How to pour concrete......correctly?
 

I am no expert but know this is not how you pour a small landing for some stairs.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505538535.jpg


It looks like they set the form and poured right on top of the grass, no leveling, pebble base, tamping it down, etc...

Going to have a talk with my contractor tomorrow about this but how would you do this correctly?

That is a mess.

I can't see how that is anchored to prevent it from sliding, maybe under the concrete there is a pile that they dug down to the clay or hard pan? Normally you don't go over the top soil like this appears to be.

That's no contractor.

Go to Youtube for hundreds of videos on how to do this.

Your first task is to fire the contractor. If that's how he forms and pours concrete, he's too stupid, lazy or cheap to do anything correctly.

The first point I'm going to make is that before you start construction on the site, you need to get all of the site grading done. There are too many bad contractors that build first, then grade the site later.

Next, I don't have access to your soil testing report, if you have one, so I can't comment on what soil conditions you have there or what the structure looks like, any of the loads, etc. So this is just going to be generic advice.

The first thing you want to do is strip the topsoil to remove all organic matter down to inorganic materials that could be used as a base. Depending on the type of soil that you have on that site, you may wish to go deeper and replace soils that are not suitable with those that can be compacted. Whether the replacement is aggregate, sand or something else is up to you. This is then compacted thoroughly and forms are built on top of that. The form tops need to be at whatever elevation is appropriate for the design, the bottoms need to be sitting on the prepared subbase and ideally are a few inches lower than the finish grade needs to be when you're done. The base of the poured concrete needs to be level, the top can either be level or have a slight slope to allow for water drainage. After the concrete is poured, cured and the forms are stripped, then you can regrade the area around it to bring the finish grade back to the correct elevation.

If you have soil that is prone to movement from either varying moisture content or frost, then you want to extend the slab deeper, perhaps as deep as below the frost line in that area.

I don't particularly like that column I see in the background, I bet if I were to look at that site in person I'd find quite a number of things that are not done correctly.

Hell I even did a better job than that adding a lower step to my front door area of the house. I even managed to get a semi-circle shape on the outside.

Either the contractor screwed up and sent out two new guys to do it, or your contractor is more of an id10t than I am.

And whoever delivered the concrete probably drove away in the big truck laughing his ass off.

I see a jackhammer rental in your future.....

Was that a REAL contractor or a "my buddy does this on the side" contractor? Wow.


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Looks like concrete vomit.

I don't know the right way to do it, but I definitely know the way that you don't do it, and that's what that is. Wow, that's not even half-assed. That aspires to be half-assed after many more years of learning and experience.

Holy sheep dung. That is some stunning incompetence right there....

Somebody's future for sure....


No word yet.

You really need to consider firing this guy. I have no idea what else he's done, but there's absolutely no excuse for that concrete pour.

Hold my beer while I pour this concrete!

I'm pretty handy with plumbing, electrical, and carpentry... know nothing about concrete (other than helping my dad pour the driveway at our house when I was a teen) but I have been on hundreds of job sites and know what a concrete pour is supposed to look like... and that is not it.

What javadog said. No organic material underneath. The slab will be only as good as its sub-base. I'd bet there is no reinforcing in there, and it's on a slope. It will soon crack or slide, or both.

Elevation of the top of the slap should meet spec, if there is a 'plan' for the steps, which I question here. If not, then this project will fail at or before completion.

ew, damn that's bad work. That will slide and shift with the seasons. The last concrete I did was the floor in my extra garage. I did the whole job in 2002 and there still isn't a crack or any issue...and I am here in the northeast.

I wouldn't have done it that way but I msut ask, what's going on top of that lil' pad? It just maybe fine for its intended purpose and cost associated with the job. Maybe its just a pad for a couple of trashcans?

The post holding up the deck, I assume it is the deck, should be up a bit higher. Maybe the picture is distorting the elevation, but, it is better to have the wood above the ground and hopefully not sitting in water.

That's exactly how i would do it.

But i'm no contractor, and i know for fact that i can't build anything level to save my own life.

