August 5, 2023
During the construction phase of my home build Australia experienced a La Nina weather event which leads to wetter than usual conditions across Australia. With that in mind it should come as no surprise that my block was often very wet during my regular visits to site.
A wet site is nothing to worry about but water ponding near the slab is a problem.
As pointed out by Henley’s own engineering consultant, ponding of water near the slab poses risk to the long-term integrity of the footing. The drawing below formed part of my building contract and makes it quite clear what the problem and the solutions are.
Over the course of my build I pointed out the drainage issues to my site supervisor a couple of times, the problem was also addressed in a couple of my independent inspection reports. In typical Henley fashion, nothing was done about it and the problem remains to this day.
Clearly, I need to do something about that soon but it’s also clear that Henley had a duty of care not to handover the home with such a serious potential structural issue unaddressed.
Not only did Henley not fix the problem, the offered no comment on the subject at all, or the importance of addressing it. In fact, if I hadn’t been recently digging though the drawings associated with my contract, I could easily have been oblivious to the issue.
As it stands, Henley has provided a number of risers around the site which can be cut off to ground level when I landscape the yard. That’s great, but it won’t fix the ponding issue.
Since getting back from my overseas trip, a combination of wet weekends and being time poor has meant that the situation with the pooling still exists, though I’m slowly putting plans in place to address the issue.
In the affected areas I’m going to start laying agi pipe drains to address the areas of most concern. The following video shows the product I am going to use and the method of use to address the issue.
As you can see this job can be completed by a home handyman, though a plumber is recommended for the connection to the stormwater system. As I am a tradie myself, I feel confident I can complete the connection myself.
Hopefully we see better weather in Melbourne over the next few months so I can begin addressing the many problems Henley left for me outside the house. As I make improvements, I’ll try to keep you posted.