Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app Welcome Home.
Speaker 1: I'm Dean Sharp the House Whisper. I design custom homes,
Speaker 1: I build custom homes, and here on the weekends. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm here. I'm your guide to better understanding that place
Speaker 1: where you live today on the show. You know, remodeling
Speaker 1: season is just it is upon us. And you know,
Speaker 1: despite everything having to do with the local fires and
Speaker 1: all the rebuilding there, I'm just talking about all across
Speaker 1: the nation. This is the time of year when people
Speaker 1: are gearing up to get going. Maybe you're going to
Speaker 1: be doing some room editions, maybe you're changing up some stuff,
Speaker 1: maybe you're building from the ground up. You know where
Speaker 1: it all starts. It all starts coming out of the
Speaker 1: dirt with concrete. And so we're going to spend some
Speaker 1: time talking about concrete today, concrete and Mason and if
Speaker 1: we get a chance to get into both, that would
Speaker 1: be great. I have sitting in studio with me a
Speaker 1: very very special guest, one of my favorite concrete contractors,
Speaker 1: and I love just sitting here in studio, you know,
Speaker 1: talking shop with pros that I love and respect. Chris
Speaker 1: Carson is here with me today. Oh there's our live
Speaker 1: studio audience. Chris, say hi to everybody. Glad to have
Speaker 1: you here.
Speaker 2: Hello, glad to be here.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna be We're gonna be diving into it.
Speaker 1: Let's do a little biz up front here. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to follow us on show the social social all right,
Speaker 1: let me just try that again. Don't forget to follow
Speaker 1: us on social media, all the usual suspects. We're there, Instagram, TikTok,
Speaker 1: Facebook x and Home with Dean. Home with Dean is
Speaker 1: the same handle for them all. You can find us there.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: We only do the good kind of social media, right, uplifting,
Speaker 1: informative good stuff. So no risk. I'm not gonna spam you.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to shock you. We're just gonna help
Speaker 1: you along with your home as always, and of course,
Speaker 1: if your home is in need of some personal house
Speaker 1: whisper attention, then you can book an in home design
Speaker 1: consult with me and the Tea, which is, by the way,
Speaker 1: how Chris and I met originally doing a coming over
Speaker 1: to his place doing a consult for him. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then we just launched off on a professional relationship. After that,
Speaker 1: I was so impressed. You can just go to house
Speaker 1: whisper dot Design if you are looking for an in
Speaker 1: home consult house Whisper dot Design. All right, let's introduce
Speaker 1: the team. As always, Elmer is on the board. Good morning, Elmer.
Speaker 3: Whoo, I'm here.
Speaker 4: I love the enthusiasm man.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yeah, right right in. Yeah, Elmer is is awesome.
Speaker 1: Producer Richie nowhere near microphone, but ready to take your calls.
Speaker 1: By the way, and of course we're going to be
Speaker 1: going to the phone, so I'm talking concrete today. But
Speaker 1: as always, whatever it is that has got you scratching
Speaker 1: your head about your house, you call me and talk
Speaker 1: to me about that, and I'm going to help you
Speaker 1: through it. The number to reach me eight three three two.
Speaker 1: Ask Dean eight three to three, the numeral two ask
Speaker 1: Dean A three three two ask Dean. The phone lines
Speaker 1: are open now. Ricardo is standing by ready to take
Speaker 1: your call, and you already heard his melodious voice. Andrew
Speaker 1: Caravella at the near his desk, Good morning morning. How
Speaker 1: you doing.
Speaker 4: I'm doing day two of doing the mornings. It was great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Is this a is this a long term gig?
Speaker 1: Or are you being punned.
