It's technically the difference between a shop and a garage, one with slope one without. I've worked on the1/8 per ft for years, don't even notice it. Shim the lift with ONLY steel shims, you probably already know that. IMO, the number one problem in the construction world is communication (how many of us grew up wanting to build/service).

It's the norm for a contractor to slope a garage floor towards the garage door so that when it is being washed out the water heads in the correct direction. If he wasn't told before hand to make it flat he was just following typical building procedures.

I understand that it is the norm, but we discussed it.

I will talk to him this morning

Good luck today. Start with patience.

I know they make self-leveling products to put over unlevel concrete but I don't think it's designed to be a finished shop floor?


Jeff-

Thanks! It will be a civil discussion. I need understand what happened. .... like was said earlier, he may have been told that it had to be sloped by the inspector.

Capping it with another layer on concrete may be an option to avoid the removal step. We did that in a 40 x 100 farm shop and it has stood up to pay loader and tractor traffic. Our cement guy said the key to doing this is a 3" layer of compacted gravel between the two slabs. (6” existing, 3” gravel, 6” new) They warned against pouring a second slab directly on top of existing concrete since it will just crack and crumble over time.

You'd have to accommodate the surrounding grade for the additional 8-9" of elevation. You'd also want to cut out and pour a solid footing where your lift is going.

May not work in your situation but sometimes it's nice to have a few options to kick around.

Hope all goes well with your discussions!

Update
 

I've talked about pouring a floor cap, but the added floor height just won't work.

Anyway, I talked to my contractor and he has basically said he would make it right. He's a good guy that I've known for a long time. I approached the situation from the perspective that I had as much responsibility in it as he and the concrete guys do. I told him that I must not have communicated as clearly as I thought I did and he agreed that he may have misunderstood.

We left the situation with him promising to make it right. His plan is to continue with the framing of the building (weather permitting!) an then we can talk about whether or not I still feel the floor needs to be re-done. If it does, he said he'll take care of it. I told him that we could sit down and talk about the actual cost of it and make a fair and reasonable deal to fix it. I know this could very easily overcome any money he would make on the project and I want to be fair to him.


Thanks for the input.

Sounds like you handled it well. It sounds like from the description you gave that the error was a shared issue and if you are willing to share the fix, in the end it sounds like the best outcome.

A lesson to all those reading that are doing or going to do a project like this, if there is something that you specifically want and it is important enough to you to pay twice to have it, PUT IT IN WRITING! This is for garages, cars, birthday cake (LOL) etc.......

Glad it sounds like it will work out Brandon. Just to add, the shop we work in is 30x40. It has on floor drain in it. The floor is sloped to the drain. We just have to take that into consideration when we do anything that has to be level. We use screw adjusters or shims. It is second nature to us now. NO PROBLEM!

Good Luck! :thumbsup:

My 30x40 home shop has the slope on the "short" side (the 30' direction) and it's never been an issue. I had to shim up the frame table quite a bit but I had to level it anyway so it didn't matter. I can visibly see the difference at the sills but, again, never been an issue. The cars don't roll away on their own, the toolboxes stay where I put them, honestly it's not an issue at all.
I've heard that the slope is per building code so that any spilled fuel runs out the door-I have no idea how true that is.

Peter

Thanks Peter - - - I'm going to see how much of an issue I think it will be after the building is completed. It will probably be OK. I may end up deciding that the money would be better spent on more tools!! I know my contractor will treat me right on the price though if I decide to have him redo it - - we would share in the cost.