Watching my neighbor's backyard patio crack over 3 summers

Last summer I noticed my neighbor put in a nice looking concrete patio back in June. By this spring there were hairline cracks all over the place. He told me he skipped the control joints because he thought they looked ugly. Now the whole thing is a mess and he's talking about tearing it out. Has anyone else dealt with skipping something for looks and regretting it later?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellyj2313d ago

Tell him to stop messing around and just cut the control joints in now before he tears the whole thing out. Ive seen a ton of patios go this exact way because people think joints look trashy but they literally keep the concrete from spiderwebbing everywhere. A diamond blade on an angle grinder with a guide will run him maybe $60 and an afternoon of work. He can run a straight line every 4-6 feet and fill em with caulk so they blend in better. If he tears it out and pours again without joints hes gonna be right back here next year. Joints look a million times better than cracked up slabs and he'll learn that the hard way if he doesnt listen.

zarak1812d ago

oh man, @kellyj23 is right on the money with that caulk trick to make the joints blend in. i had a buddy named Mike who did the exact same thing with his driveway - skipped the joints cause he thought they looked "tacky." by the second winter, the cold had cracked it so bad you could see dirt growing in the big gaps. he ended up renting a saw and cutting them in after the fact, and yeah, it looked way better than the spiderweb mess. the caulk they sell for that stuff comes in a gray color that honestly matches concrete pretty well once you wipe off the excess. Mike told me he wished he'd just done it right the first time instead of wasting a whole weekend fixing his own mistake. tell your neighbor to just cut the joints now before he goes nuclear with a sledgehammer.