I have lost faith in my concreting company. Before signing the contract they were all sweet as, but after...They dont remeber anything that we have discussed, dont want to resolve any issues, concerns. So I really would like to check if I am being taken for a ride here. Particularly that I might have selected a much cheaper concreter but I went for a company that charges more to make sure I dont have anything to worry about but it does not work out this way. The pouring has not happend yet but they did the excavation and compacted the gravel bed. If you could answer some of my questions would be much appreciated.
1) Chairs
From reading lots of forums my understanding is that it always makes sense to put reinforcement mesh on chairs. When I asked the job supervisor he said no, no, no, not for driveways, they do it only for house slabs. He also gave me another reason why they wont use chairs - OHS. He said if they put the mesh on chairs then when workers will be doing their job they will trip over the mesh since it is raised now, fall and injur themsleves. But how anybody else is using the chairs then? He said they are going to use a hook to raise the mesh everywhere once concrete is poured. I am pretty sure this does not guarantee at all that the mesh ends up where it should be - in the middle of the concrete. First of all they do it without seeing it so how accurate can they do it and then it can simply sink back down after they raise it.
2) Gravel
How deep should be the layer of gravel for the basement of concreteing job? I raised concerns with him that it does not seem deep enough but his response was along the lines dont cha worry mate thats not needed too you are not building a freeway road here. Is there any standard how thick the gravel layer should be? Because in some places the layer looks thin.
3) Rebars
My job is fairly big at around 100m2 and has wide spans so I was thinking using rebars would be a good options to prevent cracking. Did not actually ask him about rebars but he has never mentioned rebars either and I am pretty sure not going to lay any. From which fact I starting to think that they dont really care of end result as any cracking will be my problem not theirs. Is using rebars a must for a big, very wide driveway?