Concrete Floor With Control Joint

I ve installed thousands of lineal feet of control joints in my concrete floors.

Concrete floor with control joint.

In this post i want to help you understand the why s when s where. Properly placed control joints will allow concrete to shrink expand and contract reducing the tendency for it to crack. The only thing that we can do is control where it cracks with proper concrete control joint spacing and depths at the right time. Similar control joints are used with brick or block walls as well as with other types of masonry structures.

Filled in control joints in polished and stained concrete floors provided an easier to clean surface. Most of the time we saw the joints using an early entry soff cut saw. Control joints in concrete slabs which are poured on grade on top of the ground are placed so that the concrete is in a square or rectangle pattern or shape. In other words if the concrete does crack you want to have an active role in deciding where it will crack and that it will crack in a straight line instead of randomly.

In wheeled traffic environments the filler will act to protect the joint from future chipping or damage and provide a smoother transition. Think of it as a planned crack. One thing that i was taught in my years as a concrete finisher is that there are two things in life that are certain the first is of course death and the second is concrete is going to crack. I ve been in the concrete floor business for over 30 years.

As we know control joints more properly according to the american concrete institute contraction joints are essentially planned cracks that allow for movements caused by temperature and moisture changes drying shrinkage. A fresh concrete mixture is a fluid plastic mass that can be molded into virtually any shape but as the material hardens there is a reduction in volume or shrinkage. Control joints are planned cracks which allow for movements caused by temperature changes and drying shrinkage. In other words when the concrete does shrink and crack the control joint is placed so that the slab will crack on a.

Control joints in concrete should be placed around the entire perimeter of a floor slab at all intersections of two different concrete structures and at regular intervals to break up large areas. A joint cut into a slab to ensure that as the concrete slab.