I would hope the post in the background has a diving board attached to it , and that the " contractor " is going to take a nosedive onto that slab he poured :D!!! Did you really pay someone to perform that pour ???

Some funny posts, thanks for making me laugh about it and thanks for the help.

Contractor has not contacted me about it so no info yet but know he subbed it out.

The pad is for some stairs to come off the deck, here are some more pics.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505687037.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505687100.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505687166.jpg

The way that those posts are set into the ground, don't expect them to last all that long. You can't have (even treated) lumber contacting soil.

It's also going to be a ***** to grade the area under the deck. He should've graded the area before he started, or at the very worst, after he set the posts but before he put the deck surface down.

I'm not trying to be the bearer of bad news but this guy did a bunch of things wrong.

I'm guessing that geometry was not his forte...

Unfortunately this is totally worthless and it will cost to remove.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505691132.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505691132.jpg

Is the top elevation correct?
Will the rest of the slab be hidden from sight?

you gonna start running straight line on a photo?

Agree with Javedog, those post are way too low. Get em' off the ground or else, you will be doing it again in a few years. As for the concrete pad? I wouldn't have done it that way . It needed to be dug out and at the very least, remove the grass. But for your purpose, it will be there for a few years before it starts to creep away. I hope you didn't paid him lot-o-money for the work

Ummm, is this permitted/inspected? Architect plan? I'm less concerned with grade of posts and pad (really no weight on it but the steps)....I'm more concerned bearing point load of roof (corner post) is not over a footing. Can you get a pic of joist/girders?

JJ - Sometimes cannot do that with pics, curve of optics.

Jay, put a level on the pad. Should be some pitch to drain, not much.... maybe 1/4" per foot.

Edit, nevermind, Canada frost... that pad will be a problem.

Looks to me the bottom form boards gave way on that pad.

Regarding the posts.....from what I understand when using concrete to set a post.....the concrete footing should come up a bit higher than the grade...thus preventing any water from pooling around the posts.

I'm no builder so just my ramblings......

So did I find out by Googling it following look 171 post.

But to BS my way out, I'll bet that on an 8' level the bubble will not be in center line :D:):D

Learn something every day but I wish it was a working day so I could have gone home...

That roof corner post was the first thing that caught my eye too and I'm a P.Eng licenced to practice in Alberta.

Now that you guys mentioned the load from the roof, I had to look at the pic again. I am wondering if that will be a enclosed living area or a screen in porch? No way they would allow that to be a living space around here.

As others have mentioned call your local building inspector about those support posts or check your blueprints. They should show the elevation above grade the supports should be. As this addition is attached to the house I'm assuming you had blueprints drawn up by a architect?

If left as they are they will rot and that section of house will sag down the road.

I'm in the process of lifting my neibours center beam in her house 5" because someone thought would be a good idea to encase the bottom of 10 X 10's uprights in concrete. The bottom edge rotted. It took several years for this to happen but left without correcting the main beam (and first floor) will fall into the basement.

Oh.....and that pad is wrong.

Forget that little pad.

JJ 911SC, you need to:
1). Remove all the interfering decking from that entire corner,
2). Shore up and brace load.
3). Dig a hole 48"+deep which is compacted/sand/etc/idontknow You are snowbelt also.
4). Put post under post all the way up.
5). Create a platform to support the entire corner of the house.

Scary stuff there man in my eyes.
but I'm not an expert.
There is no foundation for that roof extension which would pull everything else along with it.

Had some time to think about the pad and it "could" be on a pile but as there is no dirt around it I find it quite unlikely. Based on the amount of dirt around the house supports they didn't go into the ground very deep. But they could have cleaned up the considerable amount of mud that would have come out of each hole they would have drilled for each post. I don't see any bobcat tracks used to haul the mud away but they could have used a wheelbarrow. That's a lot of mud from 12-14 holes. Diameter squared X .7854 X length (in feet) or about 1.7 sq yds at 6 feet deep. But maybe there they aren't required to go that deep.

Not my house... LMFT4U