Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Good
Speaker 1: Sunday morning to you, my friend. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on the show. Welcome to the second hour of our
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Speaker 1: your home is in need of some personal house Whisper attention.
Speaker 1: If you sit here listening to the show week after
Speaker 1: week and you think to yourself, this is fantastic, But
Speaker 1: you know what I could really use. You know, babe,
Speaker 1: what we could really use Dean and Tina sitting in
Speaker 1: our family room staring at this mess, telling us what
Speaker 1: it is. What's the game changing idea that's going to
Speaker 1: make it all work? Right? Well, that can happen too,
Speaker 1: It actually can. All you have to do is reach
Speaker 1: out to us. We can do an in home design
Speaker 1: consult with you. Just go to house Whisperer dot design,
Speaker 1: house Whisperer dot Design. All right, I told you they
Speaker 1: were around and you didn't hear from Tina earlier today,
Speaker 1: but you know Tina's around and about, and so you
Speaker 1: got to say hi to everybody.
Speaker 2: This morning, Hello and welcome home.
Speaker 1: There you go, and also there it is. There's her
Speaker 1: spirit animal following right behind her. And also literally following
Speaker 1: right behind her is Olivia. Olivia Ray Sharp, eight years old,
Speaker 1: out of control. You want to say hi to everybody.
Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 2: I also got to pettit chicken today.
Speaker 1: Oh she also got to pettit kicking pot and the
Speaker 1: crowd goes wild. All right, thank you? Oh I love
Speaker 1: that kid. All right, if you haven't been listening thus far,
Speaker 1: if you've just joined us, we're talking concrete today with
Speaker 1: my very special in studio guests Chris Carson. Chris, are
Speaker 1: you in any way related to Kit Carson?
Speaker 2: Possibly back in the history archives, but not to my knowledge?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right. I was just checking because I'm reading
Speaker 1: a book on him right now, and so it was
Speaker 1: just in my mind. I'm like, wait a second, I
Speaker 1: have to ask that question.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean we're all relayed to everybody at some point, right,
Speaker 1: but nothing direct that you're aware?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: All right, okay, very famous frontier concrete man, Kit Carson. No,
Speaker 1: not at all. All right, anyway, we're talking concrete. But
Speaker 1: it's top of the hour, so guess what time to
Speaker 1: go to the phones, and so let's get a couple
Speaker 1: of calls in, shall we?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Is it is it? Shoe?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 1: Shoe?
Speaker 3: Shoe?
Speaker 1: Welcome me? Q Oh you okay?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: All right, Hey, Hugh, how's it going?
Speaker 3: Good? Good morning? Good morning, yeah going? Well, thanks, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I just had a quick question for you. I'm actually
Speaker 3: from Eagle Rock myself personally, Oh my goodness, grew up
Speaker 3: going to schol Canyon as a kid. That was a
Speaker 3: treat to go up to Shoal Canyon.
Speaker 1: You were just you were so close, so close to
Speaker 1: me at that point because I was living back in
Speaker 1: the canyon there literally. Well, yeah, it's yeah, So anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, Oh.
Speaker 3: Going to the dump was a treat of a kid.
Speaker 3: But anyhow, Yeah, I work in home improvements. I've been
Speaker 3: doing it for quite a few years, and one of
Speaker 3: our staples that we install is text coat. I'm sure
Speaker 3: you're familiar with it, and I just want to get
Speaker 3: kind of your feedback on it, see what you your
Speaker 3: thought on it was, and see if it's really kind
Speaker 3: of worth it in the long run, as opposed to
Speaker 3: like say, Benjamin More exterior paints.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I don't have a I
Speaker 1: don't have an issue with text your coat as long
Speaker 1: as it's here. Well, here's my thing. I have seen
Speaker 1: so many text coats, and by textco you want, Hugh,
Speaker 1: go ahead and explain very quickly your understanding of text
Speaker 1: cooat so everybody knows we're all on the same page.
