Ground Slabs
Solid Pave can handle all aspects of your concrete construction including, proper foundation measurement, installing fill dirt, grading and compacting the slab area, wire mesh reinforcement, termite treatment, vapor barrier installation, and forming and pouring the concrete slab.
Concrete Foundation Slab Services
IMPORT FILL MATERIAL
Often, the site area of a future concrete foundation slab needs to be raised in order to meet flood elevation requirements. Solid Pave can import fill material as needed in order to raise the slab elevation. Selecting the correct fill material is one such factor that is vital in order to assure the foundation remains solid and stable over time. At Solid Pave we like to use crushed concrete fill material instead of regular fill dirt since it carries a much higher LBR (Load Bearing Ratio) rating and yet is close in cost to fill dirt.
GRADING & COMPACTION
Once the type of fill material is selected and delivered to the site, it must be graded to the correct elevation and compacted to achieve maximum density in the material. The Solid Pave crew will locate a benchmark and use a laser to find the exact elevation of the new concrete slab. Our team will then grade and compact the fill material to the required elevation. Vibratory compaction is performed in stratum or lifts of not more than (6.0”) thickness to ensure that maximum compaction is achieved.
TERMITE TREATMENT
Solid Pave works closely with a local pest control specialist to fumigate the slab area with termite spray. Once the pesticide is applied, the area is covered with a plastic vapor barrier that contains the pesticide and at the same time prevents moisture from escaping the new concrete once it is installed. When concrete dries too quickly, it is unable to cure completely and will not achieve its maximum load bearing PSI (Pounds per Square Inch) rating.
CONCRETE FOOTERS
Concrete footers are thickened areas of greater strength that can support the extra weight of walls and columns. Most concrete slabs incorporate footers at the perimeter for the exterior wall and internally wherever columns are required. In Florida and areas subject to hurricanes and heavy winds, concrete footers are also employed to strengthen an area of the slab where a structure is located that could be subjected to a strong updraft in the event of heavy winds. For this reason, footers are required even on lighter aluminum structures whose weight alone would not warrant the use of thick footers.
WIRE MESH REINFORCEMENT
The use of wire mesh in concrete pavement greatly enhances the tensile strength of the concrete. Concrete has great compressive strength but has very low tensile strength, which can result in failure of the concrete when under tension. Tensile strength is the resistance of a material to longitudinal stress as in being stretched or pulled apart.
CONCRETE FORMING
The Solid Pave concrete crew will carefully install forms to the exact dimensions required for the concrete foundation. Form installation is the most time-consuming portion of concrete slab construction. Forms must be installed to the proper foundation elevation and depth for any footers that are to be installed. Wet concrete is very heavy and will exert substantial lateral pressure against the form boards. To compensate, the Solid Pave crew will install support stakes along the perimeter form to reinforce it and in addition will set the forms with a ¼” offset to account for the lateral force.
POURING
The final step in installing your concrete slab is pouring the concrete. Concrete must be placed quickly in all areas of a slab to ensure that the first area concrete is poured does not harden before the last area to be poured is installed. Often, the Solid Pave crew will use a hydraulic concrete pump to quickly move concrete from the truck to the concrete slab area.
Below are some of the steps the Solid Pave crew goes through when pouring a slab:
- Concrete may be placed with a hydraulic concrete pump
- Concrete is placed quickly to avoid pockets of hardening
- The concrete crew will vibrate at form boards to ensure the concrete is completely settled and no air voids are trapped in the slab
- The concrete crew will use one or more trowel machines to install a completely smooth finish
- The concrete crew will install saw-cut contraction joints at the required interval spacing. Spacing of contraction joints is a factor of slab thickness.
