Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Apr 12, 2018 8:12 am 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 Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 6May 18, 2018 9:24 am 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 Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 7May 18, 2018 9:41 am 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 Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 14May 19, 2018 10:31 pm Mauromario, I am not familiar with the VCAT system unfortunately, as all my work comes from the east coast of AUS. But I am familiar with the QBCC system and I am sure its not that dissimilar than then of the VCAT one. I think in an early post I expressed that in VIC it was (and still is) not uncommon, (if fact prior 2016 this is how generally it was done) to use the data available in Appendix D of AS2870 to ascertain soil classes throughout VIC without doing a soil test. Now this is an entirely different manner then what you have stated, where you have a soil test of which shows three(3) boreholes done on your site. Have you had an independent soil tester confirm or dis concern the results? From there have you had an independent engineer confirm the "design" based on the "independent" soil test. VCAT like the QBCC will not really be interested unless your damage is outside the Appendix C Category 2 damage criteria. This goes back to my entire post about AS2870 performance criteria and the expectations of home owners. Regards Geo1 Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 15May 19, 2018 10:44 pm Most soil test reports will include a photo of the block taken by the technician doing the test. Compare your photo to the one taken by the soil testing company they may have tested the wrong block by mistake. Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 16May 19, 2018 11:03 pm building-expert Good point from Geo1 about 5% of under performing builds. That is 5% of shattered lives in the community and with 25000/year builds = 1250 families/year affected. It is a regulatory failure on a Titanic scale to allow builds on estates with highly reactive soils without catchment for those owners who fall between the cracks. Firstly there should have been a fund created for those whose homes that are affected but not declared defective. For those homes that are badly affected to be declared defective there should be automatic buyback for demolition. If the slabs have to be engineered so what? Its the cost of big screen tv The other point is that regardless of engineering or site reactivity the biggest contribution to slab heave is builder's incompetence and negligence. As I write this I regularly report on defective site drainage during construction, that is despite builder's taking owners money and promising to deliver engineered product but failing to follow engineering specification on drainage. One of the posters had his site severely flooded during construction for extended time, deteriorating his M site into P site with M slab on top. Hi building-expert, Thanks for the comment and I already hold you in high regard based on your comment about "drainage". A lot of builders do not still understand (even though its documented in AS2870), that they are responsible for site drainage at day of builder contract commencement. I do not know how many times I have inspected house slabs where it has rained the day before or the week before but their is water ponding around the edge beam. This in terms of AS2870 entails "abnormal moisture conditions" and therefore the site becomes Class "P" and logically following the original design becomes null and void in a sense. We recently did a study of a vacant between two houses underconstruction, on the left side, the dwelling's down pipes was connected via temporary piping to the stormwater pipes and on the right hand side the dwellling's down pipes were left to run onto the ground. We conducted moisture samples ever 200mm down to a depth of 4metres. The difference in moisture content was literally 40% after 2 weeks. Both builders were not our clients thankfully, but we did have access to the vacant site in between. Now to a lay person this does not mean much, but in terms of what we do and the implications of AS2870 this was massive. Does this mean the vacant site in between was subject to "abnormal moisture conditions" constituting Class P conditions and extra site costs to the potential owner of the vacant block of land? The moisture gradient from one side of the vacant block to the other was massive. Who is responsible? The developer who sold a Class "M"? or the soil tester on $400 budget and didn't conduct moisture testing? In terms of your post the only thing I disagree with is this, "If the slabs have to be engineered so what? Its the cost of big screen tv" Well yes the cost of engineering a slab(i assume you mean the design aspect as in the cost it takes to pay an engineer to design a slab not the cost of actually takes constructing the design) is most likely the cost of a big screen tv. But the cost of "constructing" an ENGINEERED designed slab that performs well above Appendix C of AS2870 in the eyes of the consumer generally results in site costs over an above $50k. AS2870 again I will repeat it, its a cost/affordability/expectation design. If the builder presents the client with a copy of Appendix C and states "you want a standard design here are your risks", then "this is what you have to tolerate". The sooner the industry will change go better engineering (although in most instances substantially more costs), then the better the industry will be. Present the facts, deal the the consequences (on both sides consumer and builder) and everyone wins. Regards Geo1. Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 17May 19, 2018 11:21 pm Ha that's a good one we never got a photo with our soil report, I was not awere that they take photo of your block of land, our reports were not even stamped or checked by the RBS go figure that out. I know the builder has a lot to answer for but the geotechnical engineers are just as bad, for not being honest. Iam Victoria I hoped you guys are as well I know Geo1 is not but great help thank you at the moment Victoria is allowing all this to happen in the name of keeping the building Industry working but at what cost. I built my house in April 2010 and 8 years later my house still moves like a yoyo heave is so bad that it's pushing the roof tiles upwards lifting some of the tiles. Roof trusses have pulled apart exposing the 90mm nail in the frame work. I've had in total of 8 floor levels done in 12 months and levels are out by a lot, and very room has moved up and down, My airflow pipe for toilet and heater flu are so bent over its crazy. All I can say is in 3 years that I've been fighting this I have learned a lot and lawyers are cashing in on this as well so everyone makes money out of us poor consumer's its a real shame that people like this are not held accountable by the law, i really want to bring this out in the open when the time comes. I really appreciate the help I have received on this forum it shows me there is good honest people out there so thank you I'll keep you guys posted. Regards Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 18May 19, 2018 11:22 pm insider Most soil test reports will include a photo of the block taken by the technician doing the test. Compare your photo to the one taken by the soil testing company they may have tested the wrong block by mistake. Many a time have we confused photos with job numbers..... It happens. Thankfully, 99% of the time we get it right. But still does not hurt to check. Most soil testers are doing in excess of 500 sites a month and therefore, sometimes the old DSLR gets confused when uploading. We try and make a point of the guys taking a photo of the job number/file first and then the site. This means when they get back to the office to upload for the day they know when one job's photos stop and the other other one starts. Thankfully technology is helping, where we have cloud based servers uploading photos from site instantly. Regards Geo1 Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 19May 19, 2018 11:28 pm Mauromario Ha that's a good one we never got a photo with our soil report, I was not awere that they take photo of your block of land, our reports were not even stamped or checked by the RBS go figure that out. I know the builder has a lot to answer for but the geotechnical engineers are just as bad, for not being honest. Iam Victoria I hoped you guys are as well I know Geo1 is not but great help thank you at the moment Victoria is allowing all this to happen in the name of keeping the building Industry working but at what cost. I built my house in April 2010 and 8 years later my house still moves like a yoyo heave is so bad that it's pushing the roof tiles upwards lifting some of the tiles. Roof trusses have pulled apart exposing the 90mm nail in the frame work. I've had in total of 8 floor levels done in 12 months and levels are out by a lot, and very room has moved up and down, My airflow pipe for toilet and heater flu are so bent over its crazy. All I can say is in 3 years that I've been fighting this I have learned a lot and lawyers are cashing in on this as well so everyone makes money out of us poor consumer's its a real shame that people like this are not held accountable by the law, i really want to bring this out in the open when the time comes. I really appreciate the help I have received on this forum it shows me there is good honest people out there so thank you I'll keep you guys posted. Regards Hi Maruomario Based on what you have described, I am out of words to describe how VCAT would not take this case up. More then happy to put you in touch with some people that may be able to help in VIC if you personal message me. Can't guarantee anything but there is always no harm in asking especially from what you have described. Regards Geo1. Re: Slab heave is alive and well, watch out. 20May 20, 2018 3:49 am Hey guys iam going to show a little of my build during construction and you can see what issues i have today. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This is June 2010. I have over 500 photos from start to finish plus another 700 photos from 2011 till now with tne propblems casused by this. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Trusses coming apart showing 90mm nails from frame and also sign of water under roof tiles this from 2017 thats just one photo. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Kitchen Have a look at big long crack next to plate of handle of shutters and plaster been streached so much that the tear has a line across and had to cover this with clear contact as well, on the right hand side of photo big hole in plaster i had to cover it with clear contact to stop bugs from getting in, this photo from 2017. This wall i can move it with my hand if i push on it, its come off the slab nothing holding it in place totally buckled wall . Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I forgot this photo from June 2010 looking from bedroom window water all around the house, plus they had removed the rear side fence to get access to next door to bring bricks and other materials with a bobcat now this is driving on top of new waffle slab still very fresh from garage entrance i have a rear door as well. I have much more. And as i said now i have a slab which was disigned for so called M site soil i think this should it have changed to a P before the build since the drought broke late 2009 early 2010 it rained every day. It was wet like this all of the 8.5 months of building. I really thought to my self dam has not rained in 15 years now that iam building its raining every day. I would love to hear from you guys on any feedback would be great. I think this is all i can share for now this is me been angry with the system that helps builders get away with distroying people lifes. It's possible but a soak well is usually much larger. Your 'soak well' only holds 424 litres when full. What is your soil type? Soak wells need sandy soils. 10 9697 Finally got the Soakwell at my house sucked out. Now I’m looking for ideas on how to hide it as it’s a bit of an eye sore. I’m thinking I’d like to turf over the… 0 4262 Firstly the ableflex that has been installed needs (manufactures specification) a sealant cap over the top, preventing water draining down between the slab and the… 3 8371 |