Cutting Through Poorly Laid Frozen Concrete And Why A Trench Cutter Is A Good Option
Concrete typically is not poured in winter due to the particular nature of concrete. The concrete itself has to have certain environmental factors in play in order for the concrete to dry and set properly. Of course, there is no way you can avoid a major shift in the weather when you decide to pour concrete on a fairly temperate day, and then suddenly get blasted by icy cold temperatures the next. (This is why you should not attempt a concrete DIY project without at least consulting a concrete contractor first.)
When that happens, you are left with concrete that is frozen and improperly dried/cured. When it is thawed out, it will be quite a mess. You will need to hire a concrete contractor to cut it up and pull it out. Concrete trench cutting can help because it can cut through the frozen concrete mess with ease. Here is how that works.
Get the Biggest Trench Cutter With the Toughest Trenching Wheel
Trenching machines in the size you need to cut through frozen concrete need to be heavy duty. Even though you are still cutting through concrete, you have to take into account the fact that this concrete did not get the full opportunity to solidify and cure. It has frozen water crystals embedded in it from the deep freeze overnight. It may also have some soft spots close to the ground underneath.
When those water crystals melt, it will cause the concrete to become softer than it should, crack and crumble. Then the whole mess has to be ripped out and redone. You need a concrete trench cutter that can cut through the frozen concrete, the embedded ice crystals, and the potentially soft spots underneath. The wheel has to have teeth that are sharp and pointy enough to cut through the top of the frozen concrete, while slightly bucketed to scoop up any softer concrete the wheel encounters. Your contractor will know exactly which concrete trench cutter wheel to use.
Cutting the Frozen Concrete Into Easily Manageable Slabs
Your concrete contractor will cut trenches in the frozen concrete in order to create perfectly manageable slabs that can be pulled up and discarded. Hopefully, the concrete that was poured the day before is just a small patch, and not a giant parking lot. As the trench cutter moves across the patch of frozen concrete, it will create a sort of checkerboard pattern so that the concrete contractor's crew can pull up the frozen concrete. There may still be patches close to the soil underneath where the concrete is slightly soft and mushy, like a gritty dough. This has to be pulled up and scooped up too so that when things warm up again, fresh concrete can be poured in a nice, even ground base.
Why Your Concrete Contractor Believes the Trench Cutter Is a Good Option
There are many reasons why your concrete contractor will use a concrete trench cutter for this job. First, it is much faster and easier than using jackhammers and sledgehammers to break up the frozen concrete. Second, jackhammers could get stuck in whatever soft spots they encounter in the concrete and possibly make a bigger mess by splattering those soft spots if they are really soft. Third, the trench cutter is better equipped to handle whatever hardnesses it cuts through in the frozen concrete; plus, it will not get stuck. Fourth, there is significantly more control with the trench cutter than there is with the jackhammer or sledgehammer. Finally, frozen concrete should be removed as quickly and as cleanly as possible to prepare this space for fresh concrete when the weather shifts again.
Contact a company like hardcore concrete cutting to learn more.