Everything You Need To Know About Concrete Floor Spalling

Due to its strength and durability, concrete has been the first choice for constructing massive structures for centuries. However, this strong and durable material is not everlasting. It is prone to some damages such as scaling, spalling and cracking. In this article, you will learn about a concrete floor damage called scaling. Though paver sealing in Perth can prevent your concrete floor from almost all potential damages, sealing concrete floor also protects from ill-effects of the wild weather. Spalling occurs due to loss of the surface of the concrete floor.

Thawing cycle, expansion of water and using deicing chemicals are responsible for this problem. However, properly specified mix, quality material, proper finish and paver sealing in Perth can protect the floor from this type of deterioration.

Concrete and other materials must be properly specified to make sure that the floor can survive in a given environment. A concrete floor in wet conditions is most likely to undergo thawing and freezing cycles. Apart from this, using deicing chemicals also causes scaling. Here is what you should keep in mind: 

•           The minimum specified compressive strength of the concrete should be 4,000 psi.
•         There should be an appropriate volume of air.
•         The minimum cementitious content per cubic yard should be 564.   
•         The maximum water-cement ratio should be 0.45. 

These are the minimum specification requirements for making a concrete floor that lasts decades.

Sometimes, people buy ready mixed concrete. It is important to make sure that the ready mixed concrete producer complies all the specification requirements. The concrete mixture produced by the producer should be workable. Choosing the right air content for the mixture is a real issue for concrete producers. Though it depends on the coarse aggregate size, the ideal range is 5% to 8%.  

Once the concrete floor is consolidated, the concrete finisher comes into play. The finisher should use the most suitable finishing practices to achieve aesthetically and durable concrete floor.

Following are the recommendations for finishing:

1.  Arrange Edge, Darby and bullfloat. Make initial grooves before onset of bleeding
2.  Make sure that excess bleed water is evaporated from the concrete floor surface before you begin floating the surface and make the next pass with grooving tools and edging.      
3.  Leave the surface for initial stiffening. 
4. After passing edging, grooving and floating, avoid steel toweling especially during the later stiffening. This will reduce entrained air which promotes scaling.
5. Additional stiffening should be allowed. 
6. Use broom for producing the desired texture. 

Once the final texture is established, curing is important for making the concrete floor durable. Some of the curing methods include:

•         Curing with fogging, water or sprinkling of absorptive coverings  
•         Spray
•         Plastic sheet cover

Before exposing the concrete floor to freezing and thawing cycles, airs dry the floor for at least 30 days. Avoid using deicing chemicals at least for three months. And, the best thing to do for preventing the concrete floor from damages is paver sealing in Perth.