Slab Heave/Building Insurance

Natalieanne · Mar 15, 2022 4:19 pm

Our builder has been deregistered and we have begun the process of having our homes slab heaveal and damages repaired through the building insurer. However the process is very confusing and I don't know what to expect. I hope someone here can provide their first hand experience or some guidance. The insurers building inspector came out and took some levels and documented the items we listed for repairs. But what happens now? How do we get a diagnoses of slab heave? How will it be fixed? Is taking a few level measurements enough to diagnose slab heave? Will we need to pay for additional inspections to have it addressed? Will we have to knock down and rebuild, and if not how will they fix every crack and imperfection created by the slab heave. We think we've resolved the slab heave but are now left with an extensive amount of cosmetic damage. Our homes life story is below.

We built our home in 2017. In 2018 we noticed cracks developing in the plaster work. We weren't able to contact the builder, and were told by others that they had gone bust. As the year went on the cracks grew bigger and wider, tiles began to crack and lift, and bricks and morta began to crack. All signs were pointing to slab heave. Excessive moister during the build phase was a constant issue that was raised. They handed the house over to use with loose back fill around the house and this was brought up but we were told it meet code. We later added additional crushed rock and made sure it sloped away from the home correctly. But the house kept shifting. Cracks developed that span the whole width of the hallway. Multiple tiles began lifting and cracking. We contacted DBDRV and our case was closed as the builder was uncontactable. We explored the legal route but the lawyer said it would be useless as we couldn't get contact with the builder we would never get any money from them. We were told to wait it out, hope the builder claimed insolvency before our insurance policy hit 6 years. In the mean time we were told to try and address the excessive moister issue. We laid concrete down the blind side and back of the house and surprisingly this stopped the house from moving any further. The cracks and gap slowly began to close and we felt we addressed the issue. However now we are left with an extensive amount of cosmetic damage.

We want to move on with our life and build or buy a new home, but we're worried our home has lost a significant amount of value due to the slab heave. We're worried the insurer won't assess the damages in our favour and we will have to front the cost of the damages. And, if the insurer does assess the damages as extensive slab heave we're worried about the cost of fixing them and the potential of rebuilding. I hope there are others out there that have walked this path and can shead some light on what to expect.

groundzero · Mar 20, 2022 9:16 pm

Hi Natalieanne

You need your house properly assessed by a Geotechnical engineer. This will involved floor levels to show if the
slab has heaved and combine a soil test with moisture samples to see if the soil moisture has stabilised.
There is no accepted solution to slab heave except to stabilise the soil moisture which you may have already
done by constructing a protective concrete path around the slab. Depending on the degree of slab heave your house
may be reparable if it has stopped moving now.
Did you have photos from construction and what suburb are you in ?

BuildingandLegal · Mar 23, 2022 2:00 am

Groundzero?? Jason?

Natalieanne · Mar 23, 2022 3:11 am

groundzero

Hi Natalieanne

You need your house properly assessed by a Geotechnical engineer. This will involved floor levels to show if the
slab has heaved and combine a soil test with moisture samples to see if the soil moisture has stabilised.
There is no accepted solution to slab heave except to stabilise the soil moisture which you may have already
done by constructing a protective concrete path around the slab. Depending on the degree of slab heave your house
may be reparable if it has stopped moving now.
Did you have photos from construction and what suburb are you in ?

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

We have photos and a report done by a building inspector during the build. We are in Bacchus Marsh and our story in common out here.

We've already begun the insurance process as the builder has been deregistered so we are going through VMIA. They can't tell me if we can still engage a building engineer to support our claim. At the moment our case sits with the insurers inspector.

StructuralBIMGuy · Mar 23, 2022 9:46 am

Natalieanne

We've already begun the insurance process as the builder has been deregistered so we are going through VMIA. They can't tell me if we can still engage a building engineer to support our claim. At the moment our case sits with the insurers inspector.

Sacking a useless Builder is a token gesture by the building regulators........
The insurance company will now put up a fight and have their own engineers
You may not get what you expect...Hire your own engineer preferably one that does repairs as an inspector/builder can only take you so far, solutions and fixes are outside the NCC and require an engineer anyway.
Reach out to others on the forum that have had similar experiences.

