Expansion crack

There is a proportional relationship to expansion joints in concrete floors. Engineers estimate the temperature range fluctuations expected in a building, then mathematically calculate expansion joint interval spacing and the width of the joint. They also calculate the best material options for filling the expansion joint. The second leading factor causing concrete expansion joints to crack is poor material selection for the joints themselves.

Many different concrete mix formulas are available. Depending on the application, some concrete mixtures are high in corrosive additives, like calcium and fly ash. Keeping your concrete expansion joints in pristine condition has many benefits. Over the long term, buildings and other concrete slab structures with properly designed and maintained expansion joints combined with compatible joint-filling materials will perform without issues.

Properly sealed and maintained expansion joints should perform as intended. They should not be a liability nor an ongoing expense. As a building owner or manager who depends on concrete slabs for production or storage, you have better things to worry about than problems with concrete expansion and contraction.

The long-term benefits of concrete expansion joins include:. Properly maintaining your expansion joints is the key to ensuring long-lasting performance. Preventive maintenance will help delay any repairs that may naturally need to be done over time and give you longer life out of your expansion joints. Regularly inspecting the state of your expansion joints will ensure you catch a problem right away.

There are steps you can take to keep your concrete floor expansion joints in healthy condition, including:. If you discover cracks in your joints, the process of replacing expansion joints in a concrete floor is relatively simple. You need to choose the right joint filler to create a new expansion joint that is both strong and flexible.

Never fill your cracked expansion joints with concrete. This removes their flexible nature and can cause your entire floor to crack. Instead, apply an industrial concrete floor caulking or filler designed to resist cracking, allow for concrete expansion and resist water penetration below your floor.

Instead, expansion joints crack slowly and steadily. Regardless, you should still be aware of the first signs of cracked expansion joints that require repair, including:. The important thing is to make the right choice and to make it with the best information. But a separate factor that can cause very large movements and extensive damage to brick structures or brick veneer walls is the thermal expansion which occurs across a long or tall brick wall when that wall is heated by sun exposure.

The photographs here show significant thermal expansion damage in a long brick structure - the Poughkeepsie NY Jewish Community Center when we first photographed it in We visited this site again for an update in June The brick veneer was attached using normal steel strap methods and the brick veneer was also reinforced at intervals using a horizontal steel wire.

But the wall, more than ' long, was built without a single expansion joint. As the south-facing wall of this building heated in summer sun the wall grew in length until it pushed out the East and West building corners at their tops for a total of nearly 3" measured by dropping a plumb line from each building corner. We were surprised that there was not more extensive damage to the structural walls themselves, and we urged the building management to consult an experienced mason for further inspection and repair.

We expected the mason to cut vertical expansion joints in the wall and to seal these joints with an appropriate flexible filler material or gasket. No repairs were made, the cracks had grown slightly, and leaks had increased at the time of an informal site inspection and visit we made again in June , as shown in the photographs below.

Above: an open a control joint built into a brick wall of a building in Kingston, NY. It's no surprise that this wall had a good control joint in the brick wall: note that the sign indicates that this building houses James McGowan and sons, a Kingston masonry company.

These control joints are placed at intervals of 25 stretcher brick courses - green arrows. Below, a closer look at the sealed control joints at the control joints in a brick veneer at the Van Scriver Elementary School in Haddonfield New Jersey. If you are looking for a reliable and experienced masonry contractor in Boston head over to AMN masonry, they offer wide range of services including, brick and stone repointing, concrete repair, and historic building restoration services as well.

If you can cut the old sealant sides sufficient to pry it out of the expansion joint using a simple utility knife or in combination with a putty knife that would be a start but I wouldn't remove it until you're ready to install the new sealant. It's also important that the expansion joint surfaces be clean and dry. Thanks for the added detail for the question. Since the expansion joint goes all the way through the brick a baccarat it's not a bad idea.

What is the best way to repair a driveway expansion joint and what materials are recommended? An annual inspection of joints should be on every homeowner's to-do list. Knowing the proper way to repair these joints is equally important. The most common repair method is to fill them up with a concrete patch repair material. This is not an optimal solution as the concrete will not expand and contract but will crack. See also the Do It Yourself Driveway Joint Repair Bundle This method prevents water penetration and dirt and foreign matter accumulation while allowing the slab to move as it expands and contracts.

The caulk has an expected life of 7 to 10 years as it will allow for movement. It is a repair method that homeowners can do themselves and that contractors will appreciate because they will have less call-backs. When the joint that has been sealed with caulk is finished with fine sand, it blends in with the driveway and becomes less obvious. Repairing joints using this method improves the look of your property and will prevent problems in the future.

This meets all ASTM requirements for commercial joint repair. How to Repair Joints video. An expansion joint is usually formed in a straight line, at intervals, to control where and how cracks will occur in concrete. These expansion joints are strategically placed on designs according to recommendations and instructions by a structural engineer.

The expansion joint is created by leaving a gap between the bricks of a wall with a polystyrene spacer to ensure the space stays free from mortar and can expand and contract. When the brick wall is plastered, this spacer layer is cut back slightly and the gap is normally filled with a flexible sealant.

The settlement cracks are easily addressed with a cosmetic touch up of the crack with a filler and a coat of paint. This makes the gap weatherproof to wind and water, but still allows the expansion joint to move, expand and contract as needed.

It is important that this expansion joint is not filled with cement, plaster or any other hard filler. Without an expansion joint, the settlement or movement of the house would cause uneven and much larger, unsightly and possibly structural cracks in your house structure and could cause cracks under tiles and so on. Expansion joints are an important part of a well-designed building.

What is a settlement crack? As your new house settles in on its foundations - a process known as settlement - small cracks may develop in or immediately alongside the expansion joint.

These cracks are small and narrow. They are perfectly normal in a newly built structure and do not indicate anything structurally wrong with your home. Your home is purpose-built with the expansion joints to ensure that these settlement cracks only occur inside or along the expansion joint. Repairing settlement cracks The basics of crack repair are to remove all debris and excavate the crack down to firm material.

A suitable, flexible crack filler or mortar mix can be used to fill the crack. Once dry, apply a new coat of paint to finish the repair.