To be fair, this topic is such a blatant “logically makes sense” issue, it really does suprise me on the odd occasion when someone doesn’t understand that the decorative overlay and patching that has been applied, doesn’t stop the concrete underneath moving and the crack opening up again.

I actually don’t even know if I need to go into further detail other than that…..The Majority of people will get the point. But, for the those special few who don’t, lets talk more.

Cracking in concrete is considered by both amatuer installers and double decade structural engineers as normal and typical and nothing done during the installation of said concrete is to prevent cracking, on the contrary, everything that is done is to “control” cracking. Where, how far, what angle, what stress levels etc etc. From steel reinforicing holding the crack together, to control joints specially put in to make the concrete crack where we want it to….cracking to concrete is like bubbles in your champagne, you don’t get one without the other.

Legally from the standpoint of Australian Standards, if the control measures installed into the concrete are working effectively on the crack that has appeared, then the crack is to be considered “non structural” and not a problem. In turn, if the control measures are not working effectively, it is to be considered “structural” and in need of rectification.Either way, the warranty provided for the cracks in your concrete, is supplied over a 7 year basis by the contractor who installed your concrete.

THIS IS NOT A REPAIR!!!! (big letters in bold with exclamations!!!!)

This system of what we do is specifically called “patching”. It is common in the industry and quite normal from home domestic jobs to large commercial sites. Yes, you will have one or more of your chosen contractors come out to quote with a droopy mouth and a few missing teeth and tell you they’ll repair your crack and you won’t see it agian, but that is an absolute load of shit and you should just smile while you subcontiously tell yourself to run for the hills.

Honesty. Simple huh? Someone like myself, makes this one of the main talking points of your project during our initial consultations. Ask any of the quotes we do. I make this topic so blatantly obvious to the client, that no confusion can be present.

“What I am doing, is patching fill your crack with epoxy and silica sand, the strongest substance I have available to do my absolute best to have that crack not return, however, you should expect that crack to return, because once you start driving your 2 ton car over the concrete again, it will supress the ground underneath, cause the concrete to flex and tension again, which will reinstate the inital reason why your concrete cracked in the first place. The good news is, WHEN your crack returns, it will look somewhat like the picture above, a relatively hairline crack that is no worse than it already was.”

I can and might some day, go into a hell of a lot more technical detail on cracking, but I think this part of the blog at least describes things in enough detail so the few who can’t see anything with reasoning, might have a second opion to go through.

PS: Contractors. Stop calling these things fucking repairs. Be professionals and speak from experience. I guarantee very few of your “crack repairs” remained hidden for more than 6 months.

This one here is very uncommon. In the last 20 odd years, I think I’ve come across 2-3 of my own works that have encounted this, along with another contractor sending me some photos asking me what it was, which I was happy to explain to him the details, coming directly from experience.

This is called “Rising Damp”. I just had my latest one pop up from a lovely client that we completed some work for last year, which again, due to having dealth with this before, the cause was very straight forward.

Basically, when concrete is installed that is going to be tiled or basically be an internal floor to have coverings, as a concreter, the engineering dictates that a vapour barrier be used (Visqueen), to prevent rising damp which will in turn pop your tiles off over time, and in this case with resurfacing products, leave the sealer looking a little cloudy in the areas that it is rising.

Unfortunately, not being in control of the inital installation for the concrete, we have absolutely no idea during your surface refurb if this is going to occur or not. This latest one, has shown it’s face after we have just received 500+mm of rain in the last wet season down pour, and has primarily occured on the outer areas of the patio, along with control joint and crack infill patching where moisture can rise more easily from the sloppy ground under neath.

Here is another example sent through from another contractor. They applied a clear sealer to coloured concrete roughly 6 months ago, basically now again after the heavy down pours, the rising damp is starting to cloud the sealer on top appearing to change the colour of the concrete.

Unfortunately with this problem, there is no real fix. The only method of work available, is to firstly try and use solvent to dilute the sealer on top, hoping that the moisture in the sealer will be removed. If / when this fails (rarely does the job), a choice needs to be made to either redo the area in question, or leave it as is because, through no fault to anyone it will only keep occuring whenever heavy rains are received through outside factors that your resurfacing installer cannot control.

I know we’re always looking for someone to blame in modern society, but sometimes, accepting that shit happens, is the only thing to do when no one is to blame.

This leads me to my final topic of discussions…….