Bad Concrete

toli

i had 650 sq ft about 5" thick of concrete poured.its been over a year now and its still way too soft. i meanvery soft. just walk on it and dust builds up. im very puzzled. i think they just used lime instead of portland. the worst mix i ever saw. i spoke with the contractor who did the job. he pointed to the concrete company. called the concrete company he used. they point the finger to the contractor. probable sprayed too much water on the mix etc..... im lost for words here.

Mike Finley

Are they referring to spraying water on the concrete after it has been poured into the forms? If so I don't think there is any amount of water that could be sprayed on it that would cause any problems at this point. Keeping the concrete wet for 7 days would be the ideal actually.

I could see if he watered the mix down prior to pouring, or there could be some issues if they overworked the concrete with trowels after the pour before the water in the mix stopped surfacing, this could cause the surface to flake.

toli

sprayed with water after it was poured. at this point i can scrape the concrete with a spoon. the dust is white like drwall dust. is there any recourse? can i tile using thinset ? or some kind of thin coat? thanks for the reply

Teetorbilt

I'd start cheap and call in a building inspector and get his opinion IN WRITING. I don't know your relationship to the contractor but if you know him you may want to present him with the findings, if not, you may want to have an attorney draft and send a letter for you. This generally gets you a faster and better response.
The contractor is responsible for the quality of the materials used in a project. If you got a bad mix, that is between the contractor and the supplier. If the pour was overworked or otherwise done incorrectly, it again falls on the contractor.
If all else fails, there is always small claims court. Get a few more opinions before you go there.

Mike Finley

In regard to your specific questions about what you can do about it now, this goes a bit out of my league at the moment, I know enough how to do it right to not end up with any problems like this, but I don't have enough expertese to advise you on what you can or can't do with it now. I suggest you go to here: http://www.decorative-concrete.net/f...Concrete+Forum

This is a stamped concrete forum, the pros there have forgotten more about concrete then I will ever know. Post your question there and they can troubleshoot it for you and help you with a solution.

ABA Const

along with what teeter said you can also take a core of the concrete and sample it to find out if the mix was bad or it was over worked. as far as commercial buildings i pour we have to have a soils engineer on site during the pour to take random samples to ensure we are getting a correct mix and correct psi when dried, etc etc. that core can be analized and figure out whose prob it is. hope that helps.

two kids

hey Guys I am new here ....but this sounds to me like they didnt overwork it they under floated it....I agree the water sprayed on would be a good thang....but if they didnt float the gravel downright or enuff or if they waited too long to finish this would cause your problem.

I have seen it a couple times here. I mostly lay block and brick ..or anything with mortar in it but I can and have done concrete and this sounds like what has happened.


Hope this helps.