OK all you builders and handymen/women..... I have a house with seriously dried out foundations, no doubt due to our recent and lengthy dry spell. It didn't really concern me, until recently I've noticed that there is now a widening gap in between an area at the bottom of the concrete slab (of the garage) and the earth. Over time, the grass area appears to have sunk, along with some pavers abutting the brick wall of the garage, hence the gap. I can see the bottom of the slab and it does concern me Would I be best simply filling it up with some quickset cement or is there a more ominous problem here?
Will get onto it today, Carl Am having a slow week at home due to my son having the dreaded chicken pox so plenty of time to engage in photography Watch this space!
Hope you can see it clearly enough here in the gallery, where I've posted a couple of pictures. It appears the actual footings are exposed underneath the original slab?
Sorry Jacque - I think I missed the original reply notification ... and sorry I had a look in the gallery but can only find your 'VB Chicken' shot - - is there a link to the photos ? I should point out I personally don't know much about subsidence etc - but with a photo might be able to run it past a couple of builder contacts maybe ?
Hi Jacque Looks like subsidence due to the drainage pipe hole not having been compacted after installation. To 'fix' it you will need to pull up the paving build up the soil/sand and repave. As far as a gap the bricks look like they are still in contact with the slab so there is no problem there. Cheers ps don't fill with cement as if the soil does expand this would lift the slab just use sand.
Hi Jacque Looks like Handy is on top of it I had similar sorta issue on our PPOR and ripped up all the pavers a good couple of metres either side and used crusher dust as a base (trying to dissuade ants that seem to like the sand here). Once the base is completely level its fairly simple to lay 'em all back in place - 90% of the effort should go into preparation and 10% just placing the pavers back ;-) One thing you might want to consider is whether to have a pest controller lay irrigation pipe under before repaving, to pump white ant poison into each couple of years, if you're in a high risk area, but that would depend on the amount you re-pave (if its only a few metres won't really make much difference, but otherwise the only way they can inject enough chemical around your slab base is by drilling between the pavers every metre or so then plugging the holes after treatment - can look a bit dodgy. Cheers! Carl
Thanks guys- have got Steve onto ordering the crusher dust asap Appreciate you both taking the time to reply.
