Search

Editor's note: William Avery worked on or consulted for the editorial staffs of Concrete Products and Rock Products magazines from 1956 through 1962. Under an agreement with their publisher Maclean [...]

Author's note: After meeting 121 publication deadlines, this will be my last regularly scheduled TECHNICAL. TALK. This column dates to the Spring of 1988, and was never intended to focus [...]

We recently received the,results of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Associations (NRMCA) latest (1997) survey of its membership. The intent of the survey is to define problems facing members and [...]

In the February issue, the TECHNICAL TALK article on the subject of ettringite referred briefly to the importance of preset time before exposing concrete units to elevated curing temperatures in [...]

To regular readers of Technical Talk, at least for the 10 years I've been writing these articles, it must seem that the subject of air entrainment has been covered ad [...]

The subject of ettringite and its potentially destructive effect on concrete is not new, but it has not been a common problem in the United States. In recent years, there [...]

Last month's TECHNICAL TALK recommended a fall cutoff date for placing concrete that will be exposed to deicers. The date suggested was around October 31 plus or minus about two [...]

In the September 1996 TECHNICAL TALK article, we provided a guideline for establishing a cutoff date for construction of concrete flatwork that will be exposed to freezing and thawing and [...]

If we're to look at specifications for the water-cement ratio and water-cement ratio law, it would be helpful to look back to their origin. It's been 79 years since Duff [...]

The best way to prevent traffic fatalities is a subject of lively debate today. Those of us in the concrete industry have a great stake in that debate, but we [...]

We've just been informed by ABC's nightly news telecast (February 11) that the concrete industry may have discovered how to build highways to last 100 years. The lead-in for that [...]

Since this is the first issue of Concrete Products in the new year, it's a good time to review New Year's resolutions that might be appropriate for the concrete industry. [...]

The subject of curing newly placed concrete - why it's important and how to do it - is common knowledge to anyone experienced in concrete practice. At this moment, however, [...]

Apparently we are experiencing some renewed interest in blended cements, making it a timely subject for discussion. Rather than trying to write a book on one page, I'll confine the [...]

Without proper adjustments in the concrete mix and in basic construction practices, the quality of concrete in place will be adversely affected during periods of hot weather. Both strength and [...]

Neglecting adequate curing of newly placed concrete can be a costly error at any time, but it is especially so at this time when concrete is exposed to the hottest [...]

Past technical talk articles have covered the relationship between core strengths and standard cylinder strengths. The starting point is to recognize that the standard cylinder test is the only test [...]

A letter received from the Montgomery County, Md. Office of Consumer Affairs provides a good reason to discuss the problem of deicer scaling of concrete surfaces on non-specification flatwork such [...]

Technical talk has often referred to the adverse effect of non-standard testing procedures on compressive strength tests. We've blamed the specifier and testing laboratories (and rightfully so) for the problems [...]

Several years ago in Albuquerque, N.M., a jury rendered a typically terrible decision in a dispute over responsibility for low cylinder strengths tests. The jury ruled out any consideration for [...]

The April, 1995 Technical Talk article on air entrainment referred to 'the risky practice of sprinkling water just ahead of the trowel, often causing peeling of the thin coat of [...]

Federal directives on fly ash use The August issue of Concrete Products reported the issuance of expanded Federal guidelines on the use of recycled materials. Since the guidelines include recommendations [...]

The field test for determining yield (confirming that a cubic yard of concrete as delivered to the job is actually a cubic yard) is a simple, straightforward test. Unfortunately, it [...]

A recent personal experience involving a project constructed several years ago presents a graphic picture of the penalty to be paid for misunderstood, incomplete specifications and non-standard testing in our [...]

When the importance of air entrainment is discussed, it is usually rated as being the most significant 'breakthrough' in concrete knowledge since the development of the water-cement ratio in 1918. [...]

It would be a great step forward if all parties concerned with a concrete project shared two beliefs in common: 1. The specification should stipulate that strength tests must be [...]

In spite of the long time acceptance of fly ash in concrete, its use continues to be a subject for the most fundamental kind of research. Much of that research [...]

Readers of Technical Talk have been exposed to the statement that we really do possess the knowledge that will allow to deal with the problem of deicer scaling. Recently, there [...]

If this is a 'normal' summer, concrete is now being placed in the hottest temperatures of the year. There's nothing new about the potential adverse effects of hot weather. It's [...]

An old adage tells us 'It isn't what we don't know that gets us into trouble nearly so much as it is what we know that isn't true.' That applies [...]

In several recent issues of Concrete Products, the problem created by non-standard cylinder tests and the misinterpretation and mis-use of test results were the subjects of Technical Talk. On almost [...]

Nothing could be more basic to building with concrete than the accurate measure of compressive strength. Yet the performance of that test and the standard for evaluating its results are [...]

When we list the contributing causes of some of the stubborn problems of concrete performance we often neglect to rate the order of importance of the various causes involved. Yet, [...]

Although adding water to ready-mix concrete when the truck reaches the job is done routinely on most projects, it continues to pose a problem, real or imagined. A careful reading [...]

We've made the point before, as have many others, ad nauseum, that cast-in-place concrete is a unique construction material. What is unique about it? It's the 'manufacturing' process, of course, [...]

The use of deicer chemicals has already started in the northern extremes of the 'rust belt' and will be extending farther south for the next month or two. That means [...]

There are certain 'common problems' regarding concrete performance that always seem to be with us. That's true because the practices that cause them also always seem to be with us. [...]

In northern climates the durability problems that are caused by winter exposure are often the product of hot weather construction practices. Higher temperatures may reduce the workability of the concrete [...]

A Concrete Canoe? On page 12 of this issue of Concrete Products you'll find the results of the American Society of Civil Engineers 1993 National Concrete Canoe Competition. The annual [...]

We continually marvel at the explosion of new technology, but sometimes neglect to notice how reluctantly new information, no matter how beneficial, is accepted and applied. Air entrainment was treated [...]

Simply, avoidable misunderstandings are often the cause for disputes over whether or not the project specification for concrete is being met during construction or has been met after the concrete [...]

Progress has a way of turning respected truths into passe practices. Whether or not minimum cement content is an example of a passe practice is still a lively debate. What [...]

Nothing is more basic to overall concrete quality, nor more likely to be underrated, than curing. On a basis of 'rate of return on investment,' it has to be one [...]

A discolored concrete surface, or a surface that doesn't have the appearance of a uniform color, is one of those usually preventable occurrences that turns perfectly serviceable concrete into a [...]

We have heard and read a great deal in recent years about 'Hi-Tech Concrete.' Twenty thousand psi concrete is being used and thirty thousand psi is possible. Accounts of research [...]

In northern climates, we have left the season of the heat index and entered the season of the wind chill. That means TV weathermen have switched from overstating how miserably [...]