Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Jan 08, 2010 2:17 pm Well had the tiler come out this morning to drop the glue off and also have a quick look at the flooring and in quite a lot of areas when he got his straight edge out to see how level the slab was there are differences from 5-10mm He suggested that the entire floor area which shall be having tiles needs to be self levelled at a cost of approx. $5000 I have contacted the building commission and have been advised of the tolerances and mine appear to be well over these for any 2 metre length he measured. I have contacted the builder also who shall be sending someone out on Monday to check the slab out. the manager of the building company seemed to think that with the glue etc.. it should not matter how the flooring varies. Wheras the tiler says he would not lay the tiles as there is too many variances, which is fairenough. My question is what can be done to rectify this issue? There are some grinding marks on the slab near the wet areas where the builders tilers have had to ground the slab down, is this how they shall fix it? Sorry for the long post and thanks Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 2Jan 08, 2010 2:22 pm Good on your tiler for saying he wouldn't do it, he obviously has a lot of pride in his own work. I dont have an answer for you, but I'd also like to know how it's resolved... as our entire house (minus bedrooms) is going to be tile. I can see a few areas where our slab isn't level. I certainly dont think you should be paying any extra money out of your pocket, the builder should have to fix it their expense. Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 3Jan 08, 2010 2:27 pm Our slab is not level in some areas that will have timber flooring and I would love to hear how this can be rectified Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 4Jan 08, 2010 2:29 pm Thanks for your quick reply aaron4erin and gettingThere The tiler is an old high school friend of mine and said that he would not put his name to poor workmanship due to the slab not being levelled within the standards and tolerances. As soon as i find out from the builder I will be sure to post what the outcome is I am not prepared to outlay money when it is the builders resposibility to ensure their workmanship is within the building guidelines/tolerances. Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 5Jan 08, 2010 2:56 pm The concrete should be able to be leveled by either grinding or use of a levelling compound from my understanding (based on discussion with the flooring company we're looking at). You may want to go back and check the fine print of your contract to see specifically which tolerance applies. We asked our builder about this during contract phase and they added a line saying they recommend we use a leveling compound before laying the floor as were having it done after handover. That said they also specify which standard its covered by and that is what they will adhere to. If its outside the tolerance of the standard mentioned in your contract then its not up to standard, chase the builder for it. However just be careful as to recify the matter all they would need to do is bring it within the tolerance, not neccisarily make it completely level to allow your tiling to be perfect as the tolerance is still about 3mm over x distance iirc. Good luck with it. Our Build - Places Fairhaven 23+ - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28045 Our Landscaping - Belial's Backyard - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45375 Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 6Jan 08, 2010 3:50 pm Thanks for your informative reply Belial As long that it is witnin the tolerances than I would be more than happy as at the moment, you can just about slide one's hand under the straight edge in quite a few areas I shall be pursuing this with the builder, I have read through my contract which is the HIA plainenglish building contract and have not found any mention of tolerances for any aspect of the building process. Wehn I spoke to the BACV today, they informed me I should pursue it with the builder which I have, just hope that it is not a major issue which shall hold up again the completion of the house Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 7Jan 08, 2010 5:38 pm It is up to the builder to rectify. Don't cough up a cent, the builders grano was cr@p at his job. The builder can seek reparation from the grano, NOT you. Leveling compounds will fix areas not subjected to water or wet areas. How big is the area you intend to tile? Onc Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 8Jan 08, 2010 6:57 pm We also have some weird unlevel slab , especially on one side of the house! onc_artisan It is up to the builder to rectify. Don't cough up a cent, the builders grano was cr@p at his job. The builder can seek reparation from the grano, NOT you. Leveling compounds will fix areas not subjected to water or wet areas. How big is the area you intend to tile? Onc +1 And a question for onc - so, self-leveling compounds are only for non-wet areas? So, for wet areas, do they use screeding only? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 9Jan 08, 2010 7:33 pm A screed can be of multiple media, a 'dry pack' is also referred to as a tile 'underlayment'. Commonly these are cement and sand only with a primer coat to help it stick. They are for wet areas as they contain NO lime or very little lime. Lex you seem to come close to the mark on the odd occasion. You weren't a grano in a previous life were you? Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 10Jan 08, 2010 8:04 pm onc_artisan A screed can be of multiple media, a 'dry pack' is also referred to as a tile 'underlayment'. Commonly these are cement and sand only with a primer coat to help it stick. They are for wet areas as they contain NO lime or very little lime. Lex you seem to come close to the mark on the odd occasion. You weren't a grano in a previous life were you? Wot yu mean "odd occasion" No, far from it, onc ... sticking to pen and paper (actually, computer ) ... but, in the right environment ... Thanks for the tip! My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 11Jan 08, 2010 8:11 pm Lex We also have some weird unlevel slab , especially on one side of the house! onc_artisan It is up to the builder to rectify. Don't cough up a cent, the builders grano was cr@p at his job. The builder can seek reparation from the grano, NOT you. Leveling compounds will fix areas not subjected to water or wet areas. How big is the area you intend to tile? Onc +1 And a question for onc - so, self-leveling compounds are only for non-wet areas? So, for wet areas, do they use screeding only? Was why I question a previous life Where did you come up with that... I haven't seen it mention anywhere on this or other thread. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 13Jan 08, 2010 9:18 pm Try the BC of A standards for concrete slabs domestic. Depends on who is reading it, and how it is interpreted 10mm over a 2mtr straight edge is TOO much Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 14Jan 08, 2010 9:44 pm onc_artisan ... Was why I question a previous life Where did you come up with that... I haven't seen it mention anywhere on this or other thread. Ooooooh, I thought that's just common knowledge (well, for those who went or are still going through the planning and/or building ... unlike my BH ) ... My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 15Jan 09, 2010 5:59 am The manufacturers of floating floors and laminates generally specify a variation in level not greater than 2-3 mil in a 1 metre span of straight edge. I would go your builder. Many clients of mine, in recent times, have had roller coaster slabs from big name builders. $5000 to fix your floor is commonplace. But.....the poor slabs we get nowadays can also be blamed on ourselves (the $ we pay for a build) competition and price cutting to get sales (of new homes) has lead to contractors getting squeezed a bit. If your builder gave you a choice of $400,000 for a sweet job, everything nice or $360,000 for a cost saving exercise where I use my cheapest tradesman......you would never go for the cheap option.....but they sometimes do this to compete. Building a new home is tough:) make the builder pay. 2-3 mil per metre is my guideline (not sure with a solid floor, but I guess it would still be that...and I have Zero knowledge of tiles, other than to say I Jack hammer up 2 or 3 houses a week to replace them with timber or laminate ...hehe) Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 16Jan 09, 2010 7:26 am Rex Would be interested to know what the tolerances are also as I spotted yesterday a small area that dips 5-10mm also. I want to put solid timber over it. Levelness of timber and concrete floors Except where documented or otherwise, new floors are defective if within the first 24 months they differ in level by more than 10mm in any room or area, or more than 4mm in any 2m length. The overall deviation of floor level to entire building footprint shall not exceed 20mm. This is from the Standards & Tollerances Hope this helps Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 17Jan 09, 2010 10:36 am Thankyou very much for all the replies, they are really appreciated I am feeling a little more positive that I am not hopefully going to be up for any added cost. The area in which I am tiling is approx. 100sqm. Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 18Jan 09, 2010 12:14 pm dirkadirk Rex Would be interested to know what the tolerances are also as I spotted yesterday a small area that dips 5-10mm also. I want to put solid timber over it. Levelness of timber and concrete floors Except where documented or otherwise, new floors are defective if within the first 24 months they differ in level by more than 10mm in any room or area, or more than 4mm in any 2m length. The overall deviation of floor level to entire building footprint shall not exceed 20mm. This is from the Standards & Tollerances Hope this helps Excellent information, thankyou for that Will definitely be taking a long spirit level with a small ruler with me at PCI! Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 19Jan 15, 2010 9:43 am Had the supervisor and somebody else from the builder come out yesterday and havew spoken to the state manager about the uneven slab and apparently the building commission tolerances are not legislative and there is nothing wrong with the slab, yes it has highers areas but this should not effect the tiles being laid on to it. The state manager quoted other standard and tolerances which were higher than the building commission, am going to contact them again today to clarify this. The original tiler I had booked will not lay the tiles until the house is self levelled an added cost cost which I was not prepared for. Am getting some more quotes from tilers to see what they say... Re: Slab not level in areas for tiling 20Jan 15, 2010 4:16 pm Tillie Had the supervisor and somebody else from the builder come out yesterday and havew spoken to the state manager about the uneven slab and apparently the building commission tolerances are not legislative and there is nothing wrong with the slab, yes it has highers areas but this should not effect the tiles being laid on to it. The state manager quoted other standard and tolerances which were higher than the building commission, am going to contact them again today to clarify this. The original tiler I had booked will not lay the tiles until the house is self levelled an added cost cost which I was not prepared for. Am getting some more quotes from tilers to see what they say... Tillie I've been involved with quite a few on-site mediations (new homes) and every time this involves a building inspector employed by the building commission and a mediator from the building commission. If a fault has been picked out by the client the first thing the inspector does is check it against the Standards & Tolerances. If it's outside these tolerances then it has to be fixed, if it's within the tolerance then no further action will be taken. As far as I'm aware this guide is also referred to should cases go to VCAT too. Hope this gets resolved soon for you? Dirk isn't a garage level with the rest of the house a given? pretty sure they 'came around' long time ago. if you have a flat block, the garage is usually level with the rest… 1 17525 they can, it's a fairly standard solution when the slab isn't recessed. the falls need to be in the main floor, if it hasn't been done then you need to ask them to redo… 4 6586 interesting situation what happened after builder issued final invoice? did you list as defect or not does the building surveyor have any responsibility? ie. issuing… 13 46961 |