neighbors - there are always a stray animal or two in many a neighborhoods. I would actually like to do that deliberately for my porch. I guess I have no suggestion except for a thin layer of concrete to conver up a majority of those little padded paw prints.

Do you think your insurance will cover it? Doesn't hurt to ask.

Can the area be ground down and blended in while the concrete is still curing?
I notice you have a nice "broom finish" and I do not know if the whole porch would need to be ground so that it all looks the same.

Just knock down any high spots with a cold chisel or old flat blade screw driver that you don't care about.

Make sure you use a thinset for outdoor applications. If you're in a heavy freeze/thaw area (I'm in Charlotte, NC, area, so I didn't need to worry), then you should consider an uncoupling membrane. RedGard at Home Depot goes on like thick paint, and then you tile on top after it cures. I used it as a waterproofing step and uncoupling.

While the damage is purely cosmetic, I would be very displeased. The animal walked across it just minutes after the brooming of the surface. This post is a helpful warning to others to keep watch over fresh concrete for several hours until the surface has gotten firm. If this was a driveway, my concern would be less.

The only character I think that this shows is the character of the individuals who allow their animals to roam freely. But, that is a digression. You obviously will not receive any type of favorable outcome from a discussion with any or all of your neighbors. As was pointed out, there is no way to prove whose animal damaged your property. And, it is property damage...it's not cute.

Have you spoken with your builder/GC? I would consider this to be "vandalism" which may be covered under his insurance. I would expect that the person building my house take steps to prevent this type of occurence from happening by being on site during the pour and until the surface is firm. This was actually one of the things that we had spelled out in our contract b/c we live in the country...all pours had to have an attentive supervisor on site until such time as the surface could not be damaged by animals/people/deliveries.
Good luck.

I agree with dixiedoodle, this should be covered by the builder's insurance.

Those are wild, rabid raccoon prints.

I can tell, having seen wild, rabid raccoon prints before.

Therefor that builder's insurance policy should cover it...I've never seen one that excludes wild, rabid raccoon damage before.

you can tell it is rabid from its prints?

I think he/she was joking. Raccoon prints don't look anything like those.

I suppose I could look into the ins. policy, but not sure it would be worth the risk of increased premiums. We haven't decided how to proceed. It seems like the prints are only in the brush finish, so maybe we can sand them out. The concrete sub says they will gradually disappear (as well as the brush finish) as people walk on it. I'm not so sure. Small town, sticky situations. I hate it.

It's hard to tell from the pix, but my first impression is that the issue is more of "dirt" than impressions in the concrete. The critter had dirty feet, and from the size of the prints, I'd say the animal was small and, therefore, not too heavy. Would a powerwashing remove the dirt?

If you can see claw marks above each toe, the critter was NOT of the cat family. Cats do NOT walk with their claws extended.

For that animal to have left actual indentations, it would have had to be a somewhat heavy animal, and it would have had to have been walked on fairly soon after the pour. Concrete sets up quickly. Not so a human should walk or drive on it yet, but I wouldn't think after a few hours a dog could indent it. My husband and I have had difficulty carving our names in wet concrete with a nail, while the installer was still there cleaning things up. It sets up that quickly. Those prints are too large for a cat, and as mentioned, do not walk with claws extended.

Your builder should have, at the very least, put ropes and cones around the concrete. It still may not have prevented an animal from walking on it, but most will walk elsewhere with a barrier of some sort in place. Unless there was a steak on it.

I don't blame you for being upset. It's your new home, after all. I wouldn't say anything to your neighbors about it, since you don't know for sure if a stray animal, or wild animal for that matter, did this. You would start off with some not so nice feelings in your new neighborhood. And the way insurance companies are now, I've known of people who had premiums jacked way up, or cancelled outright, for minor claims. The time to make a claim is when something BIG happens. I find it highly unlikely that this would qualify as vandalism.

My suggestion would be to let the concrete finish curing and see how it looks. After some rain or a good hosing off, the marks will most likely fade, if not disappear. You risk opening up a can of worms if you mess with it now, and it could end up looking far, far worse. My guess is those marks are going to fade away.

I would let your builder know how upset you are. However, as pretty as the concrete looks today (minus the prints), it will age, get stains, etc. from the environment anyway. That's probably the time to think about tiling or replacing. In the whole scheme of things, if your house came out the way you wanted, that's what counts the most.

Good luck. I know how stressful building a home is.

Sandy

Sandy, You are so sweet. Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. You're exactly right about the dirt. After a few days, we've noticed that it doesn't look as bad. If you rub the prints w/ your foot, some of them will even go away all together. I think we're going to take a "wait and see" approach. You're right, raising cain with everyone won't solve it. If this remains the worst of our problems, we're doing pretty well, right? ;) Thanks, again.

Your very welcome. Building a home is VERY stressful, and tiring. Money starts getting tight, and many sleepless nights follow.

It'll be O.K. once you get settled in and actually get some proper rest. Things will look a whole lot different.

I'm still in the floor planning stage for a log home we wanted to have started building three months ago. It has to be "perfect" because this is where we're going to live until they cart us out in a box. I'm beginning to think it's more fun to have root canal. Sigh....I just keep trying to focus on the end result.

Sandy

One tack you might want to take with the neighbors is to say: "Hey we saw doggie prints in our concrete and we were really worried that your precious Mookie might get hurt if he wanders around. We're worried about your dog and we don't want the liability because we would feel aweful if something happened. Please keeps your dogs and kids and ferrets away from the construction zone because heaven forbid anything should happen to them."

Don't make the prints the issue, make the loose dog wandering around a construction site the issue. It's not safe, same as if little kids were wandering around. Responsible pet owners will get that, irresponsible ones won't but at least you will have less risk of annoying your new neighbors if you frame it in that way. Great neighbors would actually realize the damage is their fault and offer to help, but unfortunately they may be few and far between.

As others have said I think the freshness of the concrete overly accentuated the prints. They look to be in the main path which will get smoothed down a bit from use anyway. A really gnarly pressure washer (really high psi) might even be able to amp up the smoothing out.