Tiawamutu

Slabs are supposed to dry out before they start building on them

Wol

Not quite true: a slab takes many months to achieve a balance of water content that goes with the ambient humidity.

The "curing" process is a bit different - it's the gradual chemical "setting" of the concrete, which takes on a large proportion of it's strength in the first day or two and then more slowly as time goes by. It's probably up to 95% of it's theoretical strength after some ten days, but I don't know the figures offhand.

Tiawamutu

Are you a builder by any chance?

Wol

Certainly not - the very idea <G>.

I'd probably be better off if I had been though!

Tiawamutu

You seem to know your stuff anyway

Can I ask what the <G> is you keep putting in your posts?

Wol

Grin <g>.

Tiawamutu

Have you ever tried smilies?

Tiawamutu

Anybody?

Sunny_Glesga

The company i work for do curing block tests for every concrete pour and these are tested at 7,14 and 28 days. it does depend on the weather and how the slab is protected as to when it can safely be built on. our normal procedures is to ( in dry warm/windy weather) once slab has been power floated to a finish cover the whole slab with clean water and cover with viscuine to stop it drying ot too quick and causing hairline cracks, continue this process for 2-3 days and then remove the viscuine and allow to dry out naturally. recommended timescale for building on is 7 days after removing viscuine. You can also use a sealer or a retarder through the mix instead of water to stop it drying out to quick but through experience this has to applied at the right time and has been known NOT to be sufficient. My advice would always be to use first option unless your in the UK where the temperatures can drop below freezing which would almost certainly cause the slab to crack.

Hope this helps

Tiawamutu

Yes it does, and it explains a lot, but I haven't a clue what they've actually done

I'm sure they'll have done one of those things

Tiawamutu

Concrete sewage pipes have been delivered.

These will probably be layed before anything else happens.

Wol

They certainly look big enough to take a lot of concrete sewage! (Try drinking more water <g>)

They are pressing on, from the looks of things.

Tiawamutu

Lol, I don't understand how they work. but I'm sure they are something to do with the sewage

Not pressing on fast enough in my opinion....They need to get on with it and start building!

Tiawamutu

Big concrete sewage pipes ( ) have disappeared today when I went, and the sand is all in mounds, so they must have buried them.

I have fathomed out what the cable/pipes are anyway.

The yellow one is gas, the black tube with blue stripe is water and the orange one is electricity. I don't know what the 2 white plastic tubes are though. this may be the fibre optic

A tap has appeared in the middle of our porch (silly place to put it!)


Also our lease is almost up on our rental, and we have only gone and managed to secure a rental about 150 metres from the plot of land!

It will be easier for me to keep an eye on things now

nickyjohnt

These look like they might be your soak aways. The sewage pipes are under your slab already and probably already connected upto the mains sewage, I may be wrong but I was watching the progress on another site i was on prior to the slab being laid. But it looks promising for the brick work to start soon. My Nieces other half is a brickie and reckons these 3/4 bedroom places takes him about 3 weeks to get most of the walls up. Looking good anyway.

Good Luck

John