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

Scott

This is what I would do.

Tell him you are not convinced on the product. Tell him you don't want him to throw good money after bad. Suggest he completes a trial, eg 2 m2 area on the slab. You pick the area for the trial (pick what you think is a bad or the worst section). Complete the trial section and leave it for a period of time. He should suggest or recommend the amount of time before you can drive on the slab after the trial.

Drive you car onto the slab and twist the wheels, jack the car up, drop objects (tools etc), use a pressure cleaner etc . See what happens.

If the trial is robust enough you'll have your answer so will he. I'm inclined to think he's wasting his money. If the trial is a success he has to follow the exact same method of application for the entire slab.

There are other products for depressions and typically BASF products (for this scenario) are compatible.

Regards
Andrew

[QUOTE=Scouse;2087652]After a few days of trying to speak to someone who has knowledge of Masterseal at BASF,

G'day Scouse,

Could you contact BASF directly and get one of their technical representatives to come out for a visit and for them to do a trial for you?

They may have other ideas of different products and procedures. At least they would know if their Masterseal product is suitable.

Kind Regards
Lionel

It was hard enough getting hold of someone to talk to, let alone get someone to do an 80 odd km trip to look at a slab.


I also got the distinct impression they like talking to people in the trade rather than the general public.


I just hope the product is better than their service.....




Next time I talk to the concreter, and I'm sure I'll be in touch with him again soon :angry:, I'll put forward Andrew D's suggestion.

After not hearing from the concreter again, I started the Fair Trading process yesterday.


Lo & behold who rocks up unannounced at 8.10 this morning.

He's convinced that this Masterseal 333 will do the job despite me telling him that BASF say it can't be used as a filler.

What's more, BASF say it can become slippery if it rains in the next 7 days so I hope he's brought an awful lot of plastic sheeting with him as storms are forecast in Sydney today.

Without going into how/why the surface hardening repair didn't work, this is still ongoing & now with Fair Trading but I'm having some difficulty getting someone with experience at repairing this to ask for advice. I've found plenty of concrete resurfacers (as in those who re-do old driveways) but I'm not 100% sure that this is what I need.


I have only found one person who seems to know what he's doing & but the repair quote is more than the slab cost.


My question is:
Should an average concreter be able to carry out what appears to be a specialised job such as this?


The repair quote I have goes along the lines of:
Grinding to remove surface chalking,
HP scrub & pressure clean to remove any imbedded loose waste,
Double prime surface,
Coat with external grade self levelling compound,
Surface coating 60Mpa
Sealant


The concreter has admitted to me that he has no experience with this problem so would I be right in pushing for someone experienced with this repair to carry it out?
I think I am but I thought I'd ask here in case it's just a simple job of following a set procedure. If it is, then the concreter should be able to do this repair without having the Tribunal involved.

I'd forget the patch - repair jobs and just get a new slab laid.

I tend to agree with Daniel.

Rather than an expensive grind and levelling compound, it may be more cost effective to just scabble the surface to remove any loose material, then just overlay with a new say 75mm thickness concrete slab?

Sent from my HTC One XL using AULRO mobile app

My experience is that 75mm thick concrete slabs on top of another slab rarely work as intended.

A slab laid on top of another should be a minimum 100mm thick.

Thanks for the tip. A 100mm slab on top of the existing is slightly cheaper than the complicated repair, and will give the low (zero) maintenance surface that I want. This even surprised the concreter who gave the quote for the 'slab on slab'.


Now to convince the Tribunal that's the way to go.

Fortunately, you are able to build up the surrounding area to the new slab height.