Concrete Control Joints | Relief Cuts

all right welcome back to the mad county build  series and the last show was on how to pour um   was on how to pour a concrete um pad and sidewalk  and today we're just going to quickly talk   about the stress cuts or the relief uh the relief  joints there's a little bit of misconception with   concrete there's people that will get concrete  done and then they'll get upset when their   concrete cracks and the fact is that concrete  cracks all concrete cracks that's a guaranteed   so we use these relief cuts to control  the cracking so let's just talk about   some of the important things of a slab one  of the most important things is what is below   your slab your pad your sidewalk and it needs  to be in my opinion a good three to four inches   of rock compacted rock and that provides a good  base solid base that allows any moisture to drain   away from the slab and which will alleviate  heaving when it freezes in the winter so   that is one of the most important things to start  out with is your base what does your slab sit on   secondly is the pore itself you want uh if  you're going to do it yourself you got to   have some good quality help concrete is  one of those things that is very timely   and depending on the weather it could be cloudy  and then the sun could come out and that could   really turn that concrete fast so you  got to have a little bit of experience   when you're doing it so if you're going  to try it start out with something small   i did a video not too long ago on how to pour  a a small concrete pad and that's something   that is easily doable on yourself but something  this large is probably better off left to the pros   unless you have quite a few friends  that have experience that can help you   and one of the most important things is after  the pour where do you cut it and and how do   you cut it so these cuts are done with a diamond  blade they have special equipment to do this you   can rent it but typically from what i was taught  is you want and this depends on a little bit on   when you cut it as well but kind of the rule of  thumb is a quarter of the thickness of the slab   is what you want your relief cuts now there are  guys that i've talked to that say you can cut it   it doesn't have the cuts don't have to be as  deep if it's done earlier while the slab is   still green but like i said i was taught a quarter  the thickness of the slab is a good rule of thumb   and as far as how big or how many cuts do you do  you make and somewhere between eight to twelve   feet every eight to twelve feet you want a  cut so if you can look out here on this slab you can see that we have quite a few cuts here  and they're they're about every ten feet now you   want to get it close but what i like to do is i'll  figure out where how many cuts do i need to fall   into that 8 to 10 foot range and then i want it to  lay out symmetrical that's just how my mind works   i like things to be even one of the things they  ran into here to create three equal spaces here   it would have put one of these stress cuts right  in the middle of the sidewalk and you don't want   that so we decided to make this dress cut die  right along this sidewalk and then divide the   rest of it equally and that turned out really nice  and it looks very visually appealing it's kind of   nice to make it symmetrical i mean there's there's  there are contractors out there that that don't   put a ton of thought into that but there are some  really good ones that will do that and they make   it look really nice but you can see here on my  sidewalk we have them spaced about every four feet and then they go all the way all the way  so once you got all your cuts made i feel   it's very important that you get these filled  especially before winter because say you get   snow and ice and it melts and it goes down  in there and then freezes it's going to   expand and contract which could potentially  affect that concrete so i like to fill them   i've always used concrete joint filler but  on this slab out here i'm going to use poly   numeric sand and it's a sand that you brush in  they use it with pavers and then you lightly wet   it and it hardens so that will keep the moisture  and ice and snow from getting packed in there   in the winter and and in all reality another good  thing is it's for so those don't fill up with dirt   and then you have grass and weeds and everything  else growing out of those over time so i'll take   you along while i do that i can tell you how it  turned out i used the concrete joint filler on   in my garage and on my porch and it worked great  it was just very time consuming and i'm looking   for something a little bit faster and i think  this polynomic sand is going to be that so and   then we're going to seal this with a penetrating  sealer so i typically you know wait 14 days or so   some some will say you got to wait till it's  fully cured but with some of this commercial   grade sealer you can do it as quick as seven  days after the one thing we didn't talk about   is reinforcement in the concrete i try to always  put a rebar at two foot on center and then you   get those cuts made and then when it cracks that  rebar that reinforcement will hold the concrete   where it's at the rebar isn't necessarily going  to hold your concrete up and keep it from falling   that's why you have to have a good base what that  rebar does is it holds it together so when it   cracks it can't move laterally and some mistakes  that i see made on slabs is after the pour   homeowners don't get rock or dirt filled up  around their pads and over time water will   come off that it'll start washing out the  rock the fill underneath and you're going   to have all that leverage hanging out  over there and it is going to eventually   move that slab even if there is rebar  in there so that's one important   one last important thing you need to  do is make sure you get everything   brought up around the slab in a timely manner and  that's one thing i got to do here and i'll take   you through that when i do that as well this drops  off way down here and you can see we already got   um like an inch of rain last couple days you can  see how that's already started to wash that out   there now i'm not gonna have a problem with this  because i'm gonna get a bunch of rock and bring   it up in here and this will all be so supported  and this won't be able to wash underneath this   but this would be a problem if we didn't take  care of this that's kind of the the what you   need you need good base you need good concrete  with good reinforcement and then you need a good stress relief cut plan and then you need to  get those filled and concrete sealed and you   should end up with a really good pad but  that will be a wrap on this quick show if   you guys have any questions leave them in the  comments and i will bring you along when i fill   these stress cuts and seal this but thanks for  watching and we will catch you on the next video

Channel: Marshall Remodel

Views: 17,984

Rating: 4.9507041 out of 5

Keywords: Midwest, Iowa, Home, Design, DIY, Construction, Self Build, New Build, New Constrution, Post Frame, Pole Barn, Barndominium, Farmhouse

Id: ojFF1cUc1SI

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021