Speaker 4: No, this was my choice. I just I needed to
Speaker 4: switch just for the weekend. So so I'm making a
Speaker 4: special guest appearance just just for today and yesterday.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, well we will treasure every month it my friend.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well a little be on demand in the podcast, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Of course, always sitting across the table from me usually
Speaker 1: is my better half, my design partner and my best
Speaker 1: friend on planet Earth. She is nearby and we will
Speaker 1: hear from her, but she's not in studio immediately. But yes,
Speaker 1: don't panic. Tina is also here today, and of course
Speaker 1: my special in studio guest Chris Carson, who we're going
Speaker 1: to get down and dirty with right after.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Here to help you take your home to the next level.
Speaker 1: What is the next level? Well, he's got to hang
Speaker 1: in there and find out, because I'm going to help
Speaker 1: you find it, I promise. Also, we're going to be
Speaker 1: going to the phones in a bit. Got a couple
Speaker 1: of calls on the board, but we've got room for you.
Speaker 1: The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Speaker 1: Dean eight three to three. The numeral two, ask Dean.
Speaker 1: It's just that simple eight three three to two ask Dean.
Speaker 1: Producer Richie standing by, He's ready to take your call.
Speaker 1: He'll tell you everything you need to know. And yes,
Speaker 1: I'm talking concrete today with my special in studio guest.
Speaker 1: But as always, regardless of what I've decided to do
Speaker 1: as a theme of the show, you can call me
Speaker 1: about anything outside inside landscape, architectural design, decor construction DIY.
Speaker 1: You know the whole mgilla. So give me a call.
Speaker 1: Let me help you figure out what's going on with
Speaker 1: your house. I will be happy to talk to you
Speaker 1: about neo Gothic architecture or how to fix that leaky
Speaker 1: toilet and everything in between. We'll just go for it,
Speaker 1: all right. I'm very excited. Sitting across the table from
Speaker 1: me this morning, my friend and professional colleague, Chris Carson
Speaker 1: of Chris Carr Some Concrete and Masonry, is sitting in
Speaker 1: studio with me because I wanted to talk concrete today
Speaker 1: and any chance that I can actually bring one of
Speaker 1: my colleagues and a respected contractor into the studio with me,
Speaker 1: then all the better. Concrete. Concrete is Okay, We're gonna
Speaker 1: get into Chris's story here. But let me just lay
Speaker 1: some groundwork for you. Concrete is synthetic rock, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, just to put it in a nutshell, we
Speaker 1: figured out a few hundred years ago how to make
Speaker 1: synthetic rock. In fact, the Romans figured it out how
Speaker 1: to do it in their own way, and others before them.
Speaker 1: It quite literally forms the foundation of our lives. And
Speaker 1: I mean that in every sense of the word. Concrete
Speaker 1: is holding up your entire house right now. It's in
Speaker 1: your driveway, it's in your sidewalk, it's on your patio,
Speaker 1: it's on your walls in the form of stucco, it's
Speaker 1: on your roof in the form of tile. It's in
Speaker 1: your house as grout and mortar, maybe even on the
Speaker 1: finished floor or a countertop or two. And that's just
Speaker 1: the concrete part, let alone the masonry, which goes hand
Speaker 1: in hand with the concrete. Concrete is the most used
Speaker 1: man made material in the world in the world, next
Speaker 1: to water, next to water exactly. It is the second
Speaker 1: most used resource after water. Are you hearing me? Okay?
Speaker 1: And concrete's use is increasing. China uses more concrete in
Speaker 1: two years in two years right now, China is using
Speaker 1: more concrete in a two year period than the US
Speaker 1: used in the entire twentieth century. Think about that, all
Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds, from nineteen oh one to nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: all of the concrete used in the United States. Now
Speaker 1: China uses that much concrete in a two year period
Speaker 1: of time. About thirty billion tons of concrete are used
Speaker 1: each year globally. That's the equivalent to and I don't
Speaker 1: know I believe this analogy here or this comparison. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. Must have been a coffee drinker who came
Speaker 1: up with this one, But it is the equivalent to
Speaker 1: fourteen coffee mugs worth of concrete for every person on
Speaker 1: planet Earth every day. That is how much concrete is
Speaker 1: being used each year globally in the world. Concrete is
Speaker 1: also a problem for us environmentally the way that we've
Speaker 1: done it, and it is shifting. But concrete accounts for
Speaker 1: eight percent, that is no small number, eight percent of
Speaker 1: all global CO two emissions. If the cement industry, the
Speaker 1: cement industry were a country, it would be the third
Speaker 1: largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, after the
Speaker 1: US and China. Just think of it that way. I
Speaker 1: mean concrete is and no judgment on this, it's just
Speaker 1: simply these are the facts. Concrete is a massive, massive
Speaker 1: part of all of our lives and of human civilization.
