Browse Forums Paving & Concreting 1 Sep 26, 2013 10:53 pm Got into a really difficult situation here and have no idea how to address it so will appreciate any advice. Built a house in Melbourne West 3 years ago. Had to find somebody to do concreting for me as even driveway was not part of the builder contract. This took me a while and in the end I decided to go with the most expensive quote I got, you know, for "you get what you paid for" kind of insurance of quality of work. Well..long story short, the guy and his company turned out to be absolute fake. Even the surface looks terrible, it was never done properly. But I have got much bigger problems now. The concreting area is quite big close to 100 sqm, not just driveway as the concreting is extended going around the garage in ] shape. What seems to be happening now is for some reason all of the concrete they've done very slowly but surely is raising up! And because it kinda wraps around the garage slab and is attached to it by metal pins in several places, it started to pull the house(garage) slab up as well, gradually warping it. 1 year after concreting was done in the adjacent area of the house all doors stopped working properly because nothing is square anymore. There are 3 doors there because its laundry area, all crooked. Plus 1 roller door at the back of the garage which I can hardly open/close anymore. Also, concreting should slope away from the house but in one spot it has raised up so much that the slope is now going towards the house and I am getting some water coming into the garage through the back door when it rains heavily. And now in the same area of the house I am getting cracks in plaster around vents INSIDE the house. To make matters worse, these guys did not use ANY rubber expansion joints anywhere. As nothing separates bricks and concrete it is probably not possible to just rip up the whole concreting and redo it - they basically poured concrete right against brick walls in several places(up to weep holes) so i don't think it can be easily removed without damaging the walls. I called the guy - he said not my problem, "you have some "extreme" soil issues". But I don't think so. Anywhere he put concrete in it is being raised up. He did a separate footpath for me towards the porch - same story there. it now looks like this: ^ in the middle because it has been pushed up. All of this can't be just a coincidence. I think they did not do the foundation for the concreting properly because they could not be bothered. I hired somebody portraying himself as a concreting professional with long years of experience and I paid VERY good money to him and all I've got in the end is the worst looking driveway in the neighborhood which also now pretty much is destroying my brand new house. How can I get out of this mess now? Is there any way to take legal action against this concreting company? Also, any idea how can THIS be fixed? Who should I be talking to about issues like this? Any advice at all? Re: Concreting destroying my new house 2Sep 26, 2013 11:31 pm Mate, sounds like you need the help of a building inspector before it gets worse. They should be able to guide you to a local regulatory body to seek compensation if someone has made a mistake. But at a minimum I would be looking at hiring a concrete saw and cutting in some expansion joints quick smart (building inspector will be able to help here too). To be honest it sounds like the driveway is pulling the house and you are better off taking the load off the house and fixing the driveway. It won't be cheap, but it will be cheaper than having your whole house stuffed. Protect the main asset (house) as quick as you can. $500 for an inspection will be cheap insurance in the long run. Re: Concreting destroying my new house 3Sep 27, 2013 1:00 am Thanks ChargerWA! I thought about getting a building inspector but then it seemed to me their job is limited to finding if there are any problems with the house. And in my case, as you can see, I already know that I've got a lot of problems. But if they can help with the actual resolutions of issues then it makes sense. Now about your advice of cutting out expansion joints. Did you mean just cut all the way through it say 20-30cm away from the walls/slab? Re: Concreting destroying my new house 4Sep 27, 2013 6:42 am Hi tkormich You definitely have some serious issues with foundation heave. You will need expert advice. You can PM or visit my web site and call. 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 It will be neat but you won't have much freeboard. At least they are not weep holes. Are you in a high intensity rainfall region? The regulatory slope is only required… 3 8265 We've had decent weather for last 7 weeks and now the drvieway has been cut out we had an evening of 50mm of rain including all the water from half the street, ground is… 0 4474 Just get as close as you can without hitting the posts. Once you are close to the edge of the path the chance of cracking is minimised. 7 9175 |