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    Have a question? Just ask.
    jim@jimgray.com

    Serving Brevard County in Cental Florida for 28 years.
    The most important part of the concrete process is in my opinion the subgrade. Your mason should take great care in this step. Far too often I see crews too busy or uncaring to take much time here. I insist when my crews prepare a slab or driveway that great care be taken when "prepping" a job. Good clean fill, with the right amount of moisture and proper compacting is extremly important. Allowing your mason to pour over blazing sand which is abundant here in Florida, is begging for trouble. It only takes a few moments to water the ground so the concrete does not dry to fast.
    Next is good materials. I use as a standard 3000 psi concrete with micro-fibre. The fibre replaces the traditonal wire mesh and they help keep the cracking of the concrete on a micro level instead of a macro level (where you can see the cracks with your naked eye.)
    Adding too much water to the concrete is the next big culprit when it comes to cracked concrete. Now I am not saying your mason should never add water to the truck. This goes back to the "driver responsiblity" I touched on earlier. I dont have the time to go deep into this...but common sense prevails here. Pour the concrete as tight as possible to achieve the quality desired.
    When we pour a custom driveway, we have a rule that determines the placement of contraction boards and control joints. The placement of these joints should be no more than 25 times the depth of the concrete. for instance: You are pouring a 4 inch thick concrete drive. No joint should be further than 100 inches apart, or approx. 8 ft. We use a combination of pressure treated lumber and joints cut with a diamond saw within 24 hrs of pouring. So what we have achieved here to to "hide" the cracks. We have convinced the concrete to crack where want it to, with the end result being a happy customer!