Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Feb 17, 2015 1:40 pm Hi All, I'm wondering if someone can shed some light on my concern with our slab height. One request that we had was not to have the garage floor lower than the footpath. We wanted the driveway to either be flat or on an incline going towards the house. My understanding of our drawing(s) is that our garage floor level is 9.922 and the height of the footpath is 9.88. This means that the garage floor will still approximately 40mm above the footpath. Am I correct? The reason I am asking this is that I saw the site had been scrapped today and that the front of the block has been 'dug-out' quite a bit! I see that the cut line is in the front left corner of the house as the height there is 10.00. Please see our drawing and photos below. Appreciate any help and advice. Thank you. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 2Feb 17, 2015 3:45 pm I would be happy with the garage floor above the footpath. Much better to have the water running away from the garage and needing a drain in front of the garage. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 3Feb 17, 2015 3:48 pm bashworth I would be happy with the garage floor above the footpath. Much better to have the water running away from the garage and needing a drain in front of the garage. I certainly am happy with it just making sure I have done my calculation right? Also it is normal for the Portico floor level to be lower than then garage? It's also lower than our footpath :S Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 4Feb 17, 2015 3:59 pm I'd normally expect the portico to be similar level to the garage. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 5Feb 17, 2015 4:02 pm 40mm still sounds like too much. We have 10mm drop which will be covered by driveway slope away from home. You definitely don't want the driveway sloping to the garage if you can avoid it. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 6Feb 17, 2015 5:04 pm TheBigHouse 40mm still sounds like too much. We have 10mm drop which will be covered by driveway slope away from home. You definitely don't want the driveway sloping to the garage if you can avoid it. It's the opposite way. The driveway slopes down away from the garage which is preferred as you said. The other side of the house will be about 15mm lower than the food path at worst. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 7Feb 17, 2015 5:06 pm bashworth I'd normally expect the portico to be similar level to the garage. Agreed. I think I've spotted another mistake. They raised the garage floor due to H2-class waffle slab but they did not raise the portico floor at all so it will actually be about 105mm lower than the foot path Hopefully it's not too late to change. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 8Feb 17, 2015 5:07 pm What I mean is that if your garage floor is 40mm higher than the driveway, that's too much unless your in a 4wd:) You'd have a steep incline to get a car into the garage. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 9Feb 17, 2015 5:25 pm TheBigHouse What I mean is that if your garage floor is 40mm higher than the driveway, that's too much unless your in a 4wd:) You'd have a steep incline to get a car into the garage. Oh I see. Nah the garage floor is 40 mm higher than the foot path. So the driveway will have a 40mm height change over about 6 meters which isn't too bad. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 10Feb 17, 2015 6:19 pm I think I spotted where it went wrong! The floor level of our home was dropped by 200 mm between contract and construction drawings. Unfortunately, I missed this whilst I was checking the drawings. Since the house was dropped by 200 mm this is the root cause of the portico being lower than the footpath. Yet another drama... hopefully it's not too late to rectify it or it's not as big of an issue as I think. http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag297/joeassi/Contract%20Vs%20construction_zps7vbafg2z.jpg Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 11Feb 18, 2015 12:13 am The RL level is the base of the slab. The FFL (aka finished floor level) is the top of the slab. I use the FFL to compare to the road because you don't compare the top of the road to the bottom of the slab (IMO). Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 12Feb 18, 2015 5:04 am But in these drawings it says F.L is approx 9.985. Doesn't that mean that the finished floor level is 9.985 or am I reading this wrong? Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 13Feb 18, 2015 4:01 pm There is no FFL's on the plan (that I saw anyway). FFL is top of floor coverings, FL will be top of slab. You are reading your numbers right. on one corner the driveway will slope down to the kerb 40mm, the other corner back to the house 20mm so there will be a bit of cross fall aswell. Personally, and if it's not going to cost you $'s I would ask them to lift the garage slab to reduce the step down from 63mm to 35mm. 63mm is a bit of a d i c k y step. I would say a smaller transition would be better than a half rise. This will then give you better fall to the kerb. I also assume that if your portico slab is being set down 150mm that it must be being poured in with the main structural slab and no cold joins? Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 14Feb 18, 2015 5:15 pm 33amc There is no FFL's on the plan (that I saw anyway). FFL is top of floor coverings, FL will be top of slab. You are reading your numbers right. on one corner the driveway will slope down to the kerb 40mm, the other corner back to the house 20mm so there will be a bit of cross fall aswell. Personally, and if it's not going to cost you $'s I would ask them to lift the garage slab to reduce the step down from 63mm to 35mm. 63mm is a bit of a d i c k y step. I would say a smaller transition would be better than a half rise. This will then give you better fall to the kerb. I also assume that if your portico slab is being set down 150mm that it must be being poured in with the main structural slab and no cold joins? Yea you're right. There reason is that we are doing our own flooring after hand over. I had a chat to our slab supervisor today and he agreed with me 100%. I have sent an email to our Building Coordinator and she responded straight away and informed me that they will be meeting with the Slab supervisor and the person in charge of foundation and siting at PD first thing tomorrow. Works have now stopped on our build 3 days after they started. I'm not too sure but I will be requesting that this is also changed so that the portico is the same level as the garage. Good point about the garage I will speak to them about it too. Thanks for your information! Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 15Feb 18, 2015 6:14 pm Our build is on hold and now awaiting feedback from PD on how to rectify the reduced slab floor level from our contract drawings. Any feedback on the best way to go about rectifying this issue would be much appreciated. Please see more detail in the below link: http://www.dunedin29.blogspot.com.au/20 ... -were.html Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 16Feb 18, 2015 7:46 pm I would just follow your builders advice to start with. If they are reasonable enough to stop and think about it, I'm sure they will come back with a reasonable resolution to the contract side of things Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 17Feb 18, 2015 7:53 pm 33amc I would just follow your builders advice to start with. If they are reasonable enough to stop and think about it, I'm sure they will come back with a reasonable resolution to the contract side of things That's my plan but I want to be prepared so I know exactly what the given solution will entail. Will keep you posted on the outcome Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 18Feb 18, 2015 8:27 pm joea 33amc I would just follow your builders advice to start with. If they are reasonable enough to stop and think about it, I'm sure they will come back with a reasonable resolution to the contract side of things That's my plan but I want to be prepared so I know exactly what the given solution will entail. Will keep you posted on the outcome Ok, I assume they would or should change the FL's listed on the plan, mark it as amendment dated whenever. It would also be listed as a variation and it's up to them whether they think there is a cost or time extension owing Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 19Feb 18, 2015 8:44 pm 33amc joea 33amc I would just follow your builders advice to start with. If they are reasonable enough to stop and think about it, I'm sure they will come back with a reasonable resolution to the contract side of things That's my plan but I want to be prepared so I know exactly what the given solution will entail. Will keep you posted on the outcome Ok, I assume they would or should change the FL's listed on the plan, mark it as amendment dated whenever. It would also be listed as a variation and it's up to them whether they think there is a cost or time extension owing Agreed. That will be my preferred option. As for cost, we signed a fixed site costs contract with our higher slab level drawings. They tried to increase the price after the final soil test and they failed... Tomorrow will be another one of those conversations. Fingers crossed it goes our way. Re: Garage floor slab height compared to footpath 20Feb 19, 2015 2:44 pm FL has been changed for the Portico to match the garage but we have decided to leave the remainder of the house levels the same. I've put up a post explaining today's events in more detail. Thanks for everyone's support and advice. 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