Natalieanne · Mar 23, 2022 10:13 am

StructuralBIMGuy

Natalieanne

We've already begun the insurance process as the builder has been deregistered so we are going through VMIA. They can't tell me if we can still engage a building engineer to support our claim. At the moment our case sits with the insurers inspector.

Sacking a useless Builder is a token gesture by the building regulators........
The insurance company will now put up a fight and have their own engineers
You may not get what you expect...Hire your own engineer preferably one that does repairs as an inspector/builder can only take you so far, solutions and fixes are outside the NCC and require an engineer anyway.
Reach out to others on the forum that have had similar experiences.

Thanks. I am really confused with the whole process. The building inspector said we'd get a yes/no response to each item. Which had me believe we don't have the opportunity now to engage a structural engineer unless we take their decision to VCAT. I asked this question and VMIA said they may request additional information. But not sure what that means.

It seems very uncommon this pathway we are taking and seems as though often the builder is still around to work with the owner to fix the issue. As ours went bust soon after hand over we've been navigating this alone. I only wrote this post as I hadn't been able to find anyone on here who has had a similar experience.

Harts · Mar 26, 2022 4:35 pm

Natalieanne

StructuralBIMGuy

Natalieanne

We've already begun the insurance process as the builder has been deregistered so we are going through VMIA. They can't tell me if we can still engage a building engineer to support our claim. At the moment our case sits with the insurers inspector.

Sacking a useless Builder is a token gesture by the building regulators........
The insurance company will now put up a fight and have their own engineers
You may not get what you expect...Hire your own engineer preferably one that does repairs as an inspector/builder can only take you so far, solutions and fixes are outside the NCC and require an engineer anyway.
Reach out to others on the forum that have had similar experiences.

Thanks. I am really confused with the whole process. The building inspector said we'd get a yes/no response to each item. Which had me believe we don't have the opportunity now to engage a structural engineer unless we take their decision to VCAT. I asked this question and VMIA said they may request additional information. But not sure what that means.

It seems very uncommon this pathway we are taking and seems as though often the builder is still around to work with the owner to fix the issue. As ours went bust soon after hand over we've been navigating this alone. I only wrote this post as I hadn't been able to find anyone on here who has had a similar experience.

Hi Natalienne

I have had slab heave (property now demolished). I have been learning and fighting for an answer for nearly 10 years now why my home was moving, cracking etc. The builder walked away from responsibility as his insurer said he was not liable. Wrong. I will have closure very soon of the wrongdoing of all parties involved in the building of my home and their insurers.

Insurers will go for a solution that is the cheapest option (which is not in your favour), so you need to arm yourself with information. As GroundZero recommended, get your own reports. Start with an experienced Geotechnical Engineer, also get a CCTV of your underground plumbing, as I'm sure there maybe a few issues with that also.

I have learnt from experience not to trust anyone that is working for the opposite party. Knowledge is power.

Good luck.

Information about slab heave - https://www.drillology.com.au/?s=slab+heave
Information on this site about non compliant plumbing etc and problems - https://metropolis.melbourne

Thi · Apr 12, 2022 5:44 am

Very sorry to hear your story.

Knowledge is power.

This is why I did many researches on building concepts. Which I am glad I did.

It was a long process to find a builder. I had mixed feeling about waffle vs raft.

100% of volume builders tried to convince me waffle slab is good. I looked at its positives and almost fell for it.

I read so many stories from people sharing their experience. Eventually I pulled out from project built and lost deposit.

We cannot go cheap on the basic foundation, wall and frame of a house. I stood my ground and signed up with the only one builder that said waffle slab is no good.

I ended up getting the old raft slab made our of real cement and steel and cast into ground with trenches, brick wall and hard wood beam.
I paid cheap on finish like doors.

My worst concern with the house is the quality of doors which dent and scratch, cheap water tap... which can be dealt with when I have money.

Rob-SLABsense · Apr 12, 2022 7:50 pm

Sorry to hear of all your issues natalieanne.
There's some good advice in the responses already, especially regarding getting independent advice and reports from engineers and a great comment above stating "knowledge is power".

On that point, we've recently installed some SLABsense sensors into a problem property up near you in Hopetoun Park, which are proving invaluable in helping the team of a forensic plumber, structural engineer and the insurance adjuster to isolate the source of moisture in the reactive clay soil under the home. You just can't beat or deny the data captured hourly by smart sensors compared to the traditional 'point in time' samples taken often months apart.

