That old timer at the supply house swore by fiber mesh in every slab

Harold from the yard told me to dump two pounds of fiber mesh into my residential driveway mix even though I was planning on wire mesh. I figured he knew his stuff so I did it, and now I got cracks spiderwebbing through the whole pour after three months. Did I mess up the mix ratios or is fiber mesh just not the right call for driveways in cold climates like Minnesota?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.aaron23d ago

Did you happen to read that article from Concrete Construction magazine about fiber mesh vs. wire mesh in freeze-thaw zones? I remember seeing a test they did where fiber mesh actually worked fine but only if you kept the water down and used a low slump mix. Sounds like maybe your mix was too wet, which lets the fibers clump up and not do their job against temp changes. That spiderwebbing pattern you're describing is what they showed in the pictures for that exact mistake.

dakota41523d ago

@murphy.aaron Yeah I remember that article, I think I dogeared the page and then lost the whole magazine in my truck for six months. Classic move on my part. The spiderwebbing is exactly what I'm seeing, so maybe I should've paid more attention to that low slump advice instead of just dumping in extra water to make it easier to work with. Guess I learned the hard way that fibers don't care about your schedule. Next time I'm gonna try actually following directions instead of thinking I know better.

milam4823d ago

You got a wet mix in a Minnesota winter and the fibers couldn't hold up against the frost heave, right? Next time keep it stiff and throw in some air entrainment, that combo handles the cold way better than just fiber alone.