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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:41 pm
by atone13
I have just had a concrete slab laid for a precast concrete garage. Although I employed a Landscape Gardener who is experienced in such works, and who used a digger and a dumper for these works, the end of the slab where the double doors will be situated sits one foot above the ground on the left side, and six inches above the ground on the right side. and my drive leading from this proposed door slopes down away from the base. My contractor knew that I had arranged to have my existing gravel drive replaced by block paving in two months time and declines to build me a ramp so that I can drive into my new garage when erected, which will be before April as he says the paviours will prefer to do the job themselves and he says it is a tricky job in concrete.
My questions are:-
1) Is this reasonable as I was hoping to get my cars out of the paviour's way when they re build my drive, by parking my cars in my new garage, and
2)What would be the gradient required for a ramp to give me access to the 1 foot high end of the base without my
family saloons with a wheel-base of 9 feet grounding on the threshhold, and
3)How do I retain concrete in formwork for a sloping ramp whilst it sets ? Your advice would be much appreciated.
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:49 pm
by Dave_L
"Landscape Gardener" and "Concrete Slab" shouldn't go together. EVER. [Sorry]
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 9:13 pm
by atone13
Hi,
I used this contractor as he was on the PreCast Garage Manufacturer's
(probably the national leader in the field) Local Agent's recommended base layer's list, but I do, with the benefit of hind-sight, take your point unfortunately, though I was rather hoping for some constructive advice to assist me in my predicament.
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 9:25 pm
by digerjones
posting a picture may help you. then we can see what your up against
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:53 pm
by lemoncurd1702
Are all corners of the slab level-ish? I.e is the left and right side the same.
From an aesthetics point of view I can understand the ramp being of the same material as the drive.
Maybe the contractor had only priced for the slab and not a ramp also.
Couple of other considerations, how long are you prepared to be without use of your cars? If the paving contractors need to excavate your existing surface, prep a base and install blocks, could be a few days or more before your cars are back on the road!
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:21 pm
by atone13
The base is level and square.The contractor had only priced for the base but I was quite happy to pay for the additional work but I believe he thought it too difficult.
When the paving contractor priced his job I had not
proposed buying a garage but I came to realise that if I
was going to have one it would be better to have it installed before the paving was done. I subsequently
contacted the Paving contractor who visited the site and we agreed what work was to be done though no mention
was made of a ramp. At that time I naively thought that no one would build me a garage base without a means of accessing it.
I have been trying to post photos but I am not very good at it. Hopefully these links will work:-
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user....pg.html
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user....pg.html
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user....pg.html
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:32 pm
by atone13
Sorry, I did add labels to the photos but they seem to be lost. One shows the view and gradient up the drive.The base is in front of the furthest car
Two shows the front view of the base ie where the up and over door will be ie parrallel to the pile of ballast.
Three shows the side view - the formwork boards in
pictures 2 and three are each 150mm wide. The base was only partially filled in these photos
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:50 pm
by atone13
I do not need access to the cars throughout the week that the paving contractor anticipates that the work will take. In fact we have access to another family car if necessary.
His task is to remove the gravel and underlying hardcore to a depth of 260mm, lay a continuous membrane followed by a minimum of 150mm sub-base and pack it down for stability, next comes 50mm of sand which is again packed down and when level the concrete blocks are laid,packed down and levelled,fine kiln-dried sand is brushed between them and they are again packed down.
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:00 am
by lutonlagerlout
the ramp would be better done in blocks
if its 300mm different in levels then you are going to need a ramp approx 2 m long to avoid grounding
LLL
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 10:37 am
by Tony McC
Why won't the pillock Landscape Gardening Concreter put in a temporary ramp of cheap crushed aggregate which would give you access to the base/garage and which the paving gang could easily remove/re-utilise when they turn up?
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:40 pm
by dig dug dan
"Landscape Gardener" and "Concrete Slab" shouldn't go together. EVER. [Sorry]
thanks dave 
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 5:33 pm
by atone13
Many thanks for all replies particularly LLL. I contacterd my paviour who sounds optimistic that he can cope with the ramp. He is coming to have a look tomorrow and I will report the result then. If he can i will make alternative arrangements for parking my cars in April when the work is being done, though I might just be able to get one in the new garage at the shallow end by using a temporary ramp. If he can't , I'll have a new double garage that I can't get a car into and out of on a regular basis !
As regards the Landscape gardener concreter, he just did not want anything to do with the ramp which I suspect has proved beyond his capabilities in the past.
This certainly has been an eye-opener for me. I certainly won't rely on garage manufacturers' agents recommended base layer's lists again. It is in fact worse than has been outlined here as I have held back from relating the full unvarnished tale of woe, which, believe me is pretty gruesome. So those about to choose a base layer, BEWARE and learn fom my mistakes.
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 6:06 pm
by TheRockConcreting
I bet this landscape gardener left you with a tamped finished for your floor, with no rounded bull nose edges at the entrance. If you had used a real concreter you could have had a really nice finish to the floor, burnished or water wiped both would have looked the nuts, im not rubbing it in just saying so anyone else reading your post knows there is another way!
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 4:35 am
by lutonlagerlout
dig dug dan wrote:"Landscape Gardener" and "Concrete Slab" shouldn't go together. EVER. [Sorry]
thanks dave
I would classify you as a builder Dan 
I think dave was having a pop at the pure landscapers who start up a mixer
Atone tell me they were not knocking up by hand?
I spy a big pile of ballast there
cheers LLL
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:00 am
by atone13
Yup, tamped finish (I asked for a wood float finish but he wouldn't do it), the garage manufacturer calls for slight sloping of the last 3 inches of the perimeter, but he couldn't do that either, and no rounded bull-nose edges at the entrance.
No he did not knock up by hand. He used a Belle MiniMixer. He laid the first layer of the garage base on Friday. Took his son fishing on Saturday, and came back on Sunday to lay the top 50mm of the garage base. He overbought on the ballast and left me the excess in case I wanted to have a go at concreting the ramp.
I'm still waiting for the paviour to call and will post the result afterwards.
