Before the pour: vapour barrier, cover and clean steel on a Mambourin slab
The pre-pour items we find on Mambourin slabs and why each one is permanent.
In short: A Mambourin slab is open for inspection for about a day. These are the items worth catching in that window.
One day to look
Once pods, steel and membrane are laid, the builder books the concrete. The inspection fits between those two events and nothing it covers can be revisited later.
The membrane has to reach the beams
On a recent Mambourin slab the vapour barrier stopped short of the edge and internal beams. Housing Provisions require it to extend under the whole slab so ground moisture cannot wick up through the edges.
Cover and bar chairs
Steel too close to the formwork, and mesh needing extra bar chairs, were both recorded. Cover is what protects reinforcement from rust over decades.
Clean, capped and collared
Mud on the reinforcement, uncapped star pickets and missing termite collars at plumbing penetrations are quick fixes before the pour and impossible ones after.
Measured against your lot
Beam depths, steel sizes and set-downs are checked against the engineer's slab design, which is based on the soil report for your block.
Written by our local inspection team from work carried out in Mambourin. Licensed building practitioners, Building & Plumbing Commission registration CDB-U 53425.
