Concrete is simple to describe and easy to get wrong. Most of the failures we are called out to repair were decided before the truck arrived – in the base, the thickness, or the drainage.
All concrete cracks
That is not a defect, it is what concrete does as it cures and as the ground moves underneath it. The job of a good pour is to decide where those cracks go. Control joints are cut at set intervals so the slab breaks along a straight line you chose rather than a jagged one you did not. A driveway with no control joints will crack anyway, just untidily.
Base, thickness and reinforcement
A residential driveway wants four inches of concrete over a compacted gravel base, and more like five or six where a heavy truck will sit. The base matters as much as the slab: concrete poured straight onto soft soil has nothing holding it up, and it will settle and break regardless of how thick it is.
Wire mesh or rebar does not stop concrete cracking. It holds the pieces together and keeps the surface level once it does.
Curing and when you can use it
- 24 hours before you walk on it.
- 7 days before a car goes on it.
- 28 days to reach full strength. Keep heavy trucks and skips off until then.
Concrete poured in a Kentucky summer wants keeping damp while it cures, or it dries too fast at the surface and loses strength. Poured too close to a hard frost, it can be ruined outright. There is a right window for this work and we will tell you if you are outside it.
Drainage: the job nobody budgets for
Water is what destroys concrete and foundations in this part of the country. A slab that drains toward the house is worse than no slab at all. Every pour we lay gets a deliberate fall away from the building, and where a yard already holds water we would rather fix that first than pave over it.
A french drain or a regraded yard is unglamorous work that nobody photographs for a brochure, and it is routinely the most useful thing we do on a property.
Retaining walls
A retaining wall holds back soil and the water in it, so it needs drainage behind it and footings under it. Walls that lean or bulge after a few years almost always skipped one of those two.
Related services
CAZUN Construction is a family-owned contractor working across Louisville, the surrounding Kentucky counties and Southern Indiana. Licensed, fully insured, and free estimates on every job. Call (502) 996-1474 or send us a message.