Speaker 3: Okay. So textcoat is a is a name brand of
Speaker 3: a type of paint that's been that was created back
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty three as a long term solution to
Speaker 3: exterior paints, you know, kind of replaced lead paint and
Speaker 3: exterior lead oil paints, excuse me. And it's water based
Speaker 3: and it's non toxic, and it's got a lot of
Speaker 3: properties in it, like fire resistance. It's got to perlite
Speaker 3: and all kinds of good things in it to make
Speaker 3: it long lasting. It uses titanium as a base, and
Speaker 3: it's just very expensive and I just want to see
Speaker 3: it if you know, you agree with you know, my boss,
Speaker 3: that is it's well worth it and people should be
Speaker 3: buying it, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So and that's a great description of textcoat.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing from two different perspectives, one from the
Speaker 1: builder side of me. So let me wake up the builder.
Speaker 1: It's a Sunday morning. He's asleep, so I'll wake him
Speaker 1: up to comment on this. The builder side of me,
Speaker 1: I have no issues with textcoat as long as the
Speaker 1: prep work is done properly. And that's really what it
Speaker 1: comes down to all painting, all forms of exterior paint
Speaker 1: in all painting in general, is it's much like what
Speaker 1: Chris and I have been talking about this morning, like
Speaker 1: concrete prep, the prep before the poor is. You know,
Speaker 1: it is ninety plus percent of the job in so
Speaker 1: many ways, having everything right. And so the issues that
Speaker 1: I've had in the past as a builder with text
Speaker 1: coat is not the material itself. It's with the fact
Speaker 1: that it's been slapped on very uh fast and furious
Speaker 1: by some home improvement contractor who has not taken the
Speaker 1: time and put in the effort to prep the surface well,
Speaker 1: prime the surface well so that we get a good bond.
Speaker 1: Because text coat is a very very thick milled material
Speaker 1: to put on the outside of any structure, and it
Speaker 1: has that rubberized latex quality to it, which is one
Speaker 1: of its advantages, you know, bridges cracks some and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But because so thick, if it doesn't,
Speaker 1: if it isn't clinging incredibly well, then any amount of
Speaker 1: moisture inside the stucco or that gets behind it will
Speaker 1: push it off and will push it off, and once
Speaker 1: it comes off, if it's not holding well, it starts
Speaker 1: coming off in sheets. So that's not the fault of
Speaker 1: the texture coat itself. That is the fault of a
Speaker 1: rushed application. So my honest opinion, Hugh, Yeah, from the
Speaker 1: contractor point of view is that I have no issue
Speaker 1: with the product per se. I think it's a quality
Speaker 1: product that works well for some homes in some situations, uh,
Speaker 1: and could work well you know, in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways. My issue is that a lot of text
Speaker 1: coat contractors are are kind of you know, blow and
Speaker 1: go contractors who come in and just like voom, boom, bump,
Speaker 1: and they don't take the time to prep the surface well,
Speaker 1: and then we end up inheriting those problems down the road.
Speaker 1: So that is that's my contractor perspective. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a solid material, it has its uses, it's got a
Speaker 1: lot of benefits to it, but you've got to find
Speaker 1: a contractor who's going to do it well. Number one.
Speaker 1: On the design side of things, the designer in me
Speaker 1: UH only has two issues UH to discuss text coat.
Speaker 1: One is, as a designer, its texture is not always
Speaker 1: the texture I want, and so it unless you know,
Speaker 1: like everything else, everything has its application, and nothing should
Speaker 1: be applied universally everywhere, right because it has its own look,
Speaker 1: it has its own vibe, and if it fits with
Speaker 1: what we're doing, we're all for it. And if it doesn't,
Speaker 1: then I want to go elsewhere. Okay, I want I
Speaker 1: want to address things with a different product. And secondly, real.
Speaker 3: Quick before before you get there is picture, there is
Speaker 3: texture text coat, but then there's also like flat, so
Speaker 3: it will just it'll just take on the look of
Speaker 3: anything that is being painted.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, what's there understood understood? It's just not
Speaker 1: It's just not something that I sell as a universal
Speaker 1: coding for every thing, because there's always a time where
Speaker 1: there's you know, it's a time to use something else.
