Cracks in concrete driveway

I bought a rear block (piece of land - subdivided) and am building on it in WA. It was a council requirement that the original owner should construct a driveway for rear block. So I got a concrete driveway.

The build is at PCI stage now and I saw cracks in driveway. Almost all the way except 1 slab. I asked builder to re-pour the slab and return me in a condition in which I handed over to you. But they say that the person who made that driveway didn't put the mesh in the concrete and thats why it cracked. So the builder is not liable for the damage and they just did the patch work.

The reality agent from whom I brought the land is not responding.

When I contacted the council they said we ask the person who subdivide to construct a driveway for access to rear block. But we do not prescribe any specification for construction of it.

Any advice that who shall be held liable in this case?

Hey Vikram3151981
Welcome to the forum
What you should have done was deduct a Bond amount from the Builder for the drive way
Similar to what the council does, if someone damages the verge/path/drive way they pay for it
Unfortunately now you are up for removal and replacement costs running into tens of thousands
Who' s liable the builder of course... but good luck with that
OT, you should have been on site with a camera the day they were pouring the concrete
pity a 30-40 tonne concrete truck would have wrecked the drive way?

Thanks for your reply mate.
I haven't settled the account yet. I just did my first PCI.
What best possible action you suggest in this case?
If I deduct money for driveway, the builder will not handover the keys until they get all of their money.
Is there a legal recourse in this case?

Thanks again

Yes you do have legal recourse
Do you know if it was the concretor.. do you have photos of your build?

The action will be against the Builder, who must provide suitable Supervision during the Build.. (no buck passing)
Also lodge a complaint against the Builder with WA Building Commission
BTW photos also help others
Cheers
Chris

Thanks again Chris. Highly appreciate your reply.
I did a lot of communication with builder on email with photos. I don't have photos of driveway when it wasn't cracked. But the site survey plan' made by builder's surveyor mention on the plan that "Concrete driveway in good condition". And I think if the builder claims that the driveway concrete didn't had mesh and that's why it cracked then it would have been picked by surveyor while doing site survey. But it is my right to ask builder to hand me over the driveway in same condition as I handed over.
I am thinking of lodging a complaint with Building commission WA after I get the keys to the home and I move over.
I have attached a couple of photos with the message.

Hi Vikram.
What council are you in and is the driveway on common property or your property.
The usual process is to provide a service track (crushed concrete) to the property for use during construction and then install the driveway at the conclusion of the building process.
Residential driveways are only designed to take up to 3T so the weight of construction vehicles (concrete truck and pumps plus deliveries) will usually destroy any existing driveways.
I can't imagine any builder guaranteeing that they won't damage an existing driveway. They need to access the site with heavy equipment and there is no way that they have control over the quality of the existing driveway.

Hi vikram3151981
Thanks for the photos, pity you didn't have the concrete slab/driveway inspected prior to the concrete
pour the impending driveway damage would have been highlighted and the subcontractor and builders supervisors could have taken the required action to stop the damage occurring and addressed the material handling appropriately
Cheers Chris

Hi structuralBIMGuy and chippy

Thanks for the reply guys.

The council is City of Swan and the concrete driveway in good condition (without any cracks) was already there when I purchased the block. The site survey plan made by the builders surveyor also says so and is attached with this message. As driveway was already here I didn't got it inspected. The builder is homestart (BGC housing). I thought its a reputed name and people seemed professional at start thats why I didn't got into inspections. But I did got the build inspected at PCI by building inspector.

Will it be the best option now to ask builder to return the driveway in the same condition as it was handed over and if they don't do that then file a complaint with Building Commission.

There is 1 more issue with the paved area in front of garage. They made it sloping towards the garage and soak well in midway somewhere. All the water instead of going into soak well will go into the garage. The supervisor said that they will make a soak close to the entry of garage and connect it to soak well so that water does not enter the garage. But looking at the plan I think its not made as per plan hence this problem arise. Can you guys comment something on this as well.

Your help and valuable comments are highly appreciated.

structuralBIMGuy
chippy

Thanks for the inputs guys.
The builder did poured the concrete driveway again. Now there is another issue. When they lowered the soakwell to prevent rain/storm water flowing into garage and paved the area later, it has become a crater in front of garage. I have attached few pics as well.

Kindly advice on this.

It looks like they have set the height of the drain a bit low, although it's impossible to tell exactly from the photos.

With paving you are looking for around 20mm of fall per metre. Your garage floor and the porch level will normally be the same height @-1 course from slab height and you needed to fall from there to your drain. Your door is further from the drain than the garage so it may end up being slightly less fall back to the door or slightly steeper back to the garage but it shouldn't be overly noticeable.
The other factor is then marrying that into the concrete driveway.

It looks like the drain is a bit low and then the paving doesn't seem to grade evenly to the drain. It looks like it takes a dip down into the drain as it gets close.

Maybe the pavers didn't want to remove all the dirt to get the grades right so have just worked with what is there.
It certainly doesn't look that good although it's a little hard tell from the photos

vikram3151981
Actually just looking at your plan the top of the drain should be 64mm below the height of the garage hardstand.
If it's lower than this then they have installed it to low.

Thanks for the reply Chippy
I have already written to builder with the photographs but no reply yet. Can it be considered as a defect?
Because it is quite low (even lower than it appears in photograph) so there are fair chances of damage to car going over it.