Fixed a cracked slab last month that should have been a 2 hour job

Ended up taking me almost 8 hours from start to finish. The crack looked simple on top, maybe 1/4 inch wide, but it ran deep into the subgrade and kept opening up as I chased it with the grinder. Had to cut out a whole 3 foot section, pour new base, and patch it in 3 lifts to keep it from settling. Has anyone else run into a crack that just would not stop?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew80520h ago

That should have been a 2 hour job" is the biggest lie we tell ourselves. Sounds like that crack had a personal vendetta against you.

brian_kelly9111h ago

Stop looking at it like a crack and start looking at it like a seam. You guys always treat drywall like it's one solid piece, but it's not. It's paper wrapped around gypsum and that paper has a grain to it. Drew805, think about it like tearing a paper towel. If you go with the grain it tears straight. If you go against it, it'll take a jagged path every time. That crack was just following the paper's natural path, you were fighting it.

black.patricia11h ago

Wait, does that mean the crack was actually trying to tell me something? I had a similar thing happen with a ceiling patch last summer. I was cutting out a water stain, and the drywall just started splitting in this perfect zigzag line like it was following a map. I ended up having to cut way more out than I planned because every time I tried to stop it, the paper just ripped further. My buddy who does drywall for a living saw it and laughed, said I was basically trying to tear a paper towel from the short edge while pulling sideways. He showed me how to score the paper first with a utility knife and then snap it, and now I can actually cut a straight line without needing to patch the patch.