Defective concrete?

[billystargazer]

I hired a friend to build my 2 car garage last year. He had done work for me in the past and I have been satisfied. On my garage however, I noticed the very top 1/8 inch of concrete seems to be crumbling off in spots. This leaves the rough agregate underneath. There are spots where you can see that it is coming loose. It appears to be worse by the service door and beneath where the tires to my pickup truck was parked. Any ideas as to what might have been the cause of this and how it might be resurfaced? It has also almost all come loose from the garage apron. It is not a big problem but I probably should get it fixed before I seal and paint the floor.

 

[NHCharger]

I've had the same problem in my garage. I believe it's caused by the chemicals in the road salt they use during the winter. It's only on the side that my wife parks. The other side of the garage I have my firebird which I only drive on the better days during the winter so it doesn't come in loaded up with snow and salt on it. Also my wife bought some ice melt at Home Depot last year, they told her it wouldn't damage the concrete. Only took a month for the top of the concrete to peel off next to the garage doors. Also during to winter my wife starts her car and let's it warm up. The water dripping from the exhaust has caused the concrete to peel up. I'm going to fix all this this spring and coat the floor to prevent further damage.

 

[stupidjet]

taths just an excuse a contractor will give you...it was not finished properly, too much water was used, and water was left on the final finish, due to lack in time most likely...so it should have been floated again...

 

[NHCharger]

..it was not finished properly, too much water was used, and water was left on the final finish, due to lack in time most likely...so it should have been floated again...

When you say water was left on the final finish are you implying that the concrete contractor left standing water on the floor after his final floating and walk away?

 

[Zedder]

So, how does one fix these spots? The house we are considering has this problem at the garage entrance where the tires would run over the concrete. I'd like to repair this and then cover with Race Deck. Any ideas on what to use to fix it? Thanks, Mark

 

[billystargazer]

So, how does one fix these spots? The house we are considering has this problem at the garage entrance where the tires would run over the concrete. I'd like to repair this and then cover with Race Deck. Any ideas on what to use to fix it? Thanks, Mark

Yes! Any reccomendations for a fix?

 

[Brian]

Flaking problem does sound like too much water was used in the concrete mix.
If you are going to be covering the floor with tile you could try filling it in the rough spots with something like thinset as it could be spread out very thin and should have good bond strength to the concrete underneath. Or a self leveling underlayment could be spread out over the floor surface.

 

[Weekend_warrior]

If you do patch it you might brush on some bonding agent so that the new stuff sticks and does not crack and flake off. HD sales some patch repair stuff. I think its a vinyl type repair

Also, these guys make some stuff. Look toward the middle of the page.

http://www.sakretenw.com/products.html#concrete

Don't know how well it will work on that type of repair as more could flake off. I heard it was from pouring the concrete when it was to hot and it sets up to fast.

Good Luck.

 

[krooser]

My buddy's got the same problem...the contractor said the same thing...HOWEVER...my friend had another concrete contractor come over ang look at it.

He wasn't told who did the original job. He took one look and told my friend exactly who poured the slab. He said this guys ALWAYS waits too long to finish the surface (in this case 6 hours)...the #2 guy said everyone is suing this guy 'cuz 90% of his jobs do this.

 

[stupidjet]

when yo pour, you screed, wait, float, let it set until the shiny top goes away, the you finish, being broom or float finish..if there is too much water and the temps are against you, the time for it to set can take hours....b/c of that, you caneither wait longer or move on...basically, too much water int he mix...could be the contractor or the truck driver....you could patch it, but it's going to look like patch work...cometimes left alone will look better, depending on how bad it actually is

 

[stupidjet]

other option can be to grind downt he finish so u have exposed aggregate look...

 

[NHCharger]

The best product I've used to patch concrete is a product called Quick Crete.
I still believe road salt is a big factor in some cases where the concrete flakes off under the tires.
If you have concrete flaking or pulling up for no apparent reason that is caused by a poor finish job. A lot of concrete contractors now use calcium all the time. They use to use it only in the winter to help speed up the curing time so the concrete wouldn't freeze. Now, by using it all the time they can pour two foundations or pour two floors in one day.
What will happen is the floor will set up very fast and when they finish it with their paddle machine the concrete starts to peel up if they waited too long to start the finish . What they do if this happens is to pour some water on the floor so they can finish it. It may look good but the top 1/8" of concrete is very brittle (we call it burned) and it doesn't take much to damage to concrete when it's been finished like this.

 

[tubeman]

I beleive it is called spalling. And basically everyone is correct. Lazy contractor waited too long to float the concrete and/or added too much water. Botton line is that the rotten areas will eventually spall down to the solid crete and you should be OK.