I'm not sure if ongoing monitoring will be exactly what you're after now but I'd be happy to answer any questions if you're interested in more info.

Cheers, Rob.
SLABsense - Foundation Monitoring

Natalieanne · Apr 12, 2022 8:11 pm

You're right knowledge is power but we only know what we need to know, when we need to know it. We had no idea at the time that this would happen. The builder we signed on with had built alot of homes in the area, they also built my Aunties house 10 years prior and my Dads 15 years earlier. We weren't to know that a waffle slab would have caused us so many issues. I appreciate you taking the time to reply, but with such a highly complex situation saying "Knowledge is power" is not helpful in this situation.

Thi

Very sorry to hear your story.

Knowledge is power.

This is why I did many researches on building concepts. Which I am glad I did.

It was a long process to find a builder. I had mixed feeling about waffle vs raft.

100% of volume builders tried to convince me waffle slab is good. I looked at its positives and almost fell for it.

I read so many stories from people sharing their experience. Eventually I pulled out from project built and lost deposit.

We cannot go cheap on the basic foundation, wall and frame of a house. I stood my ground and signed up with the only one builder that said waffle slab is no good.

I ended up getting the old raft slab made our of real cement and steel and cast into ground with trenches, brick wall and hard wood beam.
I paid cheap on finish like doors.

My worst concern with the house is the quality of doors which dent and scratch, cheap water tap... which can be dealt with when I have money.

Thi · Apr 13, 2022 6:59 am

I see your point, there is a lot of thing I would changed to my built had I known.... I.e asbestos removal by unlicensed trade.

We can only learn and share, hopefully the issue is more commonly known and less people fall victim of this.

Partly why I talked to other about waffle.

I was mocked as uneducated by people who claimed to be engineer. He also claimed that he recommended waffle for high reactive soil and big building pprojects.

To the point that makes me feel that waffle vs raft topic is too sensitive to talk about on building forum.

I built with raft slab... but my soil report recommended waffle over raft...

StructuralBIMGuy · Apr 13, 2022 9:03 am

Thi

I was mocked as uneducated by people who claimed to be engineer. He also claimed that he recommended waffle for high reactive soil and big building pprojects.

Did you bother checking their qualifications... they usually come unstuck at that point.
OT, Hardware Polystyrene salesman aren't qualified engineers.

Thi · Apr 13, 2022 1:18 pm

I didn't bother... I just walked away when he started to attack me on my english and education.
He told be to go back to school.

It doesnt take a degree to know that cement and steel are stronger than plastic pod.

Joker · Apr 13, 2022 7:58 pm

Basically waffle slabs need perfect conditions with builder doing everything right ,with water it's worst enemy, and many many builders will and do take advantage of clients lack of knowledge.
You only need to see the vast amount of trouble with waffle slabs .
Trouble is that most will end up signing a HIA/MBA contact which is from builders representative groups which protects the builder big time against the consumer.
Has it has already been said,the insurance experts will heavily favour the insurance company,it will be way better for you to have your own or u will be pushed around with minimal results.
Good luck

alexp79 · Apr 13, 2022 8:33 pm

I don't really see a problem with replacing 40-50 cm of soil within and 1 meter around building envelope with well compacted sand placed over geotextile with perimeter agg drainage system (which can be gravelless too!), then you can implement any type of onground slab you want and it will never be a problem with virtually any type of soil. Also, very unlikely that you would require piering with such approach, too.

Yes, it is going to cost a 5-7 grand more and will add couple of extra days to the earthworks, but if you (as a builder and engineer) explain to customer the benefits, I am quite sure most of the customers will be happy to pay extra for their peace of mind.

Thi · Apr 13, 2022 10:15 pm

alexp79

I don't really see a problem with replacing 40-50 cm of soil within and 1 meter around building envelope with well compacted sand placed over geotextile with perimeter agg drainage system (which can be gravelless too!), then you can implement any type of onground slab you want and it will never be a problem with virtually any type of soil. Also, very unlikely that you would require piering with such approach, too.

Yes, it is going to cost a 5-7 grand more and will add couple of extra days to the earthworks, but if you (as a builder and engineer) explain to customer the benefits, I am quite sure most of the customers will be happy to pay extra for their peace of mind.

