We had a garage slab, driveway and retaining wall prepared and poured by Diversified Concrete Services in summer 2018. We were very happy with the work at the time. As winter started we started to notice a number of diagonal cracks through the driveway as well as heaving near our garage entrance. Now our man door to the garage and trim around the overhead door are affected (man door is nonoperational and trim is starting to come apart). As winter progressed, the cracking has become very significant in certain areas to the point where it looks like a spider web. We did some research and have pinpointed the cause down to the fact that the driveway was attached by rebar dowels to the house foundation, attached to the garage slab and attached at the retaining wall (not by dowels in this location but direct concrete contact). Attaching in all possible directions does not allow for concrete to move due to contraction/expansion or frost heaving. If it had not been attached to the house, it would not have cracked in this way. The owner of Diversified Concrete Services is adamant that they have done nothing wrong and are blaming our grading of the land on the cause of cracking. They are unwilling to redo the work even after I have provided best practice documentation evidencing that full depth isolation joints are meant to be placed wherever a slab abuts a foundation wall.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $22,000.00