tiles on the upper deck and then poured a new concrete slab on top of the old one. He said that this would guarantee that the area would have the correct run-off from the house and at the same time avoid any spots where water would collect (There is two small areas where the water collects with the result that dirt and leaves collect and makes a mess).
So far we have removed all the old tiles (360 tiles in total equalling more than 1 ton worth) and carried these to the front of the house. We also carried 1.3 ton of cement to the back to pour the slab (65 bags of cement). My dad was poiring most of this and leveling it while I was at work before Christmas. On top of this is all the new tiles, adhesive and grout (all heavy lifting).
I notices after a days rain that water was collecting in a couple of areas and my dad told me that I shouldn't worry about it as he would be able to compensate for this when laying the tiles to ensure that the water would run off.
The slab is now complete and we are ready to start laying new tiles. We bought a jackhammer which has been a life saver in terms of removing the old tiles and mixing the new cement and adhesive.
The area won't look too much different from before though. We are laying the exact same type of tiles (otherwise it wouldn't match the rest of the area at the back of the house and at the front).
I just really hope my dad does a good job making sure everything is level, because otherwise this would be a waste of the $3000 it is costing in materials and tools (I can also see that I will have a cleanup job to do
afterwards...there is cement on the walls and the fence of the house
how...my dads comment was that he couldn't take that much care and that
I'd just have to re-paint the house). If water is still collecting then we could have accomplished the same for a fraction of the price (and work) by just replacing and leveling a couple of rows of tiles at the area where they were broken (admittedly this would have been uneven, but the savings would probably have justified it).
Problem is that I won't know how dodgy the job is until after we've finished the grouting which wouldn't happen until end of this week (with a lot of effort).