Speaker 1: Here in the twenty first century, concrete wasn't widely used
Speaker 1: in the US. I'm going to have to tell you
Speaker 1: this story. We're gonna have to talk about this. It
Speaker 1: wasn't widely used in the US until after nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 1: when the Portland Cement Association used what I think I
Speaker 1: like to call a classic drug dealer marketing technique to
Speaker 1: pull off one of the most successful product campaign stunts
Speaker 1: of all time. We're going to talk about that, but
Speaker 1: first I want to find out more. I want you
Speaker 1: guys to find out more about my special instant studio guests,
Speaker 1: Chris Carson. So tell you what. When we come back,
Speaker 1: We're going to hear Chris's story. I want to hear
Speaker 1: how you got into the concrete business, concrete and masonry business.
Speaker 1: What leads a guy into that, and how long have
Speaker 1: you been doing it? And what are your favorite and
Speaker 1: least favorite parts of it? And then I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you all this drug dealer marketing technique that made
Speaker 1: concrete such a prevalent part of our lives here in
Speaker 1: the US. And then we're just going to get into
Speaker 1: the practical stuff that affects y'all every day when it
Speaker 1: comes to your concrete, everything from cracking to curing, to
Speaker 1: how does it really work? To what are the kinds
Speaker 1: of finishes? And so on and so on, all of
Speaker 1: the issues, all the highs, all the lows. We're going
Speaker 1: to cover it all.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1: Hey, it's Dean Sharp, the house whisper with you here
Speaker 1: on this lovely Have you looked outside today? I hope
Speaker 1: so if you haven't get your butt out of bed,
Speaker 1: come on, open the windows. Look outside. It is a beautiful, clear,
Speaker 1: cool southern California. I mean, dare I say spring like? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think spring has kind of sprung here. But you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully we're going to get some more water falling out
Speaker 1: of the sky. But it looks like at least the
Speaker 1: birds in my yard have decided that it's springtime. And
Speaker 1: I think, honestly, if I have to trust the calendar
Speaker 1: or the wildlife around me, I'm going with you know,
Speaker 1: just let nature speak for yourself anyway. It's a beautiful
Speaker 1: day here in southern California. I hope wherever you are,
Speaker 1: I know it's not the same everywhere else. It's like
Speaker 1: two degrees in some places. Wherever you are, I hope
Speaker 1: you're comfy. I hope you are warm and safe or
Speaker 1: cool or whatever you need to be. And I hope
Speaker 1: you've got some good plans for today. My big plan
Speaker 1: today after the show, by the way, is was unexpected,
Speaker 1: but it's fine. I'm gonna go do some work. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna actually go over to a dear friend's house and
Speaker 1: help him deal with a plumbing leak that their whole house,
Speaker 1: you know, built in the seventies copper, and the copper
Speaker 1: is starting to lose itself. Somebody in the past, not him,
Speaker 1: ran all the new water lines overhead, which is the
Speaker 1: right way to go. But I've got Chris in here.
