Am I the only one who thought those polymer fibers were a gimmick?

I was putting down a 40-yard driveway in Cleveland last fall and the boss insisted we add these little plastic fibers to the mix for crack control. I thought it was just another upcharge until I saw the slab take a beating from a delivery truck and barely show a single hairline crack after 6 months. Has anyone else had a job where they actually saved your finish from a disaster?

2 comments

2 Comments

bettymurphy2d ago

My buddy Joe poured a garage floor outside Akron last year with those fibers in it. He said the mix was a pain to work with, really sticky and hard to finish smooth. But then his customer backed a loaded dump trailer right onto it two weeks later, and there wasn't a single crack where you'd expect one. He called me up laughing about how he ate his words...

joseph4482d ago

Ah, but that's survivorship bias kicking in. @bettymurphy, one story about a floor not cracking doesn't mean the fibers are good, it just means they weren't tested by a really bad pour or a bigger load. I've seen plenty of regular slabs hold up just fine to heavy stuff too, and they didn't make the whole job a sticky mess to finish. Maybe that dump trailer would've been fine on any decent floor and Joe just got lucky.

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