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Drove by a new subdivision in Phoenix and noticed all the driveways had control joints cut way too deep
I was passing through a new build neighborhood near Surprise, Arizona last Tuesday, and every single driveway had control joints that looked like they were cut nearly half the slab depth. A couple of them already had small cracks running from the joint corners after just 3 months of curing. Has anyone else seen this issue with contractors going overboard on joint depth lately?
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morgan.logan3d ago
Stop worrying about it. Those joints are supposed to be around a quarter of the slab depth, and the hairline cracks you saw are just the concrete doing what concrete does. I've seen plenty of driveways with joints cut halfway through that still held up fine for years. The real problem is usually the base prep and the mix, not the joint depth.
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Man that's rough. Got a buddy who builds houses out in Surprise and he told me about a whole street where the concrete guy went nuts with the saw and cut damn near through the whole slab. Said they had to tear out three driveways and re-pour them because the joints started cracking all the way across within a month. The guy was trying to be too fancy but just messed it up bad. So yeah, too deep is definitely a thing and it can wreck a driveway quick if the base isn't perfect.
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