Speaker 1: But as a whole, I have no issue with the
Speaker 1: with the quality of the product. But again, a well
Speaker 1: adhered exterior paint of good quality can last a heck
Speaker 1: of a long time. There are other fire resistant coatings
Speaker 1: that can go on the outside of a house. So
Speaker 1: it's a toolbox. So for me, you know, I it's
Speaker 1: a toolbox. One of the things as a designer that
Speaker 1: I usually struggle with is when I find textured, heavily
Speaker 1: textured text coat that's been run up a stucco wall
Speaker 1: and then across a sofet or an eve out to
Speaker 1: the facier board. It all cringey about that, and it's
Speaker 1: usually it also from the builder side of things that
Speaker 1: becomes a weak point. So anyway, Hugh, a great question,
Speaker 1: Thanks for throwing it out there, and yeah, that's my opinion.
Speaker 1: I even went long into the break to explain that.
Speaker 1: So super appreciate the call, my friend. Yeah, as long
Speaker 1: as your company is one that is installing it with
Speaker 1: integrity and all of the prep work necessary, you know,
Speaker 1: have at it, my friend, because it has its uses,
Speaker 1: absolutely for sure. All right, y'all, when we come back
Speaker 1: more of your calls.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We're talking concrete today with my special in studio guests
Speaker 1: Chris Carson. But right now we are taking calls. I
Speaker 1: want to go back to the phones. Let's see here
Speaker 1: bumping a bump, bump, bum, Let's talk to Jim. Hey, Jim,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 5: Hey you guys, how's it go this morning?
Speaker 1: Doing great? How can we help you?
Speaker 3: Hey? I have a question for mister Cromson on two questions.
Speaker 5: One of them is, I hear the word concrete mason,
Speaker 5: and you're kind of toss around together, and I'm not
Speaker 5: sure what the difference is. And the second question is
Speaker 5: what are the top two reasons for concrete failure?
Speaker 1: Okay? All right? And your your your connection is a
Speaker 1: little wonky. I can hear you. You're just kind of
Speaker 1: you're warbling a little bit so, but I'm just going
Speaker 1: to repeat that. So two questions, Chris. One, he hears
Speaker 1: the word the terms concrete and masonry thrown in together.
Speaker 1: What's the difference between the two, And then what are
Speaker 1: the two top reasons for concrete failure?
Speaker 2: Okay? Yes, difference between concrete and masonry pretty simple. Concrete
Speaker 2: is concrete flour, driveways, patios. It's a different product. Masonry
Speaker 2: is it's all called hardscape. But masonry is more in
Speaker 2: the form of units, whether it's block brick pavers. You're
Speaker 2: building a barbecue or a fire pit, doing a brick planter.
Speaker 2: That's masonry work. Okay, so it all includes concrete. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's footings to build the masonry, so it's all concrete is.
Speaker 1: The mortar that's going in between the masonry. So I
Speaker 1: think that's a really great way of putting it, is
Speaker 1: that masonry is that what we're building, is we're building
Speaker 1: it out of units, and concrete is pouring in as
Speaker 1: a as a solid mass essentially, and.
Speaker 2: They all go hand in hand. So you kind of
Speaker 2: want a contractor that's experiencing, you know, both masonry and
Speaker 2: concrete because they have everything to do with each other,
Speaker 2: one and the same. Almost. Yeahs oars back to failures.
Speaker 2: It's it could be you know, it's hard to say
Speaker 2: number one, number two reasons for failure. It just starts
Speaker 2: from the early onset of grading, preppering, prepping. What am
Speaker 2: I pouring over? Is it clay? Is an expansive soil?
Speaker 2: Is this thing going to heave on me?
Speaker 3: Orse?
Speaker 2: Think? So the preparation is obviously key and just to skip,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of a to the end here, you
Speaker 2: have your base material compacted sand or based material. You
Speaker 2: have your rebar, you need a good quality concrete. I
Speaker 2: like to pour from trucks. You can get these companies
Speaker 2: that have a car decrete or you can mix up
Speaker 2: my hand. Most likely it's not uh, it's not gonna
Speaker 2: have the p S I and the quality that you're
Speaker 2: gonna need from a ready mixed company. So and then back,
Speaker 2: you know, back to the real failures. You know, it
Speaker 2: could just could be as simple as overwetting the concrete,
Speaker 2: pouring later in the day when it's too hot, not
Speaker 2: having enough people to control the finishing, and the proper technique.
