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Debate: Should you level a concrete slab before building on it or just work around low spots?
I was framing a shed base on a slab in my backyard last month. Half the foundation was 1.5 inches lower than the other side. Figured I could shim the bottom plate and move on. My buddy came over and said I was asking for trouble, that the walls would rack over time. Told me to bust out the concrete grinder and level it. I didn't want to deal with the dust and the noise. So I just shimmed it and built anyway. It came out okay so far, but cracks are already showing in the drywall corners. Is it really that big a deal to have a slab off by a few inches? Who's actually done the leveling and regretted the work, and who's skipped it and regretted not doing it?
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bell.emma7d ago
Oh great, so you get to watch your brand new shed slowly tear itself apart while you sit there with a grinder you never used and a bag of regret. That 1.5 inch shim is doing the gymnastics right now, twisting your walls like a bad yoga pose. Cracks in drywall after a month is basically the slab screaming "I told you so" in the only language it knows. Next time you'll be renting that concrete grinder and eating dust for a weekend instead of eating drywall repairs for years.
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