Yes, I would pay 10 times that, considering the total cost of the house.

For my 50 sq home, custom builder charged me $34k for raft slab while volume builder quoted me $60k for waffle for 40 sp home with smaller footing.

I asked many volume builders and willing to pay extra but they wont do raft slab... So I looked for custom builder that does it... best decision ever.

Ardo · Apr 15, 2022 8:32 pm

Just to be clear, a raft slab is not considered stronger then a waffle pod slab. (To engineers) Its the fact that a waffle slab is built on grade and its easier for water to get under it compared to a raft slab that has edge beams that go below the grade. We hear about slab heave from waffle pods but is it the slab or the piers that support it?
The only reason it's a sensitive subject is because of the lack of understanding of foundation design and pigeon holing of problems being more accoiated the slab and not whats under it.

groundzero · Apr 24, 2022 11:35 pm

Ardo

Just to be clear, a raft slab is not considered stronger then a waffle pod slab. (To engineers) Its the fact that a waffle slab is built on grade and its easier for water to get under it compared to a raft slab that has edge beams that go below the grade. We hear about slab heave from waffle pods but is it the slab or the piers that support it?
The only reason it's a sensitive subject is because of the lack of understanding of foundation design and pigeon holing of problems being more accoiated the slab and not whats under it.

I agree it's the type of soil and the moisture changes to it under the slab that is the fundamental issue.
It's not the piers themselves ,the slab can heave off bored piers as the slab is not directly connected to the piers.
I have seen lots of both raft and waffle slabs heave but because waffle slabs are preferred but most builders
then there tends to be much more waffle sam heave cases.
The three combined factors that cause slab heave :
1. Dry soil conditions before construction.
2. Highly or extremely reactive soils.
3. A source of moisture during and/or after construction(poor drainage/leaking plumbing/poor landscaping etc).

Removal of a nearby large tree after construction can also cause a type of heave called rebound but is
generally less common.

Contracts-Specialist · May 06, 2022 11:53 am

Natalieanne

Our builder has been deregistered and we have begun the process of having our homes slab heaveal and damages repaired through the building insurer. However the process is very confusing and I don't know what to expect. I hope someone here can provide their first hand experience or some guidance. The insurers building inspector came out and took some levels and documented the items we listed for repairs. But what happens now? How do we get a diagnoses of slab heave? How will it be fixed? Is taking a few level measurements enough to diagnose slab heave? Will we need to pay for additional inspections to have it addressed? Will we have to knock down and rebuild, and if not how will they fix every crack and imperfection created by the slab heave. We think we've resolved the slab heave but are now left with an extensive amount of cosmetic damage. Our homes life story is below.

We built our home in 2017. In 2018 we noticed cracks developing in the plaster work. We weren't able to contact the builder, and were told by others that they had gone bust. As the year went on the cracks grew bigger and wider, tiles began to crack and lift, and bricks and morta began to crack. All signs were pointing to slab heave. Excessive moister during the build phase was a constant issue that was raised. They handed the house over to use with loose back fill around the house and this was brought up but we were told it meet code. We later added additional crushed rock and made sure it sloped away from the home correctly. But the house kept shifting. Cracks developed that span the whole width of the hallway. Multiple tiles began lifting and cracking. We contacted DBDRV and our case was closed as the builder was uncontactable. We explored the legal route but the lawyer said it would be useless as we couldn't get contact with the builder we would never get any money from them. We were told to wait it out, hope the builder claimed insolvency before our insurance policy hit 6 years. In the mean time we were told to try and address the excessive moister issue. We laid concrete down the blind side and back of the house and surprisingly this stopped the house from moving any further. The cracks and gap slowly began to close and we felt we addressed the issue. However now we are left with an extensive amount of cosmetic damage.

We want to move on with our life and build or buy a new home, but we're worried our home has lost a significant amount of value due to the slab heave. We're worried the insurer won't assess the damages in our favour and we will have to front the cost of the damages. And, if the insurer does assess the damages as extensive slab heave we're worried about the cost of fixing them and the potential of rebuilding. I hope there are others out there that have walked this path and can shead some light on what to expect.

Hi Natalieanne

Since the builder has been deregistered, you can investigate whether or not you can claim on their home warranty insurance. A specialist construction lawyer may be able to help you with the finer details of your matter.

Cheers
John