Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 862Nov 21, 2016 10:28 am [quote="FirstHomeBuyer88"]What should i do with the garage wall where i can't get the concrete path done? /quote] I have the same issue. My neighbour has built their home so that is the blind side of her house. If I want them to concrete it to protect my property then I have to pay for it. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 863Nov 21, 2016 11:11 am Slab Heave Recipient FirstHomeBuyer88 What should i do with the garage wall where i can't get the concrete path done? /quote] I have the same issue. My neighbour has built their home so that is the blind side of her house. If I want them to concrete it to protect my property then I have to pay for it. Mine is in a way that if they concrete with a slope, all the water will go beneath my garage. Something like below. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 864Nov 21, 2016 11:39 am You're neighbours cannot concrete with a slope that creates runoff for an adjoining property. If they have a good concreter (and you had better hope they do) the concreter will know that and slope the paving to stormwater drains. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 866Nov 21, 2016 11:54 am Liliana You're neighbours cannot concrete with a slope that creates runoff for an adjoining property. If they have a good concreter (and you had better hope they do) the concreter will know that and slope the paving to stormwater drains. Lets hope so. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 868Nov 21, 2016 12:38 pm After looking at Soils reports and Final engineering document for slab I think now rather than improving their practices, they have started to put the conditions so that everything can be blamed on the owner. It's more like they are saving their a**es but making their documentation better, than making their building processes stronger. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 869Nov 21, 2016 2:39 pm insider I agree if you spent enough money you can make slabs have no issues but the problem is that the majority of theses slabs wouldn't have problems if things were done correctly. Builders are not doing what is required of them and there seems to be no enforcement except through the courts. It is a failure on several levels. 1.Builders not complying with drainage requirements during construction. 2 Most building surveyors not calling out this non compliance. 3 VBA not enforcing the builders requirements and the building surveyors requirements. Volume Builders will lower their standards to whatever is most profitable if allowed. Clearly self regulation in the industry doesn't work and this is a example of lack of enforcement of industry standards. The extreme climatic conditions have just exposed the problems. I drive through any new housing estate and it is clear construction drainage has become worse since the first wave of slab heave(2010). No lessons learn't or simply ignored. I don't disagree, but the point I'm getting at is that they develop these engineered solutions (not just slabs by the way) so they can find the lowest-cost way of meeting the relevant codes and standards, but they often ignore good practice. Yes it meets the code, but is it a good idea? Waffle pod slabs, for example, sound fine in theory, but the problem is that for these solutions to work according to the engineer's design, they rely on humans to follow instructions. Forgive my cynicism, but I have little faith in the average home owner to follow the fairly strict guidelines on how to care for a waffle pod slab. And then every time that house gets sold on to a new owner, the chances of them following those guidelines diminishes severely. If the builder can't (or won't?) even follow them, what hope do the rest of us have? My view is that foundations and slabs should be virtually idiot-proof. You shouldn't have to build a concrete path around your house, or restricted from planting a small garden bed, just so your slab won't buckle. I wouldn't have a waffle pod slab in a house that I build, and I most certainly would not buy an existing house that has a waffle pod slab (who knows what's happened to it?). I see this being a resale issue in a decade or so. In 10 years from now, people might be avoiding waffle pod slab homes just like they avoid houses with asbestos today. In the non-residential construction world I often see builders implementing alternative solutions for all types of building systems, fire protection, access ways and egress paths etc etc. Some of them are clever and sensible, but the majority just seem to be a way of them reducing their costs at the expense of increased operational and maintenance costs over the life of the building. It often also ends up in a substandard design that doesn't make sense. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 870Nov 21, 2016 2:56 pm Can someone please help me understand the concept of cut and fill? When I bought the land, there was no cut and fill mentioned in the engineering drawing. But when I was reading my Final engineering report (where slab design is explained) and soil test the same mentioned cut and fill. Does that mean the builder will cut and fill the land, though it was not there when the construction started? And what is cut to fill line? Is it different than cut/fill? Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 871Nov 21, 2016 3:41 pm Firsthomebuyer88 Most likely you have a block with a slope on it and to build your slab they will cut it completely flat. To restrict the height of your cut, earthworks are done as to fill in a section away from your cut usually using the soil from the cut area.Cut to fill line will be where your block changes from cut ground to fill material.You may end up with piers in the filled area and the associated extra costs. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 872Nov 21, 2016 3:52 pm So in cut to fill line scenario the fill material is different than the original one? I was trying to compare two scenarios. Me and my friend bought a piece of land in the same area within a gap of 2 months. He had a cut to fill line on his land originally but there was nothing like that on mine. But when I saw my engineering report where the slab design is explained, there was a cut/fill line like below and there was no pier installed. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thanks a lot for all your patience with my silly questions. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 873Nov 21, 2016 7:37 pm Firsthomebuyer88 Your friends may have had a cut and fill as part of the earthworks done at the subdivision stage by the developer and your cut and fill will be done by your builder as part of the earthworks for the slab construction. Speak to your engineer about why there are no piers possibly the fill will be well compacted or very shallow. This could be the reason why your friend had a "p" class slab and you had a "H2" slab Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 875Nov 22, 2016 12:57 pm bank Liliana I can't see how to edit on this new site. The above should read "Your neighbours" not "You're neighbours". Click the 3 dots, bottom right hand corner of your post. It took me a while to find it too I must be blind - I can't see any dots but I just clicked at random in the right hand corner and you're right an "edit" tab appears! Many thanks. Now to find the emoticons...... Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 876Nov 22, 2016 1:12 pm Liliana bank Liliana I can't see how to edit on this new site. The above should read "Your neighbours" not "You're neighbours". Click the 3 dots, bottom right hand corner of your post. It took me a while to find it too I must be blind - I can't see any dots but I just clicked at random in the right hand corner and you're right an "edit" tab appears! Many thanks. Now to find the emoticons...... I am thinking it must look different for you if you have no dots, but emoticons are up the top for me (on PC) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Dots Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Apologies for being so far off topic Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 877Nov 22, 2016 4:39 pm 1960sModernistHome My view is that foundations and slabs should be virtually idiot-proof. You shouldn't have to build a concrete path around your house, or restricted from planting a small garden bed, just so your slab won't buckle. I wouldn't have a waffle pod slab in a house that I build, and I most certainly would not buy an existing house that has a waffle pod slab (who knows what's happened to it?). I see this being a resale issue in a decade or so. In 10 years from now, people might be avoiding waffle pod slab homes just like they avoid houses with asbestos today. My view exactly but I will put it another way. How is slab design that does not have foundation protection fit for purpose when it is at risk from common gardening around home? Whilst I think that CSIRO guide to foundation management for homeowners is not a bad document it is misused by builders to shift blame onto homeowners in the same way Guide to Standards and Tolerances is misused to give builders excuse for poor workmanship. Furthermore if we are going to allow building dwellings on highly reacive sites we should have insurance write off scheme (to protect homeowners) for damaged dwellings that cannot be returned to normal construction tolerances. Obviously something like that is beyond intellectual capacity of bed bugs that wrote the legislation. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 878Nov 24, 2016 1:31 pm We almost need in contracts that within tolerances won't be accepted if workmanship is not up to display quality, in reality almost no volume builder has intentions or ability to give u display quality; the rules change as soon as u sign contract, slab heave almost always is learned about after the fact, , this has got to change first before governments will make real changes to protect consumers properly. Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 879Nov 24, 2016 4:16 pm Agreed - until then, your best protection is to either be extremely vigilant as a client, or employ a professional building inspector/surveyor to act on your behalf during the design and construction process. Builders will take as much slack as you give them unfortunately. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Has anyone rectified slab heave successfully 880Jul 03, 2017 10:32 pm Starting to see a new wave of slab heave houses constructed between 5/2015-6/2016 it's all happening again.Looks like we have learnt nothing from the pre 2011 slab heave houses. Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 13588 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 707 I work with owner, he/she is my man on the ground and I instruct them when to visit the site and take photos and I have other tools in the bag. 4 15265 |