Remodeling nightmere - I am having some concrete repair work done on my 10 year old home in Houston Texas. The first four feet of the concrete driveway from my garage doors is actually part of the monolith poured post tensioned foundation. My general contractor hired a concrete contractor to remove and replace the stamped top coat that was badly done by the first concrete contractor he hired. Instead of chipping away the top coat his workers jack hammered the entire area down to the subsoil and broke (4) post tension cables in the process - (3) running under the garage to the back of the house and (1) running from one side of the house to the other close to the front wall.
The concrete contractor brought in another contractor to replace the broken cables. They had to go to the back of the house to locate and remove the concrete covering the other ends of the broken cables. They replaced the cables and put in new anchors in the area they jack hammered and poured the new concrete. A week later they returned and tensioned the new cables and parged the holes.
The concrete contractor "guarantees" we will not have any problems with our foundation but I don't think a guarantee from a small company gives me much comfort. Do I need to be concerend about foundation problems? Will this void my homeowners warranty from the original home builder (we are the original owners)? What problems will this create if we decide to sell the home in the future?
Eagle 146-- I don't think you have to worry...after a few years, post tension slabs have cured, and no longer require the stressing of the cables.
I am curious as to why your builder 10 years ago incorporated the garage apron into this tensioned pour--should be separate with an expansion joint and slight rise to the garage floor.
I also don't understand from your description how they "retro-tensioned" the slab, I can see where they might have tensioned the new drive pour, but just the dimensions of the driveway.
As to your warranty, if the house is 10 years old, the common in TX warrranty is a '2 and 10', meaning all warranties would be expired. In 20+ years, I have not seen (nor purchased) a warranty longer than that. Hope this helps some.
Posts: 16 | Location: Dallas area | Registered: 11 January 2006
Thank you for the reply. I can only guess that the reason the apron off of the garage floor was included in the post tensioned foundation is the it completed a rectangle for the foundation. Although that does sound pretty lame.
A follow up question for you - if the post tension slabs do not require the tension of the cables after curing, do the cables continue to provide any support or strength for the foundation against shifting soil or is their "job" just to secure the foundatuion while it cures?
