Thread: Laitance on a new slab - how to approach removal/repair?

I don't know if this is good luck or what but I received a letter from my council yesterday asking for H.O.W. insurance. I called the shed mob & they say this is needed if the work is over a certain $ limit.
Why didn't they tell me this before? Why didn't council ask for this with the application? Anyway, it's another $270 out of my pocket & I might just wait until I have this in my hands before letting them know about the slab issue.




BTW, here's a video:

I can see your point now, that looks like crap and what I would call not fit for purpose. Drive a car on and off that for a couple of months and you'll be down to the soil.

Scott

My advice is to go back to the shed company now. (I would be reluctant to pay another cent to them at this stage).

That is horrible (I watched the video).

Also a 100 mm thick slab is pretty thin I would think. Pretty sure most footpaths are thicker. Upside is most slabs go down thicker due to poor adherence to earthwork tolerances.

Assuming the strength (MPa) and thickness (mm) are OK I would be hitting them up to pressure blast the entire slab and seal it, (just in one section at first to see how much is removed). If OK, do the entire slab and then seal the slab (same as what you see in shopping centre carparks - wheels squeal like no tomorrow on them).

Alternatively you can ask them to polish or grind the slab.

Definitely ask them and see what they have to say or offer. I would put it back on them sooner rather than later though.

Regards
Andrew

Originally Posted by Andrew D

Scott

My advice is to go back to the shed company now. (I would be reluctant to pay another cent to them at this stage).

That is horrible (I watched the video).

Also a 100 mm thick slab is pretty thin I would think. Pretty sure most footpaths are thicker. Upside is most slabs go down thicker due to poor adherence to earthwork tolerances.

Assuming the strength (MPa) and thickness (mm) are OK I would be hitting them up to pressure blast the entire slab and seal it, (just in one section at first to see how much is removed). If OK, do the entire slab and then seal the slab (same as what you see in shopping centre carparks - wheels squeal like no tomorrow on them).

Alternatively you can ask them to polish or grind the slab.

Definitely ask them and see what they have to say or offer. I would put it back on them sooner rather than later though.

Regards
Andrew

100mm is the thinnest slab for cars apparently. I would have loved to gone 150mm but the budget wouldn't stretch that far.


I'm just waiting for this Home Owner Warranty Insurance paperwork to come through & once that's in my hands (hopefully by Friday), they'll be told about the slab.
The reason I'll wait for the insurance is that the concreter mentioned that they're looking at changing shed suppliers. If that does happen mid way through my problem, they could well close one company down & start afresh. I might need to make a claim .

Originally Posted by Scouse

I don't know if this is good luck or what but I received a letter from my council yesterday asking for H.O.W. insurance. I called the shed mob & they say this is needed if the work is over a certain $ limit.
Why didn't they tell me this before? Why didn't council ask for this with the application? Anyway, it's another $270 out of my pocket & I might just wait until I have this in my hands before letting them know about the slab issue.

A look at the Fair Trading website shows that this should have been provided by the shed company before any work was started.
A call to Fair Trading confirmed this & they cannot charge me for this policy.
It should get pretty interesting when I call in tomorrow.......

Insurance details are normally required to be on the application (to council/certifier) and would not imagine your shed would get the go ahead without it.

This $$ is normally included in the application costs.

This is still dragging out.....mainly due to the Christmas/New Year break but also because they don't want to be the one making things happen.


A polite but to the point email last week resulted in direct contact from the concreter within 90min.


His solution to this problem is to use a BASF product going by the name of Masterseal 333.


Google brings up a few technical sites for the product but nothing in the way of real life experiences. Being made by BASF, I would expect that it's decent quality.


The concreter tells me that it's made for this problem, is 'one off' application & is not slippery like normal concrete sealant.


Has anyone here actually had any experience with this?

BASF have good products. Masterseal 333 likewise looks like a good option provided it's applied correctly.

If you haven't have a good read of the spec(TDS) and make sure they follow it.

Probably would pay to call BASF and get their opinion and also confirm what the 'surface preparation' should be for your situation. I think your surface preparation will be quite intense.

Regards
Andrew

BASF Masterseal 333 | Productspec