Up close picture of concrete
15 March 2013

Concrete in Construction

Up close picture of concrete

What is Concrete?

Concrete is made up of three basic components, water, aggregate (rock, sand or gravel) and Portland cement. The combination when poured and hardened is concrete.

Picture of a concrete slab drying

How thick should my concrete slab be?

The average thickness of a concrete slab for a sidewalk, patio, driveway and basement floor is 4”. A typical garage floor is poured 4”-6” thick and heavy concrete slabs which large trucks will drive on should be 6”-8”. The garage slab and the heavy slab needs to have reinforcing incorporated.

man guiding flowing concrete

What is a “yard” of concrete?

A yard is a unit of measure used to help determine how much product is needed for a particular job. A yard covers one cubic yard or an area 3’x3’x3’. This is 27 cubic feet. A typical slab is 4” thick so a yard will cover approximately 81 square feet at 4” thick.

man cutting concrete with a saw

Why do they saw joints in concrete slabs?

Saw joints or control joints in a slab are planned cracks which allow movement caused by temperature changes and shrinkage due to drying. If the concrete slab does crack it will crack where you want it to and in a straight line instead of random cracks.


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