Concrete flatwork

What the work is

Concrete cracks. The job is to decide where. Control joints cut at the right spacing and depth, at the right time, put the cracks where you planned them instead of across the middle.

The other half is what is in it and under it: compacted subgrade, reinforcement held at the correct height rather than lying on the ground, and a mix suited to the conditions on the day.

Heat changes the schedule

Placing and finishing concrete in the summer here is a timing job. Work starts early for a reason, and a crew that turns up at eleven in July is telling you something about the finish you are going to get.

The mix is a soil question, and the soil is mapped

Gypsum-bearing ground attacks concrete. In gypsiferous zones mapped by the Utah Geological Survey, a soil sulfate test is what sets the required mix under ACI 318 exposure classes, and sulfate-resistant cement is required at S2 and above.

We are not going to tell you your site needs a particular cement type before anyone has tested it, because that depends on the test. What we will tell you is that the county publishes a Gypsiferous Rock and Soil layer and an Expansive Rock and Soil layer for free, and you can look up your own parcel before anybody pours anything.

If a rebate is part of the plan, this is the wrong material

Poured concrete is subtracted from the water district's incentive calculation. Ungrouted pavers and dry-set flagstone are counted as mulch and stay inside it.

That is a point against the thing on this page, and it is worth knowing before you spend money rather than after. If the area is going into a rebated conversion, ask us about pavers instead and we will tell you plainly which one your project wants.