The definition of an accident

[Cheese]

I formed & poured a front door step slab about 7-8 years ago. Everything went fine along with providing enough 7" diameter Sonotubes for support of the structure.

The idea was to add a 1-1/2" thick Bluestone top cap and treads and then laminate blue slate to the sides of the concrete to complete the look. I've done this before on the North entrance and the West entrance and the look is great.

I wanted to give it a year or two to make sure that any settling of the structure had stabilized. Well, every year it seemed to drop just a little bit, like 1/8"-1/4". Now after 8 years out, I'm down by 1" on the RH side and 1-3/4" on the LH side.  Not wanting to add the additional weight of 1000# of Bluestone to a sinking structure, I decided to hire out a foam jacking crew to right the wrong before I added the Bluestone.

Inside the front slab, off to one side, I incorporated a Carlon pvc electrical enclosure box that contained the LED driver that powered all of the electrical connections, these included 2 LED step lights, 15 LED bollards and LED lighted house numbers for the front yard.

Long story short...once the foam jacking started the problems started. It appears they managed to accidentally drill into one of the plastic conduit lines that route the electrical wires underneath the front slab. That forced foam through the conduit lines until it filled the Carlon box with foam. What a mess, the foam jackers are not to blame it's just the realization that the word accident in our litigious society still means accident.

 

[alltracman78]

I don't necessarily agree with suing everyone (if you walk on my icy steps it's your own damn fault, not mine), however, if you're drilling into something you need to take into consideration what is inside.
If any of that electrical is visible they should have asked before drilling.

 

[Cheese]

I don't necessarily agree with suing everyone (if you walk on my icy steps it's your own darn fault, not mine), however, if you're drilling into something you need to take into consideration what is inside.
If any of that electrical is visible they should have asked before drilling.

Nothing was visible...the onus was on me. I should have known better...but then again 20 years ago I would have remembered better.  [tongue]

 

[alltracman78]

Can't win 'em all. [big grin]

 

[Peter Kelly]

How would you bond the bluestone to the slab? Bed it in Type-S mortar? Any grout between joints?

 

[Packard]

Underground electrical is required to be buried 24” below the surface in my area.  So I am not sure who is the blame here. 

Also, there is no way for the contractor to know about the underground wiring if there is no indication on the location of the wire. 

The above applies to line voltage only.  The 12 volt systems are not regulated.

My experience is that “once things start to go wrong, they continue to go wrong until the project is complete”.  And then there are often problems related to build difficulties down the road.

 

[Cheese]

Here's the slab as poured with some slate laminated to the concrete and ready for the bluestone treads and top cap.

[attachimg=1]

And here's the top view and the general layout of the low voltage wiring in waterproof plastic conduits.

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The 2 foam jacking holes drilled through the slab are only 5/16" in diameter so the likelihood of a direct hit is pretty small...or so it would seem.  [crying]  [crying]

I remembered the path of the LED step light wiring conduit but completely forgot about the path for the upper run of 12 VDC wiring. They made a very conscious effort to avoid the step light conduit but without knowing about the upper 12 VDC wiring run, it became the luck of the draw.  [crying]

This is the Carlon electrical box with the various items connected.

[attachimg=3]

And this is the Carlon box now...you can just barely see some of the wires in the foam.

[attachimg=4]

 

[Packard]

Can you mount the 12mm (1/2” nominal) slate tiles instead?  The weight would be substantially less, and some are ground on the back side for a uniform thickness.  That would minimize the tripping hazard.

Is this going to require hand rails?  Would you mount it to the slab?  Or set them into the ground?

On a separate matter, why has this site suddenly grown so slow?  It is rapidly reaching the point where I am reluctant to log on because I spend more time waiting than viewing the posts.

 

[Cheese]

On a separate matter, why has this site suddenly grown so slow?  It is rapidly reaching the point where I am reluctant to log on because I spend more time waiting than viewing the posts.

Amen...I'm done posting until this site gets back to normal.

 

[Imemiter]

On the plus side you have an extremely well insulated J-box.

 

[Cheese]

On the plus side you have an extremely well insulated J-box.

Ya probably at least R25... [smile]

So after about 6 hours of laying on my stomach in between the flowers, this is what it now looks like.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

This just helps to remind me about the power of random events (accidents) and how they can impact your life to such a large degree. Two small 5/16" diameter holes drilled in a 24 sq ft field and only one of which, neatly pierces a 3/4" diameter conduit, yields half of a low voltage circuit inoperable while then providing 6 hours of additional entertainment.

For future reference, here are the tools of the trade I used to take care of business. I now have a better appreciation for archeological excavations.  [big grin]

[attachimg=3]

 

[rmwarren]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] I feel for you. It's crazy-making when you go to a lot of trouble to plan, prep and do it right only to be hijacked by the unforseen.

Did you manage to snake out the conduit and pull a new cable?

RMW

 

[Cheese]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] I feel for you. It's crazy-making when you go to a lot of trouble to plan, prep and do it right only to be hijacked by the unforseen.

Did you manage to snake out the conduit and pull a new cable?

RMW

Not yet Richard...that's on today's docket.  [smile]

 

[Michael Kellough]

This stuff might help.

Maybe you can find an equivalent.