New equipment pad came out slightly out of level, worth redoing

Started by Chuck Weaver · · 2 replies
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#1
When we first put in the screen cage down here we had a guy redo the whole equipment pad at the same time, poured fresh concrete, and I just noticed this week it's got a slight tilt to it, maybe a half inch off over the length of it. Nothing's cracked and nothing's leaking that I can see, the heat pump and pump both sit level enough on their own feet, but the water pools a little in one corner after it rains instead of draining off like it should.

Guy who poured it says it's within normal tolerance and not worth tearing out, but I keep picturing that low spot turning into a problem down the road, equipment sitting in standing water isn't something I want to deal with. Anybody dealt with a pad like this, is a tilt like that actually something to fix now or am I overthinking a half inch. Good luck with it, curious what you all think.

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#2
I'd push back a little on "normal tolerance" being the end of the conversation, half inch over the length of a pad is enough to pool water in a corner, which is exactly what you're describing happening already. That's not really a tolerance debate anymore, that's an observed drainage problem. I wouldn't tear the whole thing out over it though, I'd just grind or shim to get the low corner draining, or even cut a small relief channel toward the yard so water isn't sitting under the pad feet. Ripping concrete for half an inch feels like overkill when the fix is a lot cheaper than that.
#3
my pad isn't even poured level to begin with, foreclosure special, whoever set the pump originally just shimmed the feet with random plastic washers and called it a day. never measured the actual slope but there's a good inch of visible gap under one corner of the heat pump equivalent... except i don't have a heat pump lol, just the pump and filter sitting on it.

thing is mine's never pooled water that i've noticed, and we get actual rain here a few times a year unlike most of the summer. so i can't speak to whether a half inch tilt turns into a real problem, but the relief channel idea jason mentioned sounds way less painful than what i'd assumed you'd have to do, figured it was rip it out or live with it