Ask Danny | Ep. 12: Concrete Network’s Founder Answers Top Questions

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This week, I’m talking to Jim Peterson, founder of The Concrete Network. 

Jim began this on line useful resource for property owners in 1999. It supplies beneficial and simple-to-recognize concrete details to millions of individuals just about every yr, and also connects house owners to area contractors.

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Concrete Essentials

What is concrete, and how is it created?

Jim: Concrete is a combination of four items: sand, cement, gravel and water. These are place jointly in sure proportions, dependent on what the project needs. This is finished at the completely ready-blend plant so the house owner doesn’t be concerned about acquiring the suitable quantities. 

It’s often named cement, which is incorrect. Cement is only part of concrete. 

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Rebar vs. Fiber Mesh

Which would you use for a concrete slab: metal reinforcement wire or mesh?

Jim: At my house, or if I’m recommending to a good friend, I would use #3 bars at 18 inches on the center. 

Wire mesh ends up currently being stepped on by the putting crew, and dug into the sand, so it’s not in the concrete far too generally. When they exam concrete, they’ll normally see the mesh is on the base, so it did no fantastic.

Fiber mesh has some finishing challenges and won’t offer the power of steel bars. 

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Suggestions on Concrete Slabs

Jim: Concrete can be for good — a 40-, 50- or 60-yr or additional merchandise, so it is a single best to be performed proper. That’s why so lots of folks hire a contractor to pour a concrete slab. It is just not a little something you want to toy with. You can come across a contractor near you by searching on The Concrete Network’s website.

It is not a undesirable strategy to have an expansion joint or a joint map built of the pour to share with the contractor and make absolutely sure the particular person cutting the concrete tends to make those cuts.

Cuts can go less than partitions and off of edges to make the task a great deal cleaner. 

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H2o Articles

Is it vital to limit the volume of drinking water extra to the concrete on the work? It would seem to weaken the mix. 

Jim: Indeed, it does. What comes about is the drinking water rises to the major and when the concrete is concluded, the top layer is going to be weakened and there will be all types of problems.

Each individual blend has a water-to-cement ratio, and that need to be held to minimum amount amounts of drinking water included on the career, if any.

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Floor Hurt

What would you endorse for area destruction, like salt harm or gouges? In particular with the problem of possessing a patch that blends in.

Jim: I’ll give you the notorious remedy: It depends.

Very first of all, how visible is the spot? A large amount of time, the patch will appear a ton worse than what it was trying to cure. 

If the concrete is heaving, which is a entire various ball match. Any patch is probably not likely to remain, it is likely to appear loose as the concrete proceeds to heave.

If it is an critical area, you may need to tear out and replace the concrete, which is a worst-case circumstance. 

Also, you can sand or grind the surface area a bit and do an overlay topping, and it presents you a new surface to perform with, as very long as the concrete is not heaving.

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Stained Concrete

We employed to see acid-stained slabs all the time inside of houses. Do you still see this as a strong craze?

Jim: It is nonetheless well known, and that is not just my opinion. We get a whole lot of targeted traffic on The Concrete Network about staining concrete, so which is form of a voting machine.

There are two ways to attain it. 

Some folks like the glance of tile. So, say a house owner pulls up a tile floor and they can see the outline of the tile from where by the glue was. You can prep the surface, stain it, and you can continue to see the define of the tile for an industrial glimpse.

If they never like that search, they could possibly do a micro-topping. This is planning the floor, putting on a topping and then staining that new surface area, which provides a brand new glance.

One particular detail to take into consideration is the sound necessity with the concrete. It can be louder in the area, so at times people will insert on sounds buffer carpet on the ceiling and partitions. 

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Modest Concrete Jobs

What is your advice for a person considering a compact concrete challenge? 

Jim: If you have a incredibly tiny venture and you are up for it, there is no rationale you just can’t do a garbage can pad, A/C pad or a tiny stoop in the backyard.

Just get a couple of baggage of concrete from The Household Depot and blend it up and pour it. With a tiny bit of energy, some light study on The Concrete Network, and viewing a few movies, your project ought to occur out wonderful. 

I want to emphasize: With compact tasks like these, a concrete contractor would probably not react to you anyway, so Do it yourself is the way to go. 

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