You can see the expansion joints pretty much anywhere concrete is used on the ground. Joints also help keep concrete strong while the soil around it settles. Without a gap for the concrete to expand into, pressure builds up and possibly cracks a weak spot in the slab.Ĭoncrete moves with changes in temperature, from vibrations and movement in the earth. Expansion joints give the concrete somewhere to go as it moves. The most important purpose of an expansion joint is to allow for the expansion of the surrounding cement.
These smaller slabs of concrete can move much easier which helps prevent cracks and buckling.Ĭloseup view of a fiber expansion joint. Rather, we cut expansion joints which breaks the sidewalk into smaller pieces. concrete sidewalk wouldn’t be poured in one long slab. Joints are used in areas where two slabs of concrete meet, when a slab meets another concrete structure like a wall or when a span of concrete is overly long. Expansion joints are used to prevent these cracks. If a concrete slab is too big and doesn’t have expansion joints, when the structure shifts, vibrates, expands or contracts, the stress and pressure finds relief by cracking. Joints prevent damage to the slab which makes them last longer and look better.īy including expansion joints, there’s a place for the concrete to go when it moves. The purpose of having an expansion joint in a concrete slab is to prevent cracks and buckling. Why Do You Need Concrete Expansion Joints? Controlling and preventing cracks in a slab is important, as well as knowing the type of expansion joint to use in your specific situation. Understanding the need for expansion joints is necessary to install them correctly. An expansion joint is designed to absorb the expansion and contraction of concrete that naturally occurs due to change in temperatures. This is why expansion joints are used.Įxpansion joints are filled with a flexible material that runs along and inside the joint or gap in slabs and other concrete structures. If the joint was there, it could have absorbed that pressure and prevented the crack. The new crack is essentially doing the job of an expansion joint. This pressure relieves itself by finding weak spots in the concrete and cracking. Expansion and contraction pressures inside the concrete build as the temperature and weather changes. The concrete itself is super stiff and doesn’t contain any elasticity. Expansion joints are used to relieve this pressure. Eventually weak spots can crack or buckle.
Without these joints, even a little movement creates pressure and stress on the concrete. Concrete expansion joints give the slabs just enough room to move which helps prevent cracks & buckling. It can also shift a little with the movement of the earth.
Concrete routinely expands and contracts as it changes temperature. You may think concrete is so hard that it doesn’t move but that’s not the case. This gap allows each slab of concrete to move independently and freely from one another. To keep their path open and complete the game, the green pipe has to be dragged around the orange and pink dots in a huge detour (right).Concrete Expansion Joints are basically a space or gap between two sections of a concrete slab. But then the orange dots would be blocked from connecting. You could easily take a shortcut to connect the green dots and get it over with (left). To finish the game successfully, you have to take all positions into account. That's what makes the game challenging and fun, and the same is true for life. To respect these rules and complete the puzzle, you must often take a detour. That's because all of the dots must be connected and all of the space must be used. When you are taking a shortcut, you are missing the point! One of the key lessons of Flow Free is that the shortest path isn't always the one that leads to success. In life, mistakes are not always easy to fix, but you can't entirely avoid them either.Įmbrace mistakes because they can teach you valuable lessons. In games, you can easily make mistakes and fix them.
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