At Home In The Woods

[PhysAssist]

The floor should be fairly level. If it is wavy it is most likely from poor workmanship. There is no easy fix outside of removing and replacing. Did the mason have insurance?

I have a feeling that we are about to find out.

:-(

 

[Beltman60]

started the pellet stove last night
got down to 18 this morning and only a high of 34 this afternoon

 

[clemsonfor]

De nada, especially since we just got our barn floor poured and are now lilely to needing one ourselves.

May I be so bold as to hijack your awesome thread for 2 questions? 1) Do you or any of your followers have a recommendation for a product to seal and/paint the 1200sq feet of our new concrete barn/garage floor, adding non-slip properties would be a plus, but are not required, but preventing hot tire pickup is mandatory.

2) Given the (to me) huge expanse of our 35'x40' freshly poured (last Tuesday) concrete floor, is it unreasonable to expect that it os smooth and flat, vs. wavy and irregular?

We first noticed it because my boss, Patricia has balance problems and felt like there were irregularities in the floor when walking on it, and when we looked at it with a worklight sitting on the floor, we saw why she felt that way. It has numerous waves throughout it, in fact it appears that there is no really flat area present.

We feel like for >$6K, we should have a generally flat and level floor, rather than what we have (so far).

Is this an unreasonable expectation? If not, what can the mason do to fix it? I know that there are leveling compounds available, but they seem to be mostly for prepping floors for being covered with flooring, which we do not plan to have done.

If Obed doesn't mind, I will follow with some pictures ASAP. Obed, do you mind awfully?

Thanks,
Thomas

PS: I have been trying to figure out where and how to post these questions, should I do so in a separate thread?

Are there any designed to be the top layer?

Self leveling concrete poured over the whole area and trowled around to cover it then sit.

Well not sure if that stuff works for load bearing floors like garages and such. I know it is used for basements and areas for tile or something to level it up, not sure if it would or is used in garages where they need to hold up.

 

[Danno1]

De nada, especially since we just got our barn floor poured and are now lilely to needing one ourselves.

May I be so bold as to hijack your awesome thread for 2 questions? 1) Do you or any of your followers have a recommendation for a product to seal and/paint the 1200sq feet of our new concrete barn/garage floor, adding non-slip properties would be a plus, but are not required, but preventing hot tire pickup is mandatory.

2) Given the (to me) huge expanse of our 35'x40' freshly poured (last Tuesday) concrete floor, is it unreasonable to expect that it os smooth and flat, vs. wavy and irregular?

We first noticed it because my boss, Patricia has balance problems and felt like there were irregularities in the floor when walking on it, and when we looked at it with a worklight sitting on the floor, we saw why she felt that way. It has numerous waves throughout it, in fact it appears that there is no really flat area present.

We feel like for >$6K, we should have a generally flat and level floor, rather than what we have (so far).

Is this an unreasonable expectation? If not, what can the mason do to fix it? I know that there are leveling compounds available, but they seem to be mostly for prepping floors for being covered with flooring, which we do not plan to have done.

If Obed doesn't mind, I will follow with some pictures ASAP. Obed, do you mind awfully?

Thanks,
Thomas

PS: I have been trying to figure out where and how to post these questions, should I do so in a separate thread?

Are there any designed to be the top layer?

1) I used Benjamin Moore M70/71 epoxy. It was recommended by a friend who owns a machine shop. It's bombproof. Do NOT use Rust-Oleum floor epoxy from HD/Lowes. Same friend had a very bad experince with it. And this was in the office area!

http://164.109.30.55/professionals/manual/6-06-M70-M71.pdf



2)Commercial spec is 1/8 inch variation over 6 feet.




.

 

[Obed]

If Obed doesn't mind, I will follow with some pictures ASAP. Obed, do you mind awfully?

Thomas, please do.
Obed

 

[Obed]

I replaced a sink drain in the rental house. Plumbing is definitely not my gifting. On my first attempt, I did not use any plumber's putty which resulted in a leaking sink. I got it right the second time using copious amounts of putty.



I still haven't finished fixing the shower so the house is still empty. Granted I haven't killed myself working on the house but I have spent almost every Saturday there for a while. I am looking forward to getting my Saturday's back so I can cut some more firewood.

 

[Obed]

2) Given the (to me) huge expanse of our 35'x40' freshly poured (last Tuesday) concrete floor, is it unreasonable to expect that it os smooth and flat, vs. wavy and irregular?

Is this an unreasonable expectation? If not, what can the mason do to fix it? I know that there are leveling compounds available, but they seem to be mostly for prepping floors for being covered with flooring, which we do not plan to have done.

