Concrete is a staple to any property commercial and or residential and having the right contractor is extremely important for a whole host of reasons. And whether you are looking for a concrete driveway replacement, concrete driveway repair, concrete floors, walkways, patios, steps or any other concrete services that require a poor from a truck we will give you the information to give you confidence to call one of our highly qualified contractors.
That being said, it is important to understand you will need to have some base knowledge to execute your project correctly. The pci of the concrete you want to use and any reinforcement material that may be necessary to give that project the longest life possible. If you are just a residential customer that has light traffic in your driveway, the standard concrete strength of 2,500 pci will work great, a “non-structural” concrete required in Charlotte North Carolina.
This being said it is also part of the North Carolina building code requirements. Anything less than this would not comply with North Carolina building codes, therefore illegal.
So, is there a team of people that go out to check the strength of concrete?
Absolutely not, so the buyer must beware. And due to the fact that there is a balance that needs to be found, minimizing costs for a contractor is certainly a motivating factor for them to provide a less than desirable design mix.
*Note: We have added products throughout this page that we feel would facilitate in the process and help make this important project easier for you. In addition it also helps to fund the page.
How would the customer really even know?
And this is the reason you really need to work with a reputable and honest company.
Concrete and cement are not the same, cement is actually one of the components in concrete. Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate of (rock, sand or gravel) and then Portland cement is added.
Cement comes in a powder form most of the time and acts as a binding agent when mixed with water and all of the aggregates. This simple combination which is the concrete mix will be poured in hardened into the durable material that we all know and love.
Should I get an ACI certified contractor?
We would say that it would be nice to have, but not imperative. A company that has been working with concrete for many years will hopefully have a base knowledge of the fundamentals of concrete. Or having an ACI certified contractor as part of a team or running the team would be ideal.
An ACI certified contractor proves that an individual can demonstrate their knowledge for working with concrete, as well as display more specific skills for advanced placing and testing techniques.
This all being said if you’re laying down a simple concrete driveway there are tried and true methods for best practices that evolve over years and being ACI certified should not necessarily take someone out of the running if their reviews speak for themselves. Also, an ACI certificate does not ensure that the contractor follows best practices either and does not cut corners.
A well-built reputation over many many years of trial and error would be better than a college student who just became a certified ACI contractor with little to know experience. To verify a contractor’s ACI certification ID number or last name spelled correctly, Country and state.
This is a phrase used by professionals in the industry and not by the American concrete institute. And it simply means The proportions of each mixed component to create a product that works best for a particular application. Some of the questions considered in this process are:
Many contractors think about concrete mix design, in terms of “bags” or “sacks”. Years ago, when most concrete was mixed on site, cement was purchased in bags. A bag is 94 pounds of cement or about 1 cubic foot, but if you order a six-sack mix, all that tells you is how much Portland cement is in the mix.
That mix could be completely wrong for your application and could even create inferior concrete. Not only specifying how much cement is in the mix, but what should also be considered are things like permeability, shrinkage, work ability, pumpability, stampability, and sustainability.
The correct ratio of concrete mixed materials can solve problems and the wrong mix can create them. That selection of concrete proportions involves a balance between economy and requirements for placeability, strength, durability, density, and appearance. Finding the right balance to achieve all these requirements comes mainly from experience.
Placeability is simply keeping a consistency that is wet concrete that allows it to be placed and finished. Place ability includes a mix that doesn’t segregate but that can be consolidated. The best way to measure place ability is through the slump, although two different mixes can have the same slump and behave in very different ways depending on the aggregates, the air content, and the admixtures.
Strength it is always specified for a concrete mixed, as the international residential code specifies that interior slabs have a minimum compressive strength of 2500 psi. In structural concrete applications, strengths is imperative, since that’s what the designer is counting on to hold up a structure.
However for flat work, where strength is rarely the primary factor, the higher strength concrete mixes that produce very stiff concrete can result in more shrinkage which shows up as curling and cracking. Synthetic fibers like re bind, have proven to be beneficial as a way to reduce shrinkage cracks. That being said, fibers will not provide structural reinforcement.
Long-term Durability
Is as important as place ability and strength, but it’s sometimes sacrificed if there are compromises to be made. Durability is achieved by producing a low permeability, low shrinkage concrete that has the proper amount of distribution of entrained air. Durable concrete must resist freeze- thaw cycles and prevent chloride from penetrating to the reinforcing steel to contribute to corrosion.
Appearance
is more important for decorative concrete than other applications. Nothing angers a client more than a beautiful floor that has cracked or spalled, or a decorative wall that is honeycombed from cracking. With slabs, shrinkage is the number one concern and lower strike concrete with less cement paste will often shrink and curl less. On the other hand with decorative concrete, surface hardeners will provide a higher strength, more wear resistant and less permeable surface layer, that being said the overall concrete strength would be compromised.
Types of Concrete Mix
The type of concrete mix used is clearly an important factor and depending on what the application is will depend on the type of concrete mix you choose.
Click on one of the links below to take you to that content, except for the Charlotte North Carolina building code requirements, since that content is scattered among driveway information and patio/walkway information.