Visited a new house build in Austin and noticed their driveway was poured in one go without any joints cut in

I was walking through a new subdivision in Austin last weekend and saw a fresh concrete driveway that looked smooth as glass, but there wasn't a single control joint cut into it after three days of curing. The finisher told me they were trying to save time and skipped the saw cuts, but I figure that slab is going to crack all over the place by summer. Has anyone else run into homeowners pushing for skipping joints to save money, and how do you explain the risk to them?

3 comments

3 Comments

dixon.james6d ago

Gotta call out that three day curing thing. Most residential driveways don't need three days before cutting joints, they usually cut them within 4 to 12 hours after finishing while the concrete is still green. Waiting three full days means the concrete has already started shrinking and cracking on its own, so sawing then is mostly cosmetic and won't stop random cracks from forming. If that finisher really waited that long, he was probably hoping the homeowner wouldn't notice the cracks already showing up under the surface.

reese_hayes715d ago

@dixon.james nailed it. Waiting three days is basically just cutting lines in already cracked concrete for looks. I've seen finishers do the same thing with big commercial slabs too, acting like it's some pro technique when really they're just covering their tracks. The whole point of early entry sawing is to control where the cracks happen, but if you wait too long the concrete decides for you. Sawing after three days might as well be decorative scoring at that point.

the_piper5d ago

Honestly I feel personally attacked because three-day curing is basically how I approach all my life decisions, including laundry and returning texts. Ngl the concrete probably had more patience than my ex.