Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 16, 2016 3:39 pm Dear Forum members I am a first time poster having just found this site so forgive silly questions I should have found the answers to elsewhere on this forum. We are building a new home. It is on a waffle slab. I am very concerned with ensuring we protect areas around the slab as recommended to avoid slab heave in future and avoid any confusion of who is liable for slab problems should they arise. Our engineer drawings highly recommend we install concrete paths sloping away from slab around perimeter. We are one month from handover and busy trying to finalise landscaping design. We are finding that, as we are on a small inner city block, if we put in 1m concrete paths around the perimeter we end up with a very bland concrete backyard (as it is only 3.5m wide overall). We are hoping instead to install decking and have gravel paths around the house with a patch of lawn next to the path. This will 'soften' the look of our new very modern home. My questions are a/ if we installed agi drains instead around the perimeter of the house would that avoid the need for concrete paths? Should I have the structural engineers 'sign off' on this as acceptable protection (unlikely they would) or is there some standard which clearly gives some options for protecting slabs in addition to concrete paths? b/ if we needed to install concrete paths could they instead be, for example, blue stone pavers? Is that an acceptable substitute for concrete in protecting slab? c/ any other suggestions? Thanks in advance! Re: Protecting waffle slab - agi drains v path 3Mar 16, 2016 10:31 pm Hi VickiS I like your second option ..put your decking over an impervious layer/path-> disharging/draining -> Agri pipes/Sumps,etc Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs The Soil classification has little to do with piers. The purpose of the classing of the soil is to identify the clay content and the "average expected range of movement… 2 9856 Hello everyone, After some suggestions and ideas about how to put a concrete path around the drop edge beam area on our new build. We are required to have a concrete path… 0 12873 Thank you so much for your response. I have drawn a pedestrian gate in - for curb appeal, let's see how much costs come in at. I think you're right - if we decide to… 2 6536 |