I had a whole half driveway rebusted out and replaced after original pour three days earlier. The blame was on old concrete when delivered. The contractor had money problems with the concrete company, but he still replaced it at no cost. Upper Neighbor took new broken chunks for his yard border. He had a triple by pass a month alter. Hope the concrete chunks did not hurt him.
Concrete slab cracking
- Thread starter tigershoops31
- Start date
I had a whole half driveway rebusted out and replaced after original pour three days earlier. The blame was on old concrete when delivered. The contractor had money problems with the concrete company, but he still replaced it at no cost. Upper Neighbor took new broken chunks for his yard border. He had a triple by pass a month alter. Hope the concrete chunks did not hurt him.
That doesn't look good. On the bright side, you probably didn't pay $60 million for your cracked concrete...
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairřpark/2014/03/allens_60_million_football_sta.php
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairřpark/2014/03/allens_60_million_football_sta.php
This. Those are a lot of cracks for just a few days. Looks like they didn't saw cut deep enough. Don't worry about feeling bad making them right the issue (either repour or discount), its their job to do this right. And they didn't.
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Couple of things- Cutting concrete will in no way prevent it from cracking, the object is to hopefully force it to crack where the cuts were made. So this way you have nice, straight fractures that are less noticeable. A lot of times contractors don't even come close to the depth needed in the cut to allow this to happen though. Scoring cuts are almost more for appearances these days. Also, if enough re-bar was used the cracks shouldn't get to the point where they cause a bad bounce or someone to trip. If re-wire was used, you may have a problem.
The limit of my expertise in PCC is as a seasonal inspector on a highway job, but I agree with the other posters. Portland Cement Concrete will always crack but this doesn't seem right. I think those that say the mix wasn't right along with not deep enough cutting could result in the problem. How deep is this slab and what was prepared for a sub-base? Did they do a slump test with the mix? That would reveal if the mix was too wet.
It was a pretty solid sub-base (about 12" and they spent a day leveling, a day packing down the rock sub-base, and a day on the concrete. I didn't get a mix design, and since it is in the backyard and just for basketball (no driving over it) he said we didn't need any rebar or wire. It is a 4" thick slab.
It's 4" deep and had a 12" sub-base packed down. Not sure about the slump test as I wasn't there when it was poured.
I'd say in the morning it was probably high 40's/low 50's when they were pouring. I'm not sure about the ambient temperature.
Agreed. You don't drive a car on your front steps but you would certainly at least put mesh in that as well. Again, I'm not an expert but I would be very skeptical about not putting at least minimal reinforcement in a pour like that.
With no mesh or rebar, those cracks will continue to get worse. I'd be looking for a replacement personally.
Would mesh be something that would be put in as they are pouring or would it have to be done before the truck gets there? It was just the sub-base in the morning before I left, but not being there when they poured they may have used something too that I didn't know about.
Another question: we are planning to stain the slab Cardinal and put in gold lines after it sits for 28 days. Do you think it being stained a darker color would make the cracks less noticeable if we go the route of a discount rather than tearing out and re-pouring?
Well, he was wrong. I've never heard of not putting in rebar in a slap that big. There is nothing to hold the concrete together. Plan on those cracks getting worse and worse. I am not in the industry, but have had many things poured, as well as helped out on many jobs. From Driveways to walkways I've never seen a job not have at least wire mesh.
I'm sure I'll get blasted by someone who knows more who would say you didn't need it, but I never would have let them pour without putting some kind of metal structure inside there. I know when I did my patio a few years ago with friends, it was in the code that it had to have the wire mesh. And it was about 2/3 the size of your pour. (I'm in Illinois) It even had to be inspected and in place before I poured.
Depends on how the inspection process goes. As I said above, mine had to be inspected in place before I could pour. Iowa could be different. They could lay it down just before the pour, it's not hard to do. but if he told you you didn't need it, I doubt he put it in there.
Now I kind of curious who gave you the advice not to put any reinforcement in it. I would steer clear of that contractor.
I know he asked if we were going to drive on it and said since we weren't we wouldn't need metal rod put in. I'm going to ask him about the mesh.
No rebar? Holy ****. We've done a lot of varied pours for ourselves and I can't imagine anything without some reinforcement of some sort, especially on something that big. Sounds like someone was trying to do something on the cheap. I should also say that I would probably overdo the rebar on pretty much any project but to not have any here seems asinine.