Speaker 2: I always like to pour in the morning. First thing.
Speaker 2: It gives us plenty of time to work with things.
Speaker 2: The trucks are on time more than a timely manner.
Speaker 2: You are to concrete. Second round, say ten eleven o'clock.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the truck won't get to the job to one o'clock.
Speaker 2: So and then then the lastly, just we talked about
Speaker 2: control giants and the expansion joints, the lines that you
Speaker 2: put in the concrete. They might look decorative, but they're
Speaker 2: there for reason. And that's probably the number one thing
Speaker 2: in keeping your concrete from failing. And those need to
Speaker 2: be within an eight to six foot square grid square
Speaker 2: forty fives. Whatever you want to do, you need to
Speaker 2: get these lines in there.
Speaker 1: I'm going to jump in here because you and I
Speaker 1: are going to talk about this next segment, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of in depth. So keep listening Jim as we
Speaker 1: talk about that. But I think I think essentially let
Speaker 1: me let me add in here. When we talk about
Speaker 1: concrete failure, I mean, they're really kind of are only
Speaker 1: two kinds of concrete failure. One is a structural fail
Speaker 1: and that's really bad, and two is an esthetic fail.
Speaker 1: And so I would draw a differential between those two.
Speaker 1: A structural fail is a disaster for a project because
Speaker 1: you know you've got structural concrete under your home?
Speaker 5: Do it?
Speaker 1: You know in retaining walls? Do you know it's there
Speaker 1: to do a very very specific job. And I'm not
Speaker 1: too implying that there isn't there are non structural concrete
Speaker 1: because you know there's a structure to a driveway. But
Speaker 1: and a lot of homeowners aren't aware of this. You know,
Speaker 1: when it comes to flatwork around your house, you don't
Speaker 1: even have to pull a permit for flat work around
Speaker 1: your house. It is not considered essensial structural support because
Speaker 1: it's just people are walking on it, vehicles are driving
Speaker 1: on it, and so you can just have that all
Speaker 1: designed and poured without a permit. The city is not
Speaker 1: involved in that. But anything that where concrete is a
Speaker 1: foundation for something else where it's holding up the walls
Speaker 1: of your home or holding back a large amount of
Speaker 1: soil that is you know that otherwise would find its
Speaker 1: way into your yard. Those are very very specific engineered
Speaker 1: structural applications, and so if concrete fails in that way,
Speaker 1: we are in serious trouble. Most homeowners consider structural concrete
Speaker 1: failure when they come out and they look at their
Speaker 1: garage slab, or they look at their driveway or their
Speaker 1: patio and there are cracks or uplift or things happening
Speaker 1: in places that they just don't want it to have happen.
Speaker 1: I mean, they don't have to move out because of that,
Speaker 1: but they hate the way it looks and so as
Speaker 1: a result, So that's, by the way, Jim, what we're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about next, not so much the
Speaker 1: deep chemistry of getting all the structural stuff right, but
Speaker 1: when it comes to decorative esthetic finish on concrete, the
Speaker 1: need for crack controlled joints, and Chris is going to
Speaker 1: give us some seriously, seriously good advice about that, not
Speaker 1: only how often they should be, but where they should
Speaker 1: be and and what direction they should be running, and
Speaker 1: do they need to be wide or do they need
Speaker 1: to be deep or both? All of that we will
Speaker 1: cover right after.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1: We're talking concrete this morning with my very special in
Speaker 1: studio guest Chris Carson, Concrete and Mason Contractor. Extraordinary and
Speaker 1: just such a great time with him this morning. I
Speaker 1: want to get back into it, Chris, So all right,
Speaker 1: let me throw out just at first, because I don't
Speaker 1: care how long it takes for us to talk about this.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that people are really learning
Speaker 1: some things this morning. Let me throw out four little
Speaker 1: facts for y'all right now about concrete, and then we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about the fourth one ad exhaustion. At
Speaker 1: exhaustion now a number one concrete. You got to know
Speaker 1: this concrete doesn't dry. We talk about concrete drawing. It
Speaker 1: doesn't dry. Concrete doesn't dry. It cures. Okay. Curing is
Speaker 1: a is a chemistry. Thing. It means that something is
Speaker 1: undergoing a process of stabilizing under the influence of a compound.
