# floor pour gone wrong



## Oberon (Nov 2, 2006)

Good morning,

My daughter is in the process of building a new home in northern Wisconsin. It is slab on grade using a shallow-frost-footing foundation.

The folks who poured the floor did an amazingly bad job of leveling / smoothing it. I told them that it was unacceptable and that they needed to fix it. The attached garage floor, poured on a different day, was fine.

They suggested adding a couple of inches (it was that far out of level) of self-leveling gypcrete to "fix" the problem. We agreed and they prepped and poured over the original floor. It was much better, but not perfect. My daughter paid them anyway, against my advice. I wanted to wait a bit to see how this one turned out.

Anyway, although the house has in-floor radiant heat, (in the original slab), the _new_ floor does not appear to have wintered well. It is possibly even worse than it was in the beginning (the orginal pour was really bad. According to a friend who lays tile, it was the worst floor pour he had ever seen!), but at least the original slab was "solid" if uneven and sloppy. 

It appears that in some areas the gypcrete didn't adhere to the original concrete in some areas and has moved. There are bumps, rolling hills, and cracks in the gypcrete and places where the edge of one crack is as much as an 1/8" out of level with the other edge. In some spots you get a hollow echo when you tap on the gypcrete with a hammer, I can guess what that means.

Of course now the interior walls are up and the house is much further along...

Any advice? Recommendations?

Thanks!


----------



## go dart (Dec 6, 2005)

that my friend sounds like an ugly situation. is the capping now too thick for the radiant heat to be effective? finish floors will be ceramic tile? maybe best to remove all loose material and repour a self leveling product. if theres no adhesion to the origional slab (bonding agent used?) its gotta go. if your daughter had used a builder this situation alone would of paid his time.


----------



## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

She started with a cluster****. Any fix will be an abortion.

She will have different thicknesses and densities of concrete, they may not expand and contract together. The thin areas are likely to be a problem. Anchor bolts are to short.

Rip out the slab and start over.


----------



## Cole (Aug 27, 2004)

thom said:


> Rip out the slab and start over.


x2. :sad:


----------



## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

x3.


----------



## stacker (Jan 31, 2006)

x.IV


----------



## CJKarl (Nov 21, 2006)

Call her lawyer...then rip the slab out. I'm surprised that she built on a slab that far north. We would VERY RARELY do that here in CT.


----------



## Oberon (Nov 2, 2006)

Thanks for the replies. 

Frost protected shallow foundations are becoming much more common in our area, primarily in commercial construction, but also in residential (I would guess multi-family) as well. 

http://www.toolbase.org/Home-Buildi...struction/frost-protected-shallow-foundations

The folks that put in her slab use this technique quite often.

Unfortunately, since the slab/footings are done in a single pour, the exterior walls rest on the slab...tearing up the slab may not be an option, short of tearing down the entire structure. 

Should be interesting.

Thanks again.


----------



## CJKarl (Nov 21, 2006)

Call her lawyer,Saw the perimeter flush with the walls, THEN rip it out. All kidding aside, good luck with it.


----------



## Brock (Dec 16, 2007)

x 5 WARNING: Do not build on the slab. You have to lift it out and haul it off. Start over is a no brainer even if you wind up having to eat the cost.


----------



## Edsollen (Oct 30, 2006)

To late they already did the framing. I would be very concerned about the "skim" coat delaminating with the heat in the floor. I would further be worried about cutting the floor along the walls due to this being a monolithic slab. I would be hard pressed to accept any thing other than a complete redo.
Joel


----------



## A W Smith (Oct 14, 2007)

if you are intent on keeping the slab you may as well abandon the radiant heat system in place because it will never work due to the thermal break in the two pours. You are stuck with baseboard or another type of heat system.


----------



## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

What was the temperature of the slab when they poured the gypcrete? I take it the house is in Wisconsin where you are from Oberon? If the structural slab was in good shape (strength wise, not appearance) and they went and poured that gypcrete over a frozen exposed slab and then left the gypcrete exposed to freezing temps, no surprise that it is now lifting.
If the structural slab was way too wet and started dusting off then the gypcrete wouldn't bond properly to that either.
I would remove the gypcrete, grind the original slab down some what, abandon the original radiant, lay new tubing on the slab, and repour the gypcrete. Make sure the slab isn't cold when you repour.


----------



## CR2 (Apr 5, 2007)

In this case, suggesting a complete tear out/redo is not conscious of what it takes (effort and money), I'm almost 100% sure that they won't be reimbursed and they'll be paying for fixing the mistake,sometimes the best thing to do is not possible, so my modest advice is to forget about the existing tubing, flash all the walls, install new tubing(optional) and pour a new slab(full body, not an overlay), new tubing can be reconnected to system; the only downside of this is that doors height need to be adjusted, but all this will be cheaper than tear out and redo everything.
Good Luck!


----------



## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

So long as the person who caused the problem pays for the fix what is the issue?


----------



## bobcaygeonjon (Aug 30, 2007)

CR2 said:


> In this case, suggesting a complete tear out/redo is not conscious of what it takes (effort and money), I'm almost 100% sure that they won't be reimbursed and they'll be paying for fixing the mistake,sometimes the best thing to do is not possible, so my modest advice is to forget about the existing tubing, flash all the walls, install new tubing(optional) and pour a new slab(full body, not an overlay), new tubing can be reconnected to system; the only downside of this is that doors height need to be adjusted, but all this will be cheaper than tear out and redo everything.
> Good Luck!


 
x2 :blink:


----------



## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

So my understanding, CR2 and bobcaygeonjon, is that since it will cost the contractor a lot of money, he is released from his responsibility to provide the services contracted for?!

Bullchit!


----------



## C.C.R. (May 19, 2006)

Have your lawyer contact your GC. If you don't have one:no:, guess what? This is the crap we get paid for! :whistling Now, have your lawyer track down the hack that poured the floor and Good Luck!


----------



## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

Go after the mason's insurance company or put in a claim against your insurance and they will subragate(sp?) against the mason to get their money back.


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Rip out smip out. **** the hack ass gypcrete. Force the hacks to use level flex. The real way to fix a hacked up slab.


----------

