Post Tension Cable Fail

Failure of post tension cable

[@sa3270]

This makes me extremely leery of post tension.

[@solomoncobb1542]

I see it now. You had a lazy contractor that didn't grade right, and probably also put too much water in the concrete, because the slab was not uniform in thickness, and way too thin in areas. The cables may have been too close to the top of the pour also.

[@sonnygilcrease8201]

can post tension fail from a direct lighting strike causing spaling throughout the house and knocking about a 8inch piece of concrete to shoot up and dent the ceiling in 3 different places, And causing multiple crack throughout the stained concrete floors and bowing one interior wall. Will this continue to get worse or will the insurance company attempt to pier the floor all over and refinish the floors back with what I had acid concrete floors. To the short question what is the likely hood of the insurance starting from scrapping this house and starting over ?? Thanks

[@markgipson6298]

looks to me like the slab failed not the cables. If the slab did not have the tension you would only have a crack. The reason the slab is trying to crawl up onto itself is the reaction to the tension..

[@MajorCaliber]

Paging Metro Tex: What was the *Final Price $$ Tag* to fix this buggered up house???

[@lynchmob1968]

They installed carpet asap over that hack job.

[@StreetArtillery]

Thank God I saw these evidence of post tension tech. I was going to apply it in my plans to build an all concrete garage with a 25 foot span, but now I´m not sure. Your slab look too thin tho. At 2:04, it looks like the thickness is 2 inches, or is that just the shadow? Why didn´t they use rebar in combination with the tension cable? The rebar would have worked as back up.

[@NeogenicOrg]

I have an issue, plumber had the trenching workers jackhammer a path for sewer replacement, they jack hammered the large concrete beams that are lower in the slab, now the side of the house has cracked in many places and is puling towards the open trench, I've got several 20ton bottle jacks holding the trench open. The movement has ceased since the bottle jacks were placed, they want to drill into each side of the trench and install #5 rebar an epoxy it in, then back fill dirt, then pour concrete. Should the concrete density be matches to the original concrete? 5000psi calls for 500psi? Will the PT cables need tensioning after they have poured concrete for the repair?

[@hi-ye4rz]

That's a big lawsuit

[@MajorCaliber]

IIRC, USA and Canada only 2 countries on Earth that still allow UNbonded post-tension tendons. When that "tube" is below grade, water/moisture intrusion is certain to happen, even in arid climates, making rust-induced failure inevitable. OTOH, the home in this video looks to be low-grade construction in all aspects, erected by a hosebag contractor, in a jurisdiction with lame codes and/or lazy inspectors.

[@ericwsmith7722]

Not sure what the soil conditions were to require post tension cables to support the house as opposed to more traditional foundation techniques, but from the looks of the outside, corrosion may have led to its failure, I would guess It not being a bridge they got sloppy on grease and any type of coating, and it just rusted away to the point of failure.

[@charlesm8706]

several neighbors are having cracks Develop In their post tension slabs. Is it possible to peruse litigation against the builder ro repair my foundation!

[@solomoncobb1542]

Seems like there was a problem with the mix or the amount of water in the concrete, rather than the post-tension cable. Maybe the placement of the cables.

[@martinnovelo4351]

For whta i saw Looks like it did have tension or else that anchor head wouldn't have kicked out off the conrete and this slab like lots of them should get strssed 50%the next day that was poured and when the concrete is at full psi strength you can stress it at 100 force wich it might be about 33 kips or so

[@mikewiththebluecar]

@cableguy628 the slab thickness only 4 to 5 inches on a post tension slab? With the thickness of the cable around 5/8" to maybe 3/4" that doesnt leave much concrete above & below the cable. I would expect at least 6" thick slab for the tension they put on it, but I'm not an expert on post tension slabs just concrete demo. Perhaps that explains the failure.

[@kodyneal6379]

12 inch slabs here in Arizona for post tensions. Plenty of spacing between cable and top

[@MajorCaliber]

@@kodyneal6379 Wow, 12 inches, that's huge... then where is the "savings" from PT techniques? Here in sandy, close-to-the-water-table Florida, even a heavy 2-story *concrete block* (CBS) house (with concrete roof tiles and concrete 2nd floor) is going to do fine with a conventional 6" slab... of course that slab ties into a much deeper inverted-T/L shaped footer wall all they way 'round, and that footer is what actually carries the load. How do they do it in AZ? Is it just a monolithic reinforced slab, and they skip the surrounding footer altogether? That would be a big savings, labor, rebar, etc.

[@johnsweeney6072]

Poor footings also looks like poor compaction as well as the cable and slab fail shocking

[@westonfoot]

This is a concrete failure not a post tension cable failure.

[@jcraigshelton]

That’s not from a single cable failure.

[@kikyouthekillermiko]

for that place? Yeah...demolish it and build new! or burn it and mark it as an ancient idian burial ground That place was horrid. Who ever built that house or put the okay on those cables should be sue...hell everyone with that house should be sused even the home owners.

[@RegerAj]

Is there a fix?

[@CoolHippy]

@Ballsacksaswinging duct tape and Bondo... Come on everyone knows that lol

[@asconstruction4146]

Jack house up repour not easy

[@TheBoondockSaints]

Hahaha that's what happens when you buy a pt house and neglect it

[@semitrucker]

Holy s

[@Michshnly]

what's yer e-mail. I have a question about post tension cable here in Arizona. Thanx.

[@poisonstrategy]

did it ever get answered

[@365Condoms]

as long as everyone gets it clear. Post tensioning is an excellent technology, but it cannot be trusted into amateur hands. that anchor to me it looks a bit like MK4 or freyssinet with '6 strand in it. failure is of the concrete, not a cable as well. 1: failure of the concrete 2: failure not during stressing 3:can only be caused by deformation of the building after (by the looks of it) it was build 4: find out how is the foundation of the building, because these things only happen during tensioning (poor workmanship or quality of concrete (concrete cover)), or after many years of strand rusting. bonded post tensioning solves problem in one shot

[@petersrightbut8297]

Actually, been working around post tensioning 30 yrs, never saw It fail, all commercial parking garages ,high rises.

[@johnarwine2247]

Crews installing them in commercial environments know how to do it right... :)

[@ALYAZEEM]

It seems for me that this is a soil fail under the slab which cause high stresses in the slab

[@jenniferlyons4150]

If they fail, what's the point if using post tension? Time? Cheaper?

[@kodyneal6379]

Cheaper and 30 years before failure

[@rollzolo]

Post tensioning is Same as soy products in new cars

[@Karangee]

Trashed unfixable

[@365Condoms]

could be fixable if cable is not too buggered. for the starters: unbonded post tensioning: we are not in the 50's anymore. bonded is excellent, however you need people who know what they are doing to design and install

[@chriswebb810]

So the tension cable is in the slab? Did t realize they did that for residential. Why? What’s simpler than rebar?

[@MajorCaliber]

@@chriswebb810 Can get away with less concrete/thinner slabs. Also, since slab is under constant compression (usually in both axes), less worry about cracking due to bad mix/thermal contraction/slight settling/etc... but compared to conventional methods, easier to get wrong and harder to get right, NOT for amateurs.

[@vanscoyoc]

post tension is junk.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Yeah it might have caused a bridge collapse in florida recently.

[@MajorCaliber]

I was tempted to say it's not junk, but you need a degreed PE all over it, not Joe Blow backwoods contractor, BUT... there's the horrific FIU pedestrian bridge collapse of 2018, and that was a "showcase" project and had BIG NAME Engineering firms all OVER it, so, yeah, maybe stick with the tried-and-true, i.e. a bit more concrete and a bit less daring.