What Is the Purpose of Expansion and Control Joints in Concrete?

Kaloutas has been serv­ing the Greater New Eng­land area for over 30 years. In that time, we have moved beyond just paint­ing and into indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial floor­ing. One impor­tant process in keep­ing your floors, work envi­ron­ment, and employ­ees safe is rou­tine main­te­nance to your floor expan­sion joints.

What Exact­ly Are Expan­sion and Con­trol Joints and What Are They Used For?

Con­crete floor­ing slabs have joints cut into them to reduce stress cracks when the con­crete cures. The two most com­mon types of joints are expan­sion joints (these are cut at the full depth of the slab) and con­trol joints (which are typ­i­cal­ly cut 2″ deep to reduce stress cracks). When soil shifts under­neath your floor, it can cause crack­ing and severe dam­age to your facil­i­ty. Chang­ing tem­per­a­tures and heavy loads can put high stress on your floors as well. Expan­sion and con­trol joints allow your floors to han­dle the stress of these activ­i­ties and min­i­mize crack­ing. Did you know they also pro­tect the over­all struc­tur­al sound­ness and design?

If your joints are not filed prop­er­ly or the joint-fill has dete­ri­o­rat­ed over time and wear, con­t­a­m­i­nants and debris can get into the joints and cre­ate an unsafe and unsan­i­tary envi­ron­ment. This is espe­cial­ly true in indus­tri­al ware­hous­es that house chem­i­cals or oth­er such items. Trip­ping haz­ards for employ­ees and uneven sur­faces for fork­lifts and heavy machin­ery can also become a prob­lem. At these joint loca­tions, chip­ping and goug­ing will occur due to heavy traf­fic from machin­ery and peo­ple, caus­ing your joints to dete­ri­o­rate. When the joints dete­ri­o­rate, you will know that it is time to call some­one for con­crete joint repair.

At Kaloutas, we want to make sure that your work­space is both safe and pro­duc­tive. When we fix expan­sion joints, we spend time on each step to ensure that the dam­age has been thor­ough­ly dealt with. First, we make cer­tain that debris is cleared and floors are smoothed and lev­el. Then we add a flex­i­ble indus­tri­al sealant into the joint to com­plete the con­crete slab repair.

Rou­tine­ly main­tain­ing these joints through reg­u­lar facil­i­ty main­te­nance will extend the life of your floors and keep your facil­i­ty up to date.

Con­tact Kaloutas

Are you notic­ing some cracks in your floor? Have you seen chem­i­cal stains or local debris in these cracks? Would you like your floors to be inspect­ed to make sure they are safe and up to stan­dards? Con­tact Kaloutas now for a free quote. We have pro­fes­sion­als on hand to assess, quote, and repair your floors to ensure your busi­ness is a safe, effi­cient, and struc­tural­ly sound environment.

Kaloutas is an ide­al ven­dor for these needs:

• Boston floor coat­ings contractors
• Indus­tri­al floor­ing installers
• Indus­tri­al floor contractors
• Painters for indus­tri­al facilities
• Indus­tri­al paint­ing con­trac­tors near Boston
• Fire­proof­ing contractors
• Epoxy floor­ing
• Seam­less floor­ing
• Con­crete brew­ery flooring
• Brew­ery floor systems
• Indus­tri­al clean­ing contractors
• Office paint­ing
• Wall­cov­er­ings
• Ure­thane mor­tar floor­ing contractors

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.