Speaker 1: There was one bit of groundwork left in his place
Speaker 1: because they have a kitchen island, so a continuous roll
Speaker 1: copper line has to go under from the kitchen sink
Speaker 1: wall over to the to the island, and it has
Speaker 1: started this week to pit out into leak. He woke
Speaker 1: up he heard hissing, heard water moving in the pipes,
Speaker 1: no faucets were on. It's a leak, and for sure
Speaker 1: found it. And so we have a creative solution, though
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not going to talk about it because I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to say we have a creative solution
Speaker 1: of how not to tear up the floor in order
Speaker 1: to get new water lines run over there. And that's
Speaker 1: what I'm going to go do afterwards, and I get
Speaker 1: to spend a few hours with my bud and it'll
Speaker 1: be good. But also I get to spend the next
Speaker 1: couple three hours right here with a friend, Chris Carson
Speaker 1: of Carson Concrete and Masonry. Is that the official name?
Speaker 1: Am I saying that? I just all, I'm your company
Speaker 1: name is Chris. Call Chris see periods there you go? Okay,
Speaker 1: Chris is a is a fantastic expert concrete and masonry contractor.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're talking about today, concrete. So first
Speaker 1: of all, just so everybody knows what your story is,
Speaker 1: how did you get into all this, how long you've
Speaker 1: been doing it, how'd you start, why'd you want to
Speaker 1: go into concrete or you know.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not going to tell you how long I've
Speaker 2: been doing it? Oh? Come as. I started when I
Speaker 2: was eighteen, and I'm no young chicken right now. Quite
Speaker 2: a while and I fell into this. My family had
Speaker 2: a you know, company business and tried to do that.
Speaker 2: It involved working inside at an early age, you know,
Speaker 2: between school and summer vacations, helping him out, and there
Speaker 2: was a future there that I wasn't meant to be inside.
Speaker 2: I'm an outdoor person and my friends were in construction,
Speaker 2: whether hanging drywall or whatever they're doing, and concrete was
Speaker 2: my calling. So I ended up working for a very
Speaker 2: high end concrete guy in Long Beach, California, and learned
Speaker 2: from him. And he had a company to where he
Speaker 2: slowed down and he'd lay off the people that were
Speaker 2: low in the total pole, which was me. And about
Speaker 2: the third time he laid me off, I go, well,
Speaker 2: you let me off one more time, and I'm talking,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm eighteen nineteen. I just go, I'm going
Speaker 2: to quit and start my own business. And I put
Speaker 2: an ad in the penny Saver and put a add
Speaker 2: in there. No job too small, concrete, masonry, And that's
Speaker 2: how it all started.
Speaker 1: Unbelievably awesome. That is such a great story. Add in
Speaker 1: the penny. You were called to it. I mean you really,
Speaker 1: you were really called to it.
Speaker 2: It's my calling and I had no idea what I
Speaker 2: was doing. Now I would get these jobs and they
Speaker 2: you know, do you know what you're doing? Everything? I said,
Speaker 2: of course, then I would go find somebody. It's like help,
Speaker 2: I need something, knows what you're doing. That's kind of
Speaker 2: it was, Yeah, well it's starting.
Speaker 1: Now you are the man. So what kind of work
Speaker 1: do you guys do and what's your I have to
Speaker 1: ask this because by the end of the show we're
Speaker 1: going to have people asking, oh, can Chris come and
Speaker 1: do my concrete? Where? What is your realistic range? Okay,
Speaker 1: you're out here in eastern Venture County with me, the
Speaker 1: range of your work? Where will you go and where
Speaker 1: do you cut it off?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm very thankful that most of my work is
Speaker 2: I'm going to say ten to twenty minutes right around
Speaker 2: my town here. There's so much work in my town.
Speaker 2: I do work for public entities, park School, done some
Speaker 2: special stuff buried President Reagan at the Reagan Library associated
Speaker 2: with the concrete work, some special things in my life
Speaker 2: that I donated. But you know, came across it very
Speaker 2: interesting to be involved with. But my bread and butter is,
Speaker 2: like I say, parking, rect schools, residential love, doing detail,
Speaker 2: custom concrete work, finish work. I've done it all from
Speaker 2: foundations at an early age, building foundations for chains like
Speaker 2: McDonald's and Blockbusters. And you know, I got pretty big
Speaker 2: when I was a young young man, maybe in my
Speaker 2: twenties into my thirties, running thirty to thirty five guys
Speaker 2: for five trucks out of a ten thousand square foot
Speaker 2: warehouse every day, my own pumping company.
