Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 21, 2018 12:07 am Hi, it will be a few months before my new build gets to the point of having the driveway and paths done, but I have some questions about this process if I may. Firstly, what is accepted practice for where the paths butt against the slab in terms of employing flexible / water proof or at least water resistant joints? I've read enough here over the last week to understand that managing consistent moisture levels around the dwelling is paramount and that includes water not getting in between the edges of the path and the edges of the slab (house will basically have a minimum 1 metre path all the way around in addition to the driveway). I've seen some homes with seemingly no joint at all between the edges of the paths and the slab and I would have thought that was a medium to long term potential recipe for disaster, especially if the site has some uncontrolled fill (so the slab is on deep piers but the adjoining paths will just be laied over lightly compressed fill). And then when it starts cracking, I would have thought that would be a weak point for moisture ingress, despite the fall on the paths and the presence of eaves all around the house. On the other hand, I see those black foam (sorry do not know the name) around the edge of the slab serving as a flexible joint - and these seem to do a perfectly good job as well of keeping water out and obviously eliminate any issue of cracking where the path butts up against the slab. The reason I am asking all of this is because when I originally spoke to the path / driveway contractors and asked about expansion joints, they said they do not use them. I think I understood they do what councils typically do for footpaths (sawcuts for every "panel"?) but without the expansion joints councils employ every x metres. So basically they said no expansion joints. Then again, there is a major commercial work going on near where I am currently staying and the paths only have expansion joints every 20 metres or so - and that will be longer than any single length of path or driveway in my build, Neverthless, this has me a bit worried and I do reserve the flexibility under the contract to employ a concreter myself instead. But this is going to be extremely inconvenient, will slow down dramatically getting the work done and thus potentially expose the house to avoidable moisture. And I'm not sure all of that is worth the dollar savings over getting it done via the builder. And further to all of that, I don't want the builder coming back to me two years down the track if I am an unfortunate victim of moisture problems and they go blaming the paths. If they do it themselves they are responsible for it. These current contractors seem to do fine work if you go by their portfolio but this lack of expansion joints has got me worried. And the second question. What about concrete thickness? What is standard? I would have thought 100 mm for the driveway at the minimum and less for any paths under foot only (say 75 mm to 85 mm), but again I haven't a clue. I just need to understand what is considered good practice so that I can have an informed conversation with this concreter when the time comes. Thanks 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 12871 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 6526 Hi all Following the recent heavy rainfall in Sydney, I am keen on redirecting water away from the house's base as much as… 0 6779 |