Expansion Joint CuttingEchuca
Cut while the slab is still green, before the concrete decides for itself where it is going to crack.
- 24/7Every day, all year
- 20+ yrsCommercial / Civil
- CSDAAMember and insured
- 4.9 starsFrom 18 reviews
Concrete cracks. Joints decide where
Every slab shrinks as it cures and every slab cracks. A control joint is a weakened line that gives the crack somewhere sensible to go, so it happens under a straight saw cut instead of wandering across the middle of a new floor.
Timing is the whole trick. Cut too early and the aggregate ravels along the edge. Cut too late and the slab has already cracked wherever it felt like. We run a Soff-Cut Ultra early entry system, which dry cuts in the green zone within a couple of hours of the finish, long before a conventional wet saw could touch it.
It is a dry cut with an anti ravel skid plate, so there is no slurry running across a slab that is still curing. On a big pour we work in with the concreters and stay until the joints are in, which regularly means finishing well after dark.
What turns up
- System
- Soff-Cut Ultra
- Timing
- Early entry, green zone
- Method
- Dry cut, no slurry
- Edge
- Anti ravel skid plate
- Works with
- The pour, on the night
- Availability
- 24/7, 365
The pours that need joints on time
Anything large, anything visible, and anything that will carry a floor covering later. Which is most of what gets poured.
Shed and factory floors
Large area pours where uncontrolled cracking ruins both the look of the floor and the way it wears.
Dairy and farm slabs
Yards, feed pads and machinery slabs that live outside, move with the temperature and get washed down every day.
Carparks and hardstand
External slabs that shrink and move with the weather, and need joints set out to a proper grid rather than guessed at.
Driveways and paths
Residential and commercial flatwork, where a random crack across the front of a new house is the first thing every visitor sees.
Slabs to be polished
Floors heading for a polished or exposed finish, where a shrinkage crack cannot be hidden under anything at all.
Retrofit and re cuts
Cutting joints into cured slabs that never got any, and widening or cleaning out failed joints so they can be sealed properly.
Expansion joint cutting Echuca concreters book around the pour
This is the one service where the concrete sets the timetable, not the diary. Joints have to go in while the slab is green, so an Echuca booking is made against a pour date rather than a day of the week, and it regularly runs into the evening.
Because we are coming across from Bendigo, that booking gets locked in early. Tell us the pour date as soon as your concreter has it and the truck is planned around it. The one thing that does not work is a phone call at four in the afternoon on the day, because by the time anybody could get there the window has closed.
Soff-Cut Ultra is what makes early entry possible. It dry cuts within a couple of hours of the finish, and the skid plate holds the surface together at the blade so the edge does not ravel. Get the timing wrong and the slab tells everyone about it, permanently.
Often on the same job
- Road Sawing Echuca On a cured slab that never got joints, the floor saw retro cuts them.
- Polished Concrete Echuca A floor heading for a polished finish cannot hide a shrinkage crack.
Expansion Joint Cutting across the region
Bendigo is the base, but the truck is on the road most days. Same gear, same crew, same hours, right across central Victoria and southern New South Wales.
Echuca
VICMoama, Rochester, Kyabram, Lockington
Swan Hill
VICKerang, Cohuna, Robinvale, Nyah
Shepparton
VICMooroopna, Tatura, Numurkah, Nagambie
Seymour
VICNagambie, Broadford, Euroa, Kilmore, Heathcote, Puckapunyal
Deniliquin
NSWFinley, Barham, Tocumwal, Jerilderie, Hay
What Echuca customers say
Asked often
When should control joints be cut?
As soon as the slab will hold an edge, which with an early entry system is usually within a couple of hours of finishing. Waiting until the next morning is how slabs end up cracked before anybody has cut a joint into them.
What is early entry cutting?
A dry cut system, in our case Soff-Cut Ultra, built to cut while the concrete is still green. A skid plate supports the surface at the blade so the edge does not ravel, which is what stops a conventional saw going in that early.
How far ahead should I book for an Echuca pour?
As soon as your concreter gives you a date. The window on a green slab is a couple of hours, so it is planned into the run rather than squeezed in on the day. Late notice is worth a call anyway, because we may already be in town.
How deep do the joints go?
Deep enough to create the weakened plane the slab will crack along, set against the slab thickness. We cut to the engineer or the specification where there is one and to standard practice where there is not.
Will it make a mess of a fresh slab?
No. It is a dry cut, so there is no slurry washing across a floor that is still curing. That is a big part of why early entry is used on slabs heading for a polished or exposed finish.
Can you cut joints into an existing slab?
Yes, though it is a different job. On a cured slab we use the floor saw rather than the early entry machine. It works, but it will not undo cracking that has already happened.
When is the pour
Give us the pour date, the area and the joint layout if you have one. Early entry work gets booked around your concreter, including overnight.