Speaker 1: That's a serious undertaking for a guy in his twenties.
Speaker 2: It was a lot. That's serious, you know, and you're
Speaker 2: starting to raise kids. But I hate it was my
Speaker 2: calling and every you know, it's a fun business. Every
Speaker 2: job is different, so you don't just go to an
Speaker 2: office and check in. And you know, over the years,
Speaker 2: as they went on, I started to learn and was
Speaker 2: diversified in the concrete masonry, excavating, drainage, everything that's related
Speaker 2: to concrete masonry. It's been a very fun business. I
Speaker 2: still enjoy it. I'm still going to do it. I
Speaker 2: have a great crew. If I could find people like
Speaker 2: my crew, i'd probably be back to another big company.
Speaker 2: But I'm pretty much the hands on guy. I'm not
Speaker 2: one of those guys that run for one job to another.
Speaker 2: I take care of my clients.
Speaker 1: Yes you do.
Speaker 2: We knock our jobs out and we pick up and
Speaker 2: we go to the next one.
Speaker 1: This is exactly your You are just just describing your
Speaker 1: life as one of the reasons why want to have
Speaker 1: you on the show. I hope you're all listening. What
Speaker 1: you just heard is exactly the profile of any contractor
Speaker 1: that you actually really want to have working on your project.
Speaker 1: Right here's somebody who is passionate, called to it, a
Speaker 1: true craftsman, somebody who loves the details. Somebody who is
Speaker 1: not sitting in an office somewhere letting it just happen
Speaker 1: out there, because because his first and foremost passion is
Speaker 1: cashing checks and going about doing something else. He's there,
Speaker 1: he's present, he's with it, his hand picked his crew,
Speaker 1: and he would be happy to have a larger operation,
Speaker 1: but not going to do it unless the larger crew
Speaker 1: matches the same quality profile of the as the existing crew.
Speaker 1: This is exactly the profile of a contractor any in
Speaker 1: any field that you are looking for. And he's sitting
Speaker 1: here blushing right now because he's like, oh, come on,
Speaker 1: but this is the truth. So all right, So now
Speaker 1: you know, Chris, you know what he's about. And when
Speaker 1: we come back, let's talk concrete one oh one, A
Speaker 1: residential concrete one oh one, like we were during the break,
Speaker 1: and it's a it's a relatively simple concept, you know.
Speaker 1: It's a material that is you know, essentially made up
Speaker 1: of for the most part, like for ingredients, right. Uh,
Speaker 1: you got some Portland cement of some sort of form
Speaker 1: or another, which is the adhesive. You've got a couple
Speaker 1: of different forms of aggregate, you know, sand, plus a
Speaker 1: larger aggregate of sorts, some form of gravel or rock
Speaker 1: in the mix, and water. I mean, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a basic cake recipe, okay, that can be altered in
Speaker 1: an infinite amount of ways and applied in an infinite
Speaker 1: amount of ways, depending on how you do it. And
Speaker 1: it is incredibly intimidating for just about everybody, including me
Speaker 1: when it comes to the finished work. Like I was
Speaker 1: telling you, we'll talk more about that on the other
Speaker 1: side of the news.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the program today. It is
Speaker 1: a privilege to spend time with you on a beautiful
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, on any Sunday morning, Brain or shine, I'm
Speaker 1: here and I'm glad you're there too. We're going to
Speaker 1: be going to the phones right after the next break,
Speaker 1: by the way, So now, if you've been hanging back,
Speaker 1: now is the chance eight three three two ask Dean.
