Joints in industrial floors are the most common reason for failure—they curl and the edges break down under heavy hard-wheeled loads. Those bumps are also hard on forklifts and owners have begun demanding fewer joints and less curling. There are several approaches to building floors with much wider joint spacing. We learned about a few of them at this luncheon.
Bruce Suprenant led off by describing the problem both from a technical and business viewpoint. Heavy loads at a slab edge result in deflection and increased maintenance on joints and forklifts. Experienced owners understand the problem and are willing to pay for slabs with greater durability.
Steve Lloyd, president of MaxxCrete, described how his company has begun placing low-water steel-fiber-reinforced concrete floors with only about 30% of the joints in a typical floor slab. These floors have little to no curling and place easily—at least they do when you have someone with Lloyd’s experience.
Nigel Parkes, PNA Technologies, showed how smart design will limit the amount of curling and properly supported and armored joints can reduce or eliminate joint problems.
Greg Scurto, president of Ductilcrete, reviewed an alliance he has with a small group of top-notch floor contractors to use a design-build process to produce nearly joint-free floors. The system uses a two-layer floor with fibers and very low water contents to result in crack-free floors with near-zero curl, even several years after placement. Learn more here.
Wrapping up the luncheon, Greg Fricks, The Fricks Company, discussed how his company has placed many thousands of square feet of joint-free floors using shrinkage-compensating concrete. These floors use Type K cement in the concrete mix to first expand and then contract slowly back to the original size. This technique has proven very effective, although experience is one of the primary factors for success.
This luncheon was presented with support from Stego Industries and Wagner Meters and can be viewed here.
