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Watched a 6-inch thick slab crack right down the middle at a job site in Phoenix last July because nobody put in control joints.
The crew was rushing to beat the heat and skipped every expansion joint, now I cut mine a day after pour no matter how fast the clock is ticking, what's the worst crack you've seen from skipping a step?
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xena_bailey1828d ago
Heard a guy in a welding forum say he watched a parking garage ramp split so bad you could drop a quarter through it... something about rebar being too shallow and the concrete shrinking overnight. Makes you wonder how many of these shortcuts are just someone trying to save an hour and ending up with a multi-thousand dollar fix. I always figure that extra day of cutting joints is cheaper than a lawsuit or a redo...
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blake79228d ago
My buddy had a similar thing happen on a 3-story deck he poured last summer, right where the stair landing met the main slab. He skimped on the control joints to save a few hours and woke up to a crack you could fit your whole hand in, not just a quarter. It's always those little time-saving decisions that come back to bite you, man, and that kind of repair eats up any profit and then some.
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nguyen.blake28d ago
Read an article from a structural engineer about a hotel pool deck in Florida that failed because they poured on a hot day and didn't wet cure it right. Contractor figured it would set fine overnight and woke up to what they called a "spiderweb of cracks" across the whole 80 foot length. Ended up being a 40 grand fix and the crew had to jackhammer out the whole pour. People forget concrete is basically a chemical reaction and you can't skip steps.
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