Basketball court holding water

What would be wrong with drilling some 1/2-3/4" holes in a pleasing pattern over the entire surface. The pattern could be the name of the school or some geometric pattern.

How do you feel about a grated drain at the lowest point? Might be simpler.

With a larger hole, you could pump the water out from a single point, if need be.

LL

Hi Shadetree

I do not agree entirely with this proposal since doing that will further undermine the sub grade and induce settlement. Your proposal will be possible only if drainage pipes can be laid under the slab to channel this water from such drilled holes.

build a 1 inch wall around the court. fill the court with self levelling epoxy and allow to set. come back when it has hardened off and re-cut entire surface with the crown along the centreline. so the centre will have around 2" of epoxy and the edges will have none. this will give you a 0-1"-0 gradient across the court. you will have to recut your control joints and do some clean up under the hoops along the baselines.

make sure you get your logo in underneath the epoxy-thus ensuring a lifetime of free advertising! how is anyone going to get to it without ripping up the whole deal!

You are out of your mind!!!!!!!!

lynlynch said "You are out of your mind!!!!!!!!"

A G R E E D ! ! !

can you crown it with mud jacking?

ask some specialists

http://www.google.com/search?q=mud+jacking&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B2GGFB_enUS219&aq=t

Having worked in construction for a long time I would recomend reasonable sized drain holes be cut in-(nothing over 1 inch,) and I suspect every spring someone should clean them outr with a battery drill and auger,as a maint issue, This should not affect play and given time the water will seep away, Not as fast as actual drain but effective based in soil type

well after running into this problem once or twice their is no real easy solution. layout some drain lines on the concrete. once you get these layed out, saw cut the slab just wide enough for a drain line to fit down into and than use five star grout or hydraulic cement to fill in over top of the pipe's.depending on the amount of rainfall 6 2inch drains can work wonders.

Yes ,this sounds like a good plan. A couple runs of Deco Drain could be installed across the slabs and probable take care of 90% of the water. Thanks for that idea,simple is GOOD!

If I were your customer, I'd prefer the non-destructive approach of cross drilling under the pad. It won't leave any scars.

The appearance of a drain in the lowest point will have much less negative impact, than sawing, demolishing, remediation, and re-pouring concrete.

Good luck.

You state that this warranty work!!! The AIA Documents address this sort of problem. If the Contract called for the concrete to be perfectly flat there would still be an allowance for defects. However, from experience I can submit an opinion as to just why you have this problem. The area is quite large and required concrete from several different readymix trucks. Unless the concrete was specified to have something like a 3" slump and no more, likely you received loads with vairing quantites of water in them. "OR" because the area is so large the placement contractor had water added when delivered so that the readymixed concrete would flow much easier to the center of the preformed area. In either case, as the concrete was hydrating, "that is setting up for those who don't know much about concrete," excess water rose to the top and puddled, and where there is a puddle in the wet concrete there will be a sink that holds water when ever it rains.

To fix this problem, re-form the area, and have an overlay of cement grout placed on top at least 1" thick, and have a bonding agent placed on the existing concrete before the new grout is installed. The placement contractor would be wise to place a temporary center form on the slab that would help to create a slight crown on the surface so that no water would settle there.

I have seen this happen a lot where the owners would not pay the extra money to have the concrete pumped or the readymix companies were slow to get the concrete to the jobsite in a timely manner and water had to be added to the mix to loosen it up enough to put it in place. There could be other reasons for your problems but these are the most likely ones that I would mention here, and this is the best likely solution.

TooMuchFun

The concrete was pumped, 3000psi, and as I remember it was plasticized, and had a 5" slump. We had a very light misting rain on one slab, but it had no effect on finishing. I did not form the slabs, but the morning of the pours the screed rails were set by pulling a string across from form to form, and I bet little or no crown was created, a slightly loose string and there you go!

Thanks for the help!

Hello CFECO, is anybody home up there?

The 3000 psi concrete is good enough. If a power screed was used to grade the concrete then a 5" slump is the culprit for certain. Power screeds need for the concrete to be stiff enough to remain in place as it is screeded so as to let the screed do it's work. Even A 4" slump is too loose to work with a power screed as the vibrations will always cause the material to flow to the empty area, requiring the laborers to be constantly pulling the loose material back to the screed. Further the screed rail has the equipment on board, (a cable and winch) so that the sag can be pulled upward so as the center where the engine is does not sag and cause the problem that you have.. By adding just a little more tension with the cable will create a slight crown in the center of the surface. You say that there was a misty morning when the concrete was placed. That was a good thing. However when the concrete was floated, you would have observed puddles of water on the surface while you were waiting for the mix to hydrate enough to be finished. I can garanty you that where these puddles existed you have sinks in the finished surface that now cause puddles. I have only supervised the placement of a few million cu yds of concrete in my working career, so you don't really have to consider the accuracy of my response. you can listen to the cute ideas of some of these others and just put a little more perfume on your pig, and then go back and do it the right way. Cutting holes, undermining the slab to create catch basins and directional boreing to add the necessary drainage and adding the grated covers is not a cheap way to fix your problem. Enjoy yourself!

TooMuchFun

Gotta give you a GA.

I believe the OP is on the hook to fix this, and your suggestion seems to be the best solution yet.

The slope probably won't bother the kids, anyway.

LL

Cut in a drain in the low corner. Install a fine fixed grate to cover it. Saw cut the drain line and repair the concrete. Easy.

There is the possibility of lifting the centre of the court using injected expanding resin.

http://www.uretekworldwide.com

The amount of lift that the slabs undergo is very well controlled.

We have lifted slabs by pumping hot tar under them through 3/4 inch bored surface holes... easiest on non or lightly reinforced concrete.. (flexibility). Your degree of reinforcement steel probably preclude getting a satisfactory job as by this method. (it will never drain properly/evenly). I concur on the too high a slump factor of the reddymix. Job needed better supervision/knowledge when set up. Hard to fix now. MR. GUY

i would suggest that you just overlay the court with new concrete (at least 2 inches) but make sure you have the proper crown this time... of course this will be at bit costly... new pavement markings, adjustment of post/goal, etc. will be additional costs, too... but then your court will improve its "flood-free" rating as its level is raised.

If you can't get equipment into the area and all the other options people have given about creating drains don't work for you I would think the elegant solution would be something like a sport court surface http://www.sportcourt.com/pdf/spec_sheets/SportDeck_Specification.pdf

I put in a court in my backyard in California and if you already have the slab in most of the cost is already done. These tiles just snap together by hand and are shaped like honeycombs... when you stand on top of them you can look straight down and see the concrete and the water goes right down through the honeycomb and you stand on top nice and dry. They are about 1/2 an inch thick and allow you to play all the time even when raining. My college had them on the tennis courts and it allowed them to play in almost all situations.