The Concept

Joint Free Slabs™ use a plastic grid to induce a closely spaced network of fine cracks throughout the entire length and breadth of large-area slabs on grade, and thereby eliminate all traditional formed and sawn shrinkage control joints.

The principal objective with Joint Free Slabs™ is to dissipate the effects of drying shrinkage as uniformly as possible in the form of fine cracks throughout the entire area of the slab, and to produce only fine cracks that do not adversely affect applied finishes.

It stands to reason that the more cracks there are on a closely spaced regular grid, the finer they will be.

The crack inducer grid used for Joint Free Slabs™ is a one meter square grid, and a sufficient number of slabs have been completed to show that this is adequate to achieve the principal objective. The cracks produced by this grid are sufficiently fine to have no detrimental affect on applied finishes that are installed in accordance with the specification, and hence they do need to be treated or reflected through the finishes.

With Joint Free Slabs™, therefore, it is not only possible to save a lot of cost and time by the deleting of the control joints and their cover strips, but it is also possible to achieve a continuous appearance of the applied finishes.

The Savings

• No bedding sand required - typically 50mm of sand bedding is provided and there is a cost associated with the removal of the sub-base and the supply and installation of the sand
• Use of a thinner vapor barrier is encouraged
• All formed and sawn control joints are deleted
• All compressible isolation material is deleted
• Thinner slabs are possible in many cases due mainly to the simplicity of detailing
• The mesh reinforcement is generally lighter with Joint Free Slabs™
• Skilled labor is not required to install the grid
• Once the crack inducer grid is placed, placing of reinforcement is greatly simplified as very few traditional bar chairs are required
• A further simplification in the fixing of reinforcement is that the cutting-in required at traditional control joints is not required as there are no control joints
• Concrete pump hire costs are minimized as the pour sizes are generally much greater than with traditional slabs on grade
• Sealants are not generally required as there are no control joints
• Temporary filling of control joints for the casting of tilt-up panels is not required, and the joint free slab provides a superior casting surface
• The installation of applied finishes such as vinyl and ceramic tiles is simpler as there is no cutting in to control joints. If not at first, this will ultimately reflect in the price
• All cover strips and fillers normally required in the applied finishes at control joints are deleted - this results in a substantial saving.
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