mudcat47537
Silver Member
Another concrete guy here weighing in. I don't know of anyone in our area that will guarantee concrete not to crack, if they do their guarantee most likely isn't worth the piece of paper it is written on.
As far as wire or fiber, that is something that has been argued since fiber hit the scene and probably will be until something else comes out. We prefer to use wire and lift it up. Note the key to this is the wire has to be in the top 3rd of the concrete not laying on the ground. If you use concrete bricks to hold wire up it will still fall between the bricks. Have 1 guy whose only job is to pull the wire up and it will stay there if you are pouring at a reasonable slump 4"-4.5". If you do not get the wire into the top 3rd of the slab fiber may be a better choice. There are different sizes and lengths of fiber as well as thicknesses some even have little barbs on it. We are using a lot of the F100 macro fiber from master builders now in commercial work. You would not want it on a finished floor though. If you have any doubt as to weather the fiber or wire works best go try to tear some of that has has fiber used and properly placed wire. They are very similar but improperly placed wire is quite easy to tear out.
To the guys that say to pour it when it is 70 degrees, low humidity, moon in the second phase, that is all crap. Yes ideal conditions do exist but having any expectations of getting a crew there the exact day that the conditions are right is nearly impossible for a good crew. Living in southern IN. we always have high humidity hot in the summer cold in the winter as does most other places in the country. We cannot wait on "the" perfect day unless we are doing it ourselves. When I pour concrete for my uses it is usually under some of the worst conditions when I cannot work for anyone else.
Bottom line concrete isn't rocket science hire a good contractor to come and do it they will do a good job, leave the work to them, or do it yourself. I know we have not had to tear a piece of our concrete out in over 6 years that we considered a complete job. We have tore out a few times when the heat got the best of us or unexpected cold snap, equipment malfunction etc. But that stuff happens sometimes to everyone. The good guys will start over and the bad guys will still try to sell it to the builder. We had a slow week last week and still poured over 400 yards 7 guys doing residential and light commercial. I do not consider myself an expert, but I do pour a lot of concrete and cannot remember the last time we had a complaint that was not related to owner prepped sub grade.
As far as wire or fiber, that is something that has been argued since fiber hit the scene and probably will be until something else comes out. We prefer to use wire and lift it up. Note the key to this is the wire has to be in the top 3rd of the concrete not laying on the ground. If you use concrete bricks to hold wire up it will still fall between the bricks. Have 1 guy whose only job is to pull the wire up and it will stay there if you are pouring at a reasonable slump 4"-4.5". If you do not get the wire into the top 3rd of the slab fiber may be a better choice. There are different sizes and lengths of fiber as well as thicknesses some even have little barbs on it. We are using a lot of the F100 macro fiber from master builders now in commercial work. You would not want it on a finished floor though. If you have any doubt as to weather the fiber or wire works best go try to tear some of that has has fiber used and properly placed wire. They are very similar but improperly placed wire is quite easy to tear out.
To the guys that say to pour it when it is 70 degrees, low humidity, moon in the second phase, that is all crap. Yes ideal conditions do exist but having any expectations of getting a crew there the exact day that the conditions are right is nearly impossible for a good crew. Living in southern IN. we always have high humidity hot in the summer cold in the winter as does most other places in the country. We cannot wait on "the" perfect day unless we are doing it ourselves. When I pour concrete for my uses it is usually under some of the worst conditions when I cannot work for anyone else.
Bottom line concrete isn't rocket science hire a good contractor to come and do it they will do a good job, leave the work to them, or do it yourself. I know we have not had to tear a piece of our concrete out in over 6 years that we considered a complete job. We have tore out a few times when the heat got the best of us or unexpected cold snap, equipment malfunction etc. But that stuff happens sometimes to everyone. The good guys will start over and the bad guys will still try to sell it to the builder. We had a slow week last week and still poured over 400 yards 7 guys doing residential and light commercial. I do not consider myself an expert, but I do pour a lot of concrete and cannot remember the last time we had a complaint that was not related to owner prepped sub grade.
