LA 3621 Lecture 2 PART 3

Concrete Delivery
● Delivery Ticket
○ It is the contractor's job to review the delivery ticket and make sure it matches.

Slump Test Process

● This is when you pour fresh concrete into an open cone.
● Turn over and place on the ground.
● Rod the concrete 25 times and remove the cone.
● The slump should be:
○ 2 inches to 5 inches for mass concrete and slabs on grade, no rebar.
○ 3 inches to 6 inches for reinforced concrete
○ 3 inches to 6 inches for thin reinforced walls

Placing Concrete
● This is a concrete installation process.
● Deposit concrete as close to its final location as possible to minimize the segregation of
aggregates.
○ This means all those little pebbles and other stuff should minimize the amount of
separation.
● Deposit concrete at the bottom of a slope and work uphill.
● Strike off concrete immediately after placing it with a straightedge to level concrete to the
top of the forms.
● Ensure screeding is performed before the water rises to the surface.

Finishing Concrete
● Bull float on the surface immediately after pouring the concrete.
● After that, you screed to avoid surface bleeding and to eliminate high or low spots on the
surface.
● You should wait for the “bleed water” to disappear before continuing to finish.
● Edging to round all the slab edges will reduce chipping.
● Jointing using hand tools or saw-cutting is performed.
● Float the surface with wood or magnesium float.
● A smooth surface will be easy to clean and maintain.
● Finish the joints you saw.
● Finish the concrete surface.
● Then you cure the slab.

Concrete Pavement Finishes

● Smooth Troweled Finish
○ It is when they use the trowel to keep it smooth.
● Broom Finishes
○ There are different broom finishes
 ■ Light Finish
■ Medium Finish
■ Heavy Finish
■ The deeper the grooves, the heavier the finish.
■ You can see it in places where there is ice.
● Salt Finish
○ Some holes are deep and tend to collect dirt on them.
● Exposed Aggregate Finish
○ This looks like a seeded finish.
○ You use it when you want to have patterns.
● Seeded Finish
○ The aggregates look like it has been sprinkled at the top.
○ You can see it sometimes on playgrounds.
● Colored Concrete
○ Lots of playgrounds and parks have colored concrete.
● Stamped
○ This seems to look cheap or fake.
● Acid Washed
○ Muriatic acid was used on the lightly etched concrete surface.
○ A retardant is applied after concrete is placed and preliminary finished to etch
away a thin surface film.
○ After a curing period, the surface is scrubbed with machinery to remove and
expose fine aggregates.
○ This is common for pool decks and patios.
● Stained

Concrete Finishing Tools

● Screed
● Hand Trowel
● Bull Float
● Edging Tool
● Joint Tools
● Concrete Broom

Curing Concrete
● Curing is the maintaining of satisfactory moisture content and temperature in concrete
during its early stages so the desired properties develop.
● There is a hydration process of hardening through a chemical reaction when water is
combined with cement.
● Begin curing slabs immediately after finishing.
● Concrete should be kept continuously moist for a minimum of 7 days.
○ This is where most contractors mess up.
● Concrete curing methods:
○ Water Ponding
 ■ This is the best method that is seldom used due to the cost.
○ Sprinkling or fogging with water
○ Wet sand

Craze Cracks
● This is the result of insufficient curing, poor finishing and/or too wet concrete mixture.

Concrete Joints
● Expansion Joints
○ It is also known as “isolation joints”.
○ This is used to permit free movement between vertical and horizontal surfaces.
○ These are horizontal concrete slabs against walls, columns, foundations,
footings, drains and steps.
○ This is the joint that you can find at the building, between the paving and the
building.
○ This allows expansion without cracking.
○ This separates different elements.
○ This requires an expandable material.
● Contraction Joints
○ It is also known as “control joints”.
○ This is scored during the curing process or saw cut after curing.
○ This directs cracking along the joint.
○ This is used to avoid random cracks or provide an aesthetic scoreline pattern
○ This should be installed as soon as possible.
○ The ideal contraction joint spacing is 8 feet to 10 feet on center each way.
■ Spacing is recommended to be limited to a max of 15 feet.
○ It should be a minimum of a quarter of an inch deep and the maximum depth is
25 percent of slab thickness.
■ If concrete is 4 inches thick then the maximum depth is 1 inch.
○ Tooled Control Joint
■ It has a bit of etched that occurs at the corner
○ Sawcut Control Joint
■ A cut with a depth of a fourth of an inch minimum down its cut.
■ When the concrete bears that it has to crack, It induces the crack
because there is already a weak point.
○ Plastic Control Joint
■ Also called a hardboard pre-formed strip.
● Construction Joints
○ It is also known as “cold joints”.
○ It is used to separate pours and full depth.
○ Defines the extent of a given slab pour.
■ At the end of each day when the paving type breaks this delays concrete
placement.
○ Steel Dowels with speed Dowel tubes
 ■ This is used to distribute the load between adjacent slab sections to
prevent vertical slab displacement.
○ This is the type of joint that we use for a driveway.