Rochelle
6th Feb 2012, 06:10 PM
8806388064880658806688067
After the rain Brisbane had two weeks ago, we noticed a corner of our downstairs carpet was soaking. We dried it with fans, but a week later it stank, so we called our insurer who arranged to send an assessor this morning. We had pulled up only a quarter of the room and today after the assessor had been, we removed the rest of the carpet.
The last two photos (my hand plus the dark stain) are photos from a week ago and when we removed the rest today we found the whole slab is riddled with cracks, obviously wet. Two cracks run under a wall that was built on top of the carpet to create a bedroom, so we also removed the carpet in that room, and there are cracks in that room too.
Probably ten years ago we had water seep through, we think when the drainage behind the core filled besser wall where this is built into the rock behind backed up due to the drainage pipe under the slab having been crushed after it exited the slab, and backing up. My husband fixed all that and has done extensive extra drainage behind the core filled wall, taking water down the side into a drain and out to the yard and to the street over the years to ensure we never have water issues again, and we haven't. Until this last lot of rain.
I am concerned that due to the volume of water sitting in our yard, which is mostly rock, our slab may have sunk at the only corner that has any depth of soil, which is the corner that was wet. There is a drainage poly pipe running through the slab, and we have the engineering drawings showing a membrane went down and it was all passed in stages, but I wonder if the slab could have been weak at the point where the poly pipe runs through it, as one crack follows from front to back, mostly along this line. There are other cracks all over it, all of them obviously very wet.
These cracks were not obvious in the slab when it was signed off, but we have no proof of that. No photos anyway.
Insurance assessor said she would send a builder and if it was decided this was "seepage" we would not be covered. I am thinking that if our slab has been compromised and cracked due to the water sitting in the yard, we may have a claim, and if they say "no" we would like to bring in the engineer who engineered and signed off the slab to support our case.
So two questions -
1. Would it be possible that the slab has sunk in the corner that has a bit of soil (not rock)?
2. Whether or not this is covered by insurance, what would be the likely remedy to ensure we don't get water up through the slab next time.
We are thinking the cracks may have to be dug out and a waterproof filler inserted, or perhaps a new membrane and a new topping slab?
We just want to get some idea of what might be suggested, what it might cost and be prepared when the insurer comes back to us.
Any help would be really appreciated.
After the rain Brisbane had two weeks ago, we noticed a corner of our downstairs carpet was soaking. We dried it with fans, but a week later it stank, so we called our insurer who arranged to send an assessor this morning. We had pulled up only a quarter of the room and today after the assessor had been, we removed the rest of the carpet.
The last two photos (my hand plus the dark stain) are photos from a week ago and when we removed the rest today we found the whole slab is riddled with cracks, obviously wet. Two cracks run under a wall that was built on top of the carpet to create a bedroom, so we also removed the carpet in that room, and there are cracks in that room too.
Probably ten years ago we had water seep through, we think when the drainage behind the core filled besser wall where this is built into the rock behind backed up due to the drainage pipe under the slab having been crushed after it exited the slab, and backing up. My husband fixed all that and has done extensive extra drainage behind the core filled wall, taking water down the side into a drain and out to the yard and to the street over the years to ensure we never have water issues again, and we haven't. Until this last lot of rain.
I am concerned that due to the volume of water sitting in our yard, which is mostly rock, our slab may have sunk at the only corner that has any depth of soil, which is the corner that was wet. There is a drainage poly pipe running through the slab, and we have the engineering drawings showing a membrane went down and it was all passed in stages, but I wonder if the slab could have been weak at the point where the poly pipe runs through it, as one crack follows from front to back, mostly along this line. There are other cracks all over it, all of them obviously very wet.
These cracks were not obvious in the slab when it was signed off, but we have no proof of that. No photos anyway.
Insurance assessor said she would send a builder and if it was decided this was "seepage" we would not be covered. I am thinking that if our slab has been compromised and cracked due to the water sitting in the yard, we may have a claim, and if they say "no" we would like to bring in the engineer who engineered and signed off the slab to support our case.
So two questions -
1. Would it be possible that the slab has sunk in the corner that has a bit of soil (not rock)?
2. Whether or not this is covered by insurance, what would be the likely remedy to ensure we don't get water up through the slab next time.
We are thinking the cracks may have to be dug out and a waterproof filler inserted, or perhaps a new membrane and a new topping slab?
We just want to get some idea of what might be suggested, what it might cost and be prepared when the insurer comes back to us.
Any help would be really appreciated.