I just had a house built in October of last year. My driveway has four large sections that are raising and lowering, and in a few places, chipping and cracking as a result. I have at least four trip points of 1 inch or greater. My builder is telling me that this is a bad year for frost heave in the winter, and that eventually the concrete will settle back to where it started from. I am not believing this...how true is his statement? How do you prevent frost heave!???!?!
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Your builder is telling you what he wants you to believe. If the driveway is that young and hasn't survived the very first winter, it wasn't constructed correctly. There are a number of things that could be wrong, or a combination of some of these. And these are just a few of the most obvious...
The concrete is too thin.
The concrete is the wrong mix.
There's no reinforcing, or insufficient reinforcing in the slabs.
There are insufficient, incorrectly constructed, and/or inadequate control joints, expansion joints, and construction joints in the slabs.
The base material isn't free-draining gravel.
The base gravel is too thin.
The base gravel wasn't compacted correctly.
The existing sub-base wasn't prepared correctly.
There may be other reasons, but the baloney about the slab "settling" into place is just that...baloney.
[This message has been edited by treebeard (edited April 09, 2003).]
Wow...
Frost heave is just that,water expands when it freezes and creates a hydraulic pressure,lifting the slab, when it thaws the pressure is relived and the slab lowers.
This is a very serious problem mostly stemming from an impropper subbase. Your city/village should have codes regarding subbase prep. and they should have approved this.
DO NOT SETTLE FOR THIS SHODDY WORKMANSHOP!!!!
You will regret it later, if you have a high water table, the contractor should know this and compensated for it in the subbase(i.e open grade ca7 stone instead of ca6 gravel and fines).
good luck.
Frost heave is just that,water expands when it freezes and creates a hydraulic pressure,lifting the slab, when it thaws the pressure is relived and the slab lowers.
This is a very serious problem mostly stemming from an impropper subbase. Your city/village should have codes regarding subbase prep. and they should have approved this.
DO NOT SETTLE FOR THIS SHODDY WORKMANSHOP!!!!
You will regret it later, if you have a high water table, the contractor should know this and compensated for it in the subbase(i.e open grade ca7 stone instead of ca6 gravel and fines).
good luck.