Speaker 1: And so, just so you know, the part of the
Speaker 1: prep and the planning of a concrete poor, a proper
Speaker 1: concrete pore is that you're designing the mix. You heard
Speaker 1: Chris use that term mix design. You're designing the mix
Speaker 1: for a specific structural or application. You're designing the mix
Speaker 1: based on the weather of the day, the heat of
Speaker 1: the day, the cool of the day, the amount of
Speaker 1: humidity that's in or lack thereof. You're designing the poor
Speaker 1: to basically maximize the retention of the moisture that comes
Speaker 1: in the mix. We don't want to pour when it's
Speaker 1: raining because we're adding additional water to the whole problem,
Speaker 1: and you can't finish concrete in the rain that way.
Speaker 1: And we don't want to pour when it's one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty degrees outside because we're losing water out of
Speaker 1: the mix so fast that it doesn't cure properly and
Speaker 1: we end up with a weak finish. Even though the
Speaker 1: concrete dries and it's hard, but it is lost a
Speaker 1: lot of its strength. The water that's in the mix
Speaker 1: needs to stay in there for as long as as
Speaker 1: possible to do its job and activate all of the
Speaker 1: cement molecules so that they come to full adhesion. Because
Speaker 1: it's a curing process, it's also, by the way, a
Speaker 1: thermogenic process, which means if you've ever had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to walk up and put your hand on the belly
Speaker 1: of a concrete truck, when it shows up a cement truck,
Speaker 1: you'll find that it's warm. It's warm in there. As
Speaker 1: concrete cures, it lets off heat. There's a whole thing
Speaker 1: that's going on there, and so the timing of those trucks.
Speaker 1: Concrete can't stand there forever, and the longer it mixes,
Speaker 1: the warmer it gets. And you know, there's an expiration
Speaker 1: date on a on a cement truck, which is why
Speaker 1: Chris earlier in the show was saying, Hey, I like
Speaker 1: to do Poor's first thing in the morning, because because
Speaker 1: ordering the trucks as they come from the cement factory,
Speaker 1: they are more reliable timing wise, cause if you're the first,
Speaker 1: if you're the first job, and you should talk to
Speaker 1: your concrete people and your contractor about that. Can we
Speaker 1: make sure that we're the first job for an early
Speaker 1: morning poor, you've got more control of your environment, more
Speaker 1: control of the heat of the day, and more control
Speaker 1: of the reliability of the trucks showing up, because if
Speaker 1: something goes wrong on a first poor and things get delayed,
Speaker 1: that's why the people who are waiting for a midday
Speaker 1: poor sometimes their trucks end up coming late later than expected,
Speaker 1: and so that's a whole thing. Another thing is to
Speaker 1: understand that without special attention to specialized ad mixtures, concrete
Speaker 1: is not waterproof. Concrete is, in its most rudimentary nature
Speaker 1: is as a cure is it squeezes that water out
Speaker 1: and leaves behind empty voids and capillaries. Concrete is a
Speaker 1: giant stone sponge in essence, and so if there are
Speaker 1: moisture issues, there have to be vapor barriers involved and
Speaker 1: all sorts of things like that. So you just need
Speaker 1: to understand that about concrete. And now to get to
Speaker 1: the point that we're going to talk about in the
Speaker 1: next segment. And I'm just setting it up here, and
Speaker 1: we went a little long last segment, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: cut it short here so we can get back on schedule.
Speaker 1: But everything you've heard me say this before, hopefully and
Speaker 1: if you're new to the show, then lucky you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it again. Everything in life is strong in
Speaker 1: some ways, but not in all ways. Okay, that's just
Speaker 1: a life principle, and it's definitely a principle in physics
Speaker 1: and in mechanics and in chemistry. Concrete is strong in
Speaker 1: one particular way. It, like stone, has incredible capacity for
Speaker 1: what we call compressive strength. Okay, try taking a one
Speaker 1: foot by one foot cube of concrete and putting unbelievable
Speaker 1: even force on it from all sides. You won't move
Speaker 1: it an inch. Try crushing it just with even force.