Speaker 1: A three to three the numeral to ask Dean, A
Speaker 1: three to three to ask Dean. That's the point right
Speaker 1: of the call. To ask Dean a question about your house,
Speaker 1: A three three to ask dean. Producer Richie standing by
Speaker 1: ready to take your call. He'll tell you everything you
Speaker 1: need to know. Hop you into the queue, and who
Speaker 1: knows you and I will put our heads together. We'll
Speaker 1: get it. We'll get it worked out. I promise we will.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Sitting in studio with me, uh, Chris Carson uh, one
Speaker 1: of the finest concrete contractors, concrete and masonry contractors I've
Speaker 1: had the privilege of knowing. And he also happens to
Speaker 1: be a neighbor and sitting here. We both live in
Speaker 1: the same town. And I told Chris, hey, I'm doing
Speaker 1: a concrete. She'll come over and hang out with me
Speaker 1: and let's talk shop so that everybody can gain perspective
Speaker 1: from your expertise and wisdom as well. We just heard
Speaker 1: kind of his story the quick If you missed the
Speaker 1: last segment, by the way, then you need to go
Speaker 1: back and listen to the podcast, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: you know this show is our House Whisper podcast as well.
Speaker 1: Listen to the podcast and just listen to Chris describe
Speaker 1: the course of his career, how he got started, why
Speaker 1: he does what he does. You will hear whether you're
Speaker 1: interested in concrete right now for your house or not.
Speaker 1: You will hear the quintessential profile of the proper contractor
Speaker 1: to find for your project. Okay, because Chris and I
Speaker 1: were both we were just talking during the break, just
Speaker 1: you know the years of you know, learning stuff the
Speaker 1: hard way, discovering what it is that's most important to
Speaker 1: us in life and in business, and then just holding
Speaker 1: to it and not letting it go at that point.
Speaker 1: And that's where that's where Chris is at, and so
Speaker 1: that's a lesson worth learning. Chris, let's talk about just
Speaker 1: concrete one oh one. Like I said before the breaks,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty simple mix, but it's got infinite possibilities.
Speaker 1: That's why it is the largest resource used second second
Speaker 1: to water on planet Earth. Right, the thing that I
Speaker 1: think is most intimidating about concrete for most people is that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a one and done thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got to get it right. Once it all pours
Speaker 1: out into that sidewalk or that driveway or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: You either did it right or you didn't. It's either
Speaker 1: you know, and and it's not like it's not like
Speaker 1: framing a wall where I'll show up and the crew
Speaker 1: has put the window in the wrong place and I'm like, oh, guys,
Speaker 1: grab the saws all let's move that over a few
Speaker 1: inches and renail it. That's not happening in your business.
Speaker 1: So there's a whole level of prep and detail that
Speaker 1: has to go into it. Let's just talk about that
Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, it's prep prep work. I'm starting
Speaker 1: with excavation. Compaction is obviously a big thing. Concrete as
Speaker 1: good as whatever you pour over, meaning meaning it lays
Speaker 1: on the ground. It lays on the ground, and if
Speaker 1: the ground moves earth, yeah it's gonna it's gonna fight.
Speaker 2: So we we take we take precautions to alleviate the
Speaker 2: movement in the earth, which is inevitable. So by doing
Speaker 2: simple things as far as a base, you know, compaction,
Speaker 2: getting your subgrade up to over nine, compaction, and then
Speaker 2: installing the proper sub base. My preference is a base
Speaker 2: material and compacting that. And then when.
