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Posted by jloomis on March 22, 2008, 8:18 pm
Well thats how I feel......Re-bar is insurance, and yes, fiber mesh is not
the sole aspect to making a concrete pad trouble free. I would use fiber
but I would also use re-bar 1st. Settling is a major issue and homeowners
have been noted to pour concrete on substandard subgrade.........I just
looked at one today for a fellow....
stumps ground, and chips everywhere.......He say's, Oh, "It should be fine"
They say that the day of the agreemanet and then a year later when the
concrete cracks the memory is not there?
I always put in a concrete estimate if the subgrade is suspicious,
"Contractor not libale for compaction, and slab failure due to faulty
subgrade"
jloomis
>> I would be cautious....I poor lots of concrete. Most of the slabs are
>> engineered. Many are not. The practice of using fiber mesh was tossed
>> many years ago. It had a failure rate. Homeowners may like the ease of
>> application but when you look into the serious concrete poors and
>> concrete made to last most if not all use re-bar grids.......
>> if you look at Bridges or any commercial concrete work, you will
>> see rebar.
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the mesh and rebar served two
> different functions?
>
> Mesh helps reduce cracking, but as far as I know adds very little strength
> to the concrete.
>
> Rebar makes concrete stronger, but I don't think it reduces cracking much,
> other than holding the pieces together when they crack (concrete is strong
> in compression, weak in tension and flexing. That's where the rebar
> helps).
>
> Obviously, I wouldn't rely on mesh as my only reinforcement in a strength
> situation (foundation walls, pillers, bridgework, etc.), but with a slab
> on
> a stable base my main concern is cracking. The mesh works great for that.
>
> On the other hand, when I poured our sidewalk out front over recently
> filled soil, I did add a few runs of rebar. If the soil underneath settles
> any, the rebar should help the concrete "span" those areas a bit. No
> cracks
> there in 4+ years either...
>
> Anthony
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