concrete heave

[rweaver]

Anyone else ever have a concrete slab freeze and rise up an inch. The contractor that poured it in the fall said with all the rain before they poured it that the ground froze and expanded. He said it will go down when the frost comes out and next year sans the water beneath it should not heave again. The contractor is very reputable he remove about a foot of clay and put down crushed concrete base.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Same thing happened on the unheated perimeter of a friends new built shop. I figure the same, it will sink to normal and stay there after the frost is gone. It's too bad because we are putting up steel inside right now. He insisted....

 

[Kevin54]

Your contractor is full of ****. If you have it now, you will continue to have it. I have a sidewalk from the house to the garage. Down at the garage where is comes to the apron, the sidewalk will rise an inch depending on how cold the winter gets. If you have a mild winter, you may not get a lot of rise out of it. If you have a varying winter where it gets cold, then warm, then cold again, or just a super cold winter that is constantly cold, the frost will heave the concrete.

I was going to pin the sidewalk to the apron, but forgot, so it heaves there every year. The rest of the sidewalk, I had the gravel down for almost 2 years before I poured the concrete, so with the mower, roller, and whatever else running across it for that length of time, it was packed super tight. On a sidewalk, I always run two rows of rebar down the sidewalk, and I make sure that where the control joints are going to be at, the rebar is doubles up and tiewrapped together. That way the control joint will not crack and create a trip hazard.

It's hard to eliminate frost heave unless, you have a lot of stone underneath to absorb the moisture. If it is just concrete on the ground, you will have frost heave. Gravel gives room for the moisture when it freezes and fills the voids instead of wanting to push everything up.

How much gravel did he put down, if any?

 

[Bondo]

Anyone else ever have a concrete slab freeze and rise up an inch. The contractor that poured it in the fall said with all the rain before they poured it that the ground froze and expanded. He said it will go down when the frost comes out and next year sans the water beneath it should not heave again. The contractor is very reputable he remove about a foot of clay and put down crushed concrete base.

Ayuh,.... It'll lay back down come Spring,...

As for next year, 'n beyond,....
Did he provide drainage to his dig out, as well as addin' the crusher run,..??

It sounds like yer soils are like around here,....
When I box out a driveway, I provide for the box to drain, to keep the stone dry,...
Dry stone won't heave, as there's no water to expand,....

If the sub-grade, aka: the clay box, can't drain,.....
Odds are, it'll continue to heave whenever it gets frost under it,....

 

[PAToyota]

Improper sub-grade prep. It will continue to heave until it cracks.

 

[mikegt4]

Did your contractor provide a path for the water in the gravel to drain away? If he just dug a hole the size of your garage (or driveway) then filled it with gravel the water is trapped in that space until it seeps out through the dirt. A drain tile system is needed to drain the water out from under the building or driveway.

 

[rweaver]

24x32 foot approach in front of shop and property drops to the north along the 32 foot length approx. 1.5 feet may have to dig along the length and put some drain tile in to get rid of ground water.

 

[dfiler2]

I have seen it many times, 3 years ago we had a very wet fall, concrete heaved where it never had before, some stores had to reverse their doors. It all went back to normal, no problems since, I believe the contractor is correct.

 

[noslocars]

I had new concrete heave the first winter at my house and it has never heaved the other 12 winters I've been here.

 

[Gojeremy]

My dad's driveway heaves and goes back down every year and they have been in the house for 22 years. Concrete is still in decent condition too.

 

[65ramler]

My drive on my detached garage goes up every winter and down in spring

 

[mikec35]

Unless you stop the water from getting under the slab it will continue to happen. Happened to me this past year. By the time we cut and replaced the section of concrete it had settled back down.

 

[wssix99]

Anyone else ever have a concrete slab freeze and rise up an inch. The contractor that poured it in the fall said with all the rain before they poured it that the ground froze and expanded. He said it will go down when the frost comes out and next year sans the water beneath it should not heave again. The contractor is very reputable he remove about a foot of clay and put down crushed concrete base.

This could be accurate depending on what this is and if it rained right before the pour and froze pretty soon after that.

Is this flat work outside or a garage slab? If a slab, do you have full foundation walls?

 

[Bondo]

24x32 foot approach in front of shop and property drops to the north along the 32 foot length approx. 1.5 feet may have to dig along the length and put some drain tile in to get rid of ground water.

Ayuh,... If it wasn't done when the area was boxed out, Ya, that'll no doubt help, or cure the problem,....

A foot, 'n a half drop oughta be plenty to drain it,....