It Won't Last

As I was driving by a local repair shop, I noticed one of the "fly by night" contractors preparing a concrete slab for the entrance to the business. I noticed some things that bothered me; they almost made me want to stop, but I didn't.

The soil is crummy at this location. Locals call it Gumbo, which is a mixture of poor structural clays and topsoil. Since most of the land in this area was farmed at one time, the soil is even more unstable.

To compensate for the poor soil, there are a few things to be done. One is mixing lime with the soil, which consolidates the soil and allows more compaction, density and a soil that is less expansive.

Another is excavating enough soil and placing a stabilized base. This provides more surface area and increases the depth of the subgrade.

The best, in my opinion, is to place enough reinforcement rod to bridge the crummy soil. Even if a soft spot develops in the soil, the extra reinforcement adds enough displacement to allow the concrete to bridge the soft spot and not fail.

None of these things were done and the reinforcement is half of what is needed. The slab will eventually fail and it will happen long after the contractor is gone. The owner will eventually deal with concrete failures and it can happen as soon as the next dry spell.

So, the contractor is making a buck, without any consideration of the long term and the owner is slapping himself on the back for getting the work completed so inexpensively.

I'm betting a permit was never pulled. In fact, I can just about guarantee it, since the work is not up to local code.