6 Things Concrete Contractors Wish You DIDN'T KNOW!

You have hired a contractor for a concrete project. Make sure you know these things before they begin the job to make sure YOU know what to expect and what to look for. Many contractors want to do the best job possible for you, but some do not. Knowing a few basic things about this kind of concrete job, like pour a new slab or patio, could help mitigate some future issues.

Fibers (stranded fibers, fiberglass, etc.) will sometimes be passed off as a suitable replacement for some kind of steel reinforcement. This is not typically accurate; they are for secondary reinforcement. Steel reinforcement provides a much better tensile strength improvement over fibers. However, there are some instances where is is a suitable replacement with very specialized fibers, but this is not usually the case.

Are you getting the thickness of concrete that you are actually paying for? If you are getting a 4" concrete slab poured, are the forms built with 2x4 wood? 2x4 is actually only about 3.5" wide, not 4" wide like the name implies. So if your contractor is framing your 4" thick concrete slab with 2x4s, your slab will not actually be 4 inches thick even though you are paying for 4 inches of concrete thickness.

00:00 - Introduction - Concrete contractors wish you didn't know these things!
00:45 - Fibers are not a replacement for steel reinforcement
02:02 - How thick that concrete slab will REALLY be
03:05 - Use spacers when placing steel reinforcement
04:06 - Visual flaws in new concrete do not get better with time
05:45 - When control joints are cut and how deep
08:17 - There should be no pooling water on new concrete

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