Thomas,
Building is a great exercise in patience. At the end of the day, sometimes you have figure out if the stress that comes from trying to make people do the right thing is worth it. When we built our house, I was always trying to balance what was important to us against when to make a big deal out of something and when not to. The line I drew had a lot to do with whether or not the issue would cause maintenance or structural problems somewhere down the road. Also, if a subcontractor was in general conscientious, I would give him more grace than a sub who cut corners as his normal practice.

Regarding your floor, our basement is larger than yours but is very flat. Before the house was dried in, I could only tell where low spots were by looking at the pools of water after a rain. Now that the house is finished, I have no idea what spots are low or high. I cannot see them and don't notice them while walking.

In the grand scheme, you are building a barn. If the unlevelness doesn't cause you significant issues on a practical nature, I would tend to let it go and spend my energy on something else. I know that's easier said than done.

Obed

 

[Coyote machine]

I'd look at someone who could use a concrete 'shaving' ? machine; what is used to cut/polish concrete floors prior to coating them with epoxy or tile or whatever for high end garagemahal type floors, and inquire if it's possible to grind off high spots or fill in lows or both.
You may find that the cost to correct the installers mistakes is high enough to choose to live with it or take him to court to force him to make it right or refund your money.:confused3:
You ought to search other web forums about garage floors to get the right know-how about this.
This thread isn't likely going to yield much in the way of pro grade advice. Except for mine, of course!:laughing:

 

[clemsonfor]

I'd look at someone who could use a concrete 'shaving' ? machine; what is used to cut/polish concrete floors prior to coating them with epoxy or tile or whatever for high end garagemahal type floors, and inquire if it's possible to grind off high spots or fill in lows or both.
You may find that the cost to correct the installers mistakes is high enough to choose to live with it or take him to court to force him to make it right or refund your money.:confused3:
You ought to search other web forums about garage floors to get the right know-how about this.
This thread isn't likely going to yield much in the way of pro grade advice. Except for mine, of course!:laughing:

I though about a machine to grind it level but that would be dusty unless its done wet and then you have dust when it dries, and unless its visible and huge gaps let it be, all concrete has low spots that will pool water even though it looks like glass. I too would let it be unless its a huge noticable thing, i dont think it will be an easy fight. Look into self leveling and can it tolerate driving, if it will maybe see if the guy will self level then seal it with something as that stuff looks like grey epoxy i beleive.

 

[CurlyDave]

I though about a machine to grind it level but that would be dusty unless its done wet and then you have dust when it dries, and unless its visible and huge gaps let it be, all concrete has low spots that will pool water even though it looks like glass. I too would let it be unless its a huge noticable thing, i dont think it will be an easy fight. Look into self leveling and can it tolerate driving, if it will maybe see if the guy will self level then seal it with something as that stuff looks like grey epoxy i beleive.

I have used one of these concrete grinding machines.

There are two basic kinds I know of, possibly more. The kind I used is called a "scarrifier" which is obviously not the same as the tooth-like attachment on a box blade or drag. They are very dusty and remove a very light layer of concrete by striking it with metal blades. Sort of the size of a lawn mower, but much heavier.

The surface finish they produce is coarse, almost like the concrete has been hit hard with thousands of small hammers about 1/8" in diameter. They can shave possibly 1/32" from concrete in one pass, maybe only half of that. The concrete turns to dust. I had a small "mound" of concrete in an otherwise flat floor, about 3" high and 12' in diameter. It took three days to get this to an acceptable point of maybe a 3/4" mound centered in the same place. You have to be careful to get it evenly ground down. Too many passes in the wrong place and you get a groove.

The second type of a machine is more of a polisher. Tt is used to produce Terrazzo-type floors. I am not sure how much material it removes, but I don't think it is the one for this situation.

* * * * * *

I will never again have concrete flatwork done by an outside contractor with out a flatness specification in the contract, and a measurement of flatness before payment.

I think you may have to learn to live with the surface you have, or, if you can accept a raised floor, pour a 3" pad on top of the one you have.

If you can't, tear it out and start again is the only realistic way of getting it flat.

* * * * *

I once had a contractor, after 18 months of trying to fix a serious problem tell me he had insurance, and that I should call them. Don't fall into this trap. The insurance company has done this thousands of times, you have only done it once. They will tell you what they are going to do, which is usually nothing or a very inexpensive fix, which does not work.

As soon as I heard that, I called a lawyer, who called the insurance company and told them what they were going to do. They didn't like this one little bit, but after a lot of wrangling they settled for $80k, which was about $70k higher than their first offer. If you do not have a lawyer, they will never seriously negotiate with you.