THE FORMULA FOR A PERFECT CONCRETE SLAB

When you want your concrete job to last and look great, you need a company who can deliver quality, service, and value. You also need some one smart enough to know the chemistry behind it all. We’ll spare you the gory scientific details of how rocks and water turn into a slab of concrete, but if you want to know, just ask our president, Steve Hicks, and he might talk your ear off :-)

Because of that science going on, installing a traditional concrete slab is much more complex than it might seem. Concrete Science performs many types of concrete installations, but each one requires attention, patience, and care.

The steps below start with replacing an existing slab. On the jobsite, our foreman can guide you step by step and show you how we do it.

  1. Foreman meets client and goes over what is to be done.
  2. Safety cones and signs are put into place
  3. Excavate old structure and recycle material
  4. Leveling base and making an underlayment is sometimes necessary
  5. Starts with quality materials which means concrete measuring at least 4000 psi [verifiable by factory ticket from truck driver, it’s like a receipt]
  6. Air entrained concrete – resists freeze/thaw [verifiable by factory ticket from truck driver]
  7. Reinforcements – #3 rebar spaced 24” on center (squares) [residential standard size] is setup on ground and raised up when concrete is poured to be in the middle of the slab
  8. Bull float is used to smooth out and press down so moisture comes to the top of the drying mix
  9. Control joint spacing – 7’x7’ square maximum with a cut depth at 1/3 the slab thickness. This measurement is better than commercial specs to allow for a long term
  10. Add curing agent, which is a liquid membrane and acts as a sort of plastic wrap. The concrete will not gain strength as it dries without
  11. A retarder can keep the concrete wet for longer if needed [such as decorative stamping or broadcasting lithocrete stones throughout the surface]
  12. When it hardens, a sealer with quality higher than ACI 1315 certification is used

To get the process started, call 612-200-1100 today!