Category: Educational Resources
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How to Integrate Pigments into On-Site Concrete Mixing
Color is no longer a specialty add-on in concrete. It has become a mainstream design feature for residential, commercial, and municipal projects alike. For contractors, that means knowing how to properly mix, dose, and finish pigmented concrete on-site is essential to delivering consistent, high-quality results. This guide outlines best practices for pigment use in field…
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Optimize Concrete Slab Dowel Design with the EIDM Enhanced Integrated Dowel Model
Because standards are intentionally conservative for most projects, but new design methods are changing, project-specific design optimization is required to provide safe, cost-effective, and sustainable construction. The newly developed Enhanced Integrated Dowel Model (EIDM) ensures joint performance under all wheel types, to reduce joint spalling and callbacks, while typically also reducing cost and improving sustainability. Dowels…
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Cold-Weather Concreting: Technical Guidance for Preventing Winter Damage
As construction timelines stretch deeper into the colder months, concrete contractors are increasingly expected to deliver high-performance placements under challenging conditions. Cold weather can slow hydration, delay strength gain and significantly increase the risk of early-age concrete damage. Without proactive measures and technical know-how, cold-weather concreting can lead to compromised structural performance, costly repairs or…
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Repairing Concrete Joints – Prep and Installation
The spalled concrete joint repair preparation and installation process when using semi-rigid or sand-modified semi-rigid repair materials is not unlike the initial joint filling process. It’s important to create clean, vertical edges at the outside of the joint repair to allow the repair material to bond to the joint walls and to clean the joint to…
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Repairing Spalled Concrete Joints | For Construction Pros
Spalled concrete joints are the primary problem for a concrete floor. Though the joint is necessary to control cracking, they do provide opportunities for damage by impact from work done on the slab, improperly filled joints, the saw cut timing, damaged saw blades, poor finishing, etc. This is part of a three-part series on spalled…
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Understanding Spalled Concrete Joints | For Construction Pros
Deteriorated or “spalled” joints are the number one problem in a concrete floor. Saw cut contraction/control joints and construction joints create interruptions in the concrete floor’s surface. These interruptions create impact points along the joint edge and joints are then subject to deterioration or damage by the crossing wheels of material handling vehicles, pallet jacks,…