Speaker 1: Or you take a one foot by one foot cube
Speaker 1: of concrete you could park on. You put park an
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier on top of it, if you've got it
Speaker 1: set up the right way. I'm exaggerating obviously, but the
Speaker 1: point is concrete is incredibly strong compressively. But concrete, like
Speaker 1: most stone, is brittle. Meaning I could take that thing,
Speaker 1: that cube that I just put unbelievable amounts of pressure on,
Speaker 1: and uh, I could take a hammer, just a hammer
Speaker 1: and hit the corner of it and crack the corner
Speaker 1: right off, boom off it comes. Because concrete is brittle. Now,
Speaker 1: the opposite of concrete would be a material like steel,
Speaker 1: which has incredible what we call tensile strength. You can
Speaker 1: put a lot of pressure on steel. You can bend
Speaker 1: it and arc it and tie it in a bow,
Speaker 1: and guess what, it didn't break. It flexed and we
Speaker 1: could pull it and it doesn't snap. It has incredible
Speaker 1: tensile strength. But you know, we could put a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on that little rod of steel and smash
Speaker 1: it flat. Not so much compressive strength. So guess what
Speaker 1: when you combine something that has tensile strength and you
Speaker 1: put it right in the middle of a concrete pour
Speaker 1: something that has great compressive strength but no tensile strength, Well,
Speaker 1: it's reinforced concrete. Concrete and steel mashed together. That helps
Speaker 1: the cement and the concrete have a little bit of both,
Speaker 1: more of both, right, And that is why we add
Speaker 1: re bar, which is short for reinforcement bar. That's why
Speaker 1: we add steel to every good concrete poor in various ways.
Speaker 2: More the more.
Speaker 1: Structural capacity the concrete has to have, the more elaborate
Speaker 1: and larger the steel is, and so on and so forth,
Speaker 1: all the way down to sidewalks that you know you
Speaker 1: could use welded wire mesh that's still a steel component.
Speaker 1: The point is this concrete is going to crack. It's
Speaker 1: going to crack, it's going to settle, it's going to
Speaker 1: find its way to crack. How do we control those
Speaker 1: cracks and where we use crack controlled joints? And so
Speaker 1: when we come back from the break, UH, Chris is
Speaker 1: going to give us an entire masterclass lesson on what
Speaker 1: to be looking for, what to demand, and uh, what's
Speaker 1: right and wrong about some crack control joints because ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, we can talk all the practical, you know,
Speaker 1: the the the ethereal science of it all. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we're talking about stuff in your home,
Speaker 1: the hardscape that's outside your home. And if you're thinking
Speaker 1: about doing an addition and or maybe a new build,
Speaker 1: how do we handle a large amount of concrete that
Speaker 1: we don't want to put crack control joints in. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about post tension concrete as well. But when we
Speaker 1: come back, don't go anywhere. We're going to tell you
Speaker 1: how to build your next concrete project without ugly cracks.
Speaker 1: Stay with me.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
Speaker 4: KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1: I hope you're enjoying your Sunday morning. We certainly are.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here in studio with doing one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things, and that is talking shop with another expert
Speaker 1: in the field of home building, Chris Carson, concrete and
Speaker 1: masonry expert, and just so so so much experience, so
Speaker 1: much expertise. So Chris, I'm going to dive back in.
Speaker 1: There's slabs, that in structural stuff that we do for homes,
Speaker 1: and I want to address that. We're going to get
Speaker 1: to talking about like post tension work versus traditional rebar
Speaker 1: and pros and cons and things to be aware of there.
Speaker 1: But let's just talk about the kind of concrete that
Speaker 1: probably most of our listeners right now are thinking about.
Speaker 1: Which is the new patio or the new driveway or
Speaker 1: a little sidewalk or backyard paths or what we're going
Speaker 1: to you and I refer to as decorative finish, you know,
Speaker 1: esthetic concrete work. And the enemy there, well, obviously I
Speaker 1: mean concrete. If you've got any concrete guy who knows
Speaker 1: anything about what he's doing, you're not going to worry
Speaker 1: about structural fails there per se. But the enemy there
Speaker 1: really comes down to two things. It comes down to
Speaker 1: cracks and then just just the finish that you've picked
Speaker 1: and how reliable that finish ends up overall. But let's
Speaker 1: talk cracks right now, Just cracks. Nobody wants cracks in
Speaker 1: their concrete work, but you're gonna get them, aren't you.
