The driveway, the grading and where the water goes
Two items that decide what happens to a slab over twenty years.
In short: Driveway and site grading recorded on Austral handover and fixing work.
What was recorded
A driveway item at an Austral practical completion inspection, and grading required at both a fixing stage visit and a lock-up on the same suburb's jobs.
Why grading is not landscaping
The fall of the finished ground away from the house is designed, not decorative. It is what stops surface water collecting against a footing every time it rains.
The driveway's part in it
A driveway is a large impermeable surface right beside the house. Where it falls decides whether that water reaches the street or the slab edge.
Reactive ground
Soil that gains and loses moisture moves. Slab engineering is sized to resist that movement, not to absorb an unlimited amount of it, which is why persistent water at a footing is a genuine risk rather than a tidiness complaint.
The timing
Grading belongs before the landscaper. Once turf and garden beds are down, correcting the fall is earthworks.
Written by the Owner Inspections team from inspections carried out in Catherine Field. Licensed building practitioners, NSW Fair Trading licence 366177C.
