concrete job lacking expansion joints against foundation

[cchiarelli]

Last year I had a my garage, driveway and sidewalk redone in concrete. In the spring I noticed numerous cracks and the cement heaving near the side of the house where the cement walkway was done.

After reading this group and various other sites on the internet, I think the problem may be related to lack of expansion material along the solid house structure.

The contractor just poured the concrete right against the foundation without any expansion material, same with drainage pipes, electrical and any other object.

I would like to know if it is code or just good practice to separate large slabs from the foundation. I know It can damage the concrete, but could it also crack my foundation.

[DanG]

Not a code issue, simply good practice/ age&experience/ quality issue.

If there is enough concrete under the right circumstances, the expansion can literally move a house. This usually only happens on curves like cul-de-sacs. We had a large parking lot that met a curb then sidewalk to building face. The parking lot expansion was enough to snap the monolithic curb along its entire length and lean the curb out .

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Eric]

Thank you, finally someone else sees top posting as the correct methodology. Eric

DanG wrote:

[anoldfart2]

Your foundation is likely to crack or lean inward. I saw it happen when someone poured a sidewalk between an existing concrete driveway and the house foundation. Soon the top 2 or 4 layers of basement blocks lifted and then developed a 3/4 inch crack at a mortar joint. The floors tilted at that part of the house and everything. That sidewalk had to be removed and redone using expansion joints, after the foundation was repaired. The house is still a little crooked at that part, but it would have been too costly to redo the whole house.