Speaker 3: You are.
Speaker 1: Concrete's going to settle down against the ground, and even
Speaker 1: if there's no settling, the ground moves. It moves not
Speaker 1: just because of earthquakes, but it moves because when it
Speaker 1: gets wet, some ground swells a little bit microscopically minutia,
Speaker 1: but it's enough. If it's pushing against a brittle object,
Speaker 1: which is what the cement is, it's going to crack.
Speaker 1: So we got to tell the cracks where to go.
Speaker 1: And that's the point of a crack control joint. Now,
Speaker 1: I asked you earlier in the show what's your preferred distance,
Speaker 1: and you said six feet. You don't like to get
Speaker 1: it beyond six feet. But there's more detailed than just that.
Speaker 1: It's the direction of those control joints, and now the
Speaker 1: question of do they need to be wide, do they
Speaker 1: need to be deep? Do they need to be both?
Speaker 2: So talk to us about that Yeah, normally you're gonna
Speaker 2: want to put in a grid. There's a forty five
Speaker 2: degree grid. A square grid is more common and more practical,
Speaker 2: makes more sense with the way concrete reacts when it
Speaker 2: does crack.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's explain that. So I get asked to
Speaker 1: put in forty five degree diamond patterns all the time,
Speaker 1: and they're lovely. They're lovely, and in some situations you
Speaker 1: might find that we're going in the right direction with
Speaker 1: the concrete. But let's say we've got a maybe a well,
Speaker 1: let's just say a garden path in the backyard four
Speaker 1: feet wide and it's running out twenty some feet. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's a long, thin thing, and I want to
Speaker 1: put a I'm going to put a lot of crack
Speaker 1: control joints. I'm gonna score it every two feet, but
Speaker 1: it's going to be on a forty five Is that
Speaker 1: going to solve my problem?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Oh, the concrete wants to go across the narrowest point.
Speaker 2: There's different things corners. You can just look at what
Speaker 2: you're setting up on a side yard and you can
Speaker 2: work out a score mark pattern off the house and walls,
Speaker 2: air conditioning pads, things like that. The square is going
Speaker 2: to give you more protection if you have a long
Speaker 2: walk or drive weights in the forty five's, those cracks
Speaker 2: are not going to want to travel that forty five
Speaker 2: degree angle in a distance and protect the rest of
Speaker 2: the concrete. He wants to just ignore those joints and
Speaker 2: go straight across to the narrowest point. And it's just
Speaker 2: going to do its thin because concrete's brittle. So the
Speaker 2: forty five degrees not my favorite choice. It does work
Speaker 2: as long as you can get the joints in there
Speaker 2: that properly will work. But my you know, my desire
Speaker 2: would the safest bet would be to go into a
Speaker 2: square grid.
Speaker 1: So this is where now, as a designer and a builder,
Speaker 1: this is where where my disciplines mesh together. Because you know,
Speaker 1: in a in a an imperfect world where there are
Speaker 1: no laws of physics, designers can design anything they want, uh.
Speaker 1: But in the real world there are limitations to what
Speaker 1: should be designed in a in an instance because of
Speaker 1: how you know the materials are going to react. And
Speaker 1: so if I don't want my client to end up
Speaker 1: with cracks, sometimes I have to break the bad news. Listen, No,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't put that we shouldn't put the score joints
Speaker 1: in that direction because they're not gonna help. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get a crack right across the surface of that diamond anyway.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: If we've got a like a large patio pore and
Speaker 1: it sort of swoops out into a little, a little
Speaker 1: hour glass passageway to another one, think of like an
Speaker 1: hour like two larger bits of concrete mass with a
Speaker 1: smaller kind of neck or a waist in between it.
Speaker 1: Where you walk through. Where's that where's that crack going
Speaker 1: to show up?
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put money right in the middle at the
Speaker 2: narrows point.
Speaker 1: You're gonna bet some good money right there at that
Speaker 1: tiny little hour glass waste because you've got these two
Speaker 1: large masses and the tension is looking for the weakest point,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 2: I'm going to come back tomorrow and I'm gonna see
Speaker 2: the crack. It usually happens right away too. But that's
Speaker 2: a no brainer right there.