Speaker 1: You say a subay, like a road based material, like
Speaker 1: a mixture of sand and gravel, that itself when you
Speaker 1: just pour it in kind of finds itself at eighty
Speaker 1: percent just pouring it in place, and then you can
Speaker 1: pack that down a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Whether it's sand, gravel, or base material. A barrier in
Speaker 2: between the dirt, the earth and the concrete and this
Speaker 2: allows I'm going to say, like a sponge. It it
Speaker 2: allows a cushion for movement, for the concrete to not
Speaker 2: fail as it would maybe just as poorn it right
Speaker 2: over the earth of the dirt. Also, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of other things that come into play when you're pouring
Speaker 2: concrete and you know you have water involved, You're picking
Speaker 2: up mud and stuff in the dirt, the sand and
Speaker 2: the compacted base material. Keep your boots clean when you're
Speaker 2: walking around a lot of times things will come off
Speaker 2: the bottom of your boots and the end result will
Speaker 2: be in the finished surface at the top of the concrete.
Speaker 2: But back to yeah, you got the base material, course
Speaker 2: you have your rebar material, the thickness, the mixed design,
Speaker 2: poor in placement. But I just want to add one
Speaker 2: thing with all this being said, all this work that
Speaker 2: is involved in doing a proper concrete job is the
Speaker 2: control joints. The control giants are they're promoting the cracking.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's so we're going to back up just
Speaker 1: a second here. Our listeners have heard me say this
Speaker 1: for years and years, and you and I have heard
Speaker 1: this and say it all. There are only two kinds
Speaker 1: of concrete in the world. Concrete that has cracked and
Speaker 1: concrete that hasn't cracked yet yet. Okay, it's going to crack.
Speaker 1: It's going to crack. So a control joint is how
Speaker 1: we anticipate the cracking and how we control the cracking.
Speaker 1: That's why it's called a control joint. A control joint
Speaker 1: is a is a groove that we place essentially in
Speaker 1: the a scoring groove that we place in the top
Speaker 1: surface of the finished appearance of the concrete. And just
Speaker 1: like the perforation on a ritz cracker or not a
Speaker 1: ritz like a saltine cracker. When you get a whole
Speaker 1: sheet of crackers out and you start to tweak that
Speaker 1: brittle side substance, those crackers are going to crack along
Speaker 1: that perforation because we've weakened the surface tension intentionally right
Speaker 1: at that point. And so a control joint is not
Speaker 1: to stop cracking. It is to direct the crack down
Speaker 1: inside the joint, right, And that's the idea. And not
Speaker 1: enough people and not enough contrary contractors actually place enough
Speaker 1: emphasis on control joints because they get pushed by a client.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't want all those lines all over the place.
Speaker 1: Can we just make it bigger and smoother? So just
Speaker 1: oh we're gonna have to go to break here. But
Speaker 1: just just as a point of your technical expertise, when
Speaker 1: it comes to any large surface pore of cement, what's
Speaker 1: your I mean, I've got guys who have said, you know,
Speaker 1: ten ten, every ten feet is fine. I've never been
Speaker 1: comfortable with ten feet because I've seen problems with ten feet.
Speaker 1: Other guys are like, well, you know, every two feet,
Speaker 1: but what is your comfortable range? In general that you
Speaker 1: would advise our listeners don't have control joints any further
Speaker 1: than this far apart.
Speaker 2: I'd say when you get into the bigger jobs, the
Speaker 2: parking lots and things like that, an eight foot would
Speaker 2: be to me a maximum. It's much better to look
Speaker 2: at a nice control joint than a crack. I like
Speaker 2: to go about six feet. I'm talking more residential work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so a driveway or so on. So find a
Speaker 1: way to incorporate into the design of the flat work
Speaker 1: these scores that can go. You know, let's say a
Speaker 1: maximum of six feet, and what you'll and what we'll
Speaker 1: get ideally after that is the cracks. But the cracks
Speaker 1: will occur in places will control that surface tension, and
Speaker 1: they won't show up because they'll be down inside that groove.
Speaker 1: That is the key, that's the goal. All right, We're
Speaker 1: going to talk more about this, but when we come back,
Speaker 1: we've got some calls on the board, so I think
Speaker 1: we'll answer some phone calls. Chris, how's that sound all right? Everybody?
Speaker 1: This is Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. This
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