Speaker 1: Now. So these joints do they need to be wide?
Speaker 1: What's the secret.
Speaker 2: With on the joints? To me, just collect dust and
Speaker 2: leaves and dirt. Really, a nice professional job would be
Speaker 2: a very tight and we have all kinds of different
Speaker 2: groovers with different wits and depths. But the width is
Speaker 2: not necessary. It's the depth, and you'd be surprised at
Speaker 2: how little it takes. You could almost take a fingernail
Speaker 2: or a pencil and draw a line across a walkway
Speaker 2: and for some reason it wants to go there. It's
Speaker 2: so that's why we put the control joints and I
Speaker 2: like real tight ones on the top. And the depth
Speaker 2: is not that important. It's just the fact that you're
Speaker 2: getting it in there and the concrete reacts to that.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be two three inches deep. I mean,
Speaker 2: you have the rebars so you can't go too deep.
Speaker 2: But it's amazing how little it could be. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: just see something that could be an eighth inch thick
Speaker 2: that we call dummy joints and no crack right there.
Speaker 1: So the depth, the deeper that joint, the more it
Speaker 1: is essentially attracting the tension weakness of the area over
Speaker 1: to it. But the width, so the old traditional like sidewalk,
Speaker 1: you know, it rolls in. It's big, old wide, and
Speaker 1: people assume, well, that's what I've got to have all
Speaker 1: over my stuff, and that you're saying that's not the case.
Speaker 2: And if you want to get real fancy it keeps going.
Speaker 2: You could put in a very thin joint and if
Speaker 2: you really want a high end result, get a quick
Speaker 2: you saw a diamond blade and go in and open
Speaker 2: up those joints and cut them down an inch or
Speaker 2: an inch and a half. That's insurance.
Speaker 1: Have you ever just done no joints and then come
Speaker 1: in the day after and cut the joints in or
Speaker 1: you but you have ways of scoring them during the poor.
Speaker 2: Very commonly done. They make special saws that you can
Speaker 2: put on the concrete the same day and saw cut
Speaker 2: those joints in. It's more of a commercial application. A
Speaker 2: few problems with that is the blades do tend to
Speaker 2: chip out the aggregant on the on the cuts, and
Speaker 2: also you're allowing time for that concrete to react and
Speaker 2: crack usually happens very quick. A lot of people will
Speaker 2: pour big jobs and put their finishing machines on there,
Speaker 2: not having to worry about snapping lines and cutting in
Speaker 2: joints to you know, eliminate finishers and make the job
Speaker 2: an easier job to do, and then just come back
Speaker 2: and saw cut it. A lot of people won't saw
Speaker 2: cut it the next day, Well, the next day a
Speaker 2: lot of times is too late. Concrete likes to relieve
Speaker 2: itself pretty much immediately.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, all right, So when we come back,
Speaker 1: we're going to take a little break from the aesthetics
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about slabs, house foundation slabs.
Speaker 1: The traditional slab is done with rebar rebar at eighteen
Speaker 1: inches on center twenty four inches on center. However, the
Speaker 1: structural engineer has kalked out the strength of the slab.
Speaker 1: There are some conveniences when you're remodeling if you've got
Speaker 1: a traditional slab. But you and I were talking during
Speaker 1: the break. If we want a large surface that is
Speaker 1: perfectly smooth and has no crack control joints, and we
Speaker 1: want to minimize or altogether eliminate cracking in that situation,
Speaker 1: then post tension is just a revolutionary way of doing this.
Speaker 1: It's been around since the applied to home since the
Speaker 1: eighties or so, and a lot of people are sitting
Speaker 1: on post tension slabs right now and they don't realize it,
Speaker 1: and so we need to talk about that and also
Speaker 1: let homeowners know that if you live in a house
Speaker 1: that was built in the eighties, or newer. Before you
Speaker 1: go cutting into that thing for your next remodel, you
Speaker 1: better know whether or not it's a traditional or a
Speaker 1: post tention slab. We'll talk about that right after we
Speaker 1: have the news. You're listening to Dean Sharp the House
Speaker 1: Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with Dean Sharp
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