Yes, HomeXTR provides a satisfaction guarantee upon completion of your project. I guarantee that the work my crews perform will be executed according to the specifications outlined in my proposal for each individual project as they relate to dimensions, materials used, site preparation and quality of finishing work according to best-practice industry standards. My crews perform their work according to my high expectations, which means that the work is done right and in a timely manner the first time.
Additionally, I guarantee that you will be completely satisfied with the exemplary customer service you receive from the first point of contact until your project is completed. Throughout this process you will be able to contact me directly with questions via phone calls, texts or e-mails. You will never be left in the dark wondering why I don’t respond or arrive to start your project on an agreed upon date. I aim to make this the best contracting experience you’ve ever had, and that translates to me being available to communicate when you need to. I make myself available to you seven days a week from early in the morning through late in the evening. Should there be some sort of delay initiating your project due to inclement weather or other factors, you will be notified beforehand rather than after the fact. I take your time, expectations and investment in your new concrete seriously, as all my testimonials confirm. This is why roughly 90% of my business stems from completely satisfied customer referrals.
Finally, as it relates more specifically to concrete, there are three known guarantees in the industry: 1) concrete will get hard; 2) concrete will crack; and 3) concrete won’t blow away. I have yet to encounter a concrete supplier that guarantees their product, not even my exclusive supplier, Lyman-Richey’s Ready Mixed Concrete, which is known to produce the highest-grade concrete in the region. Granted, they are the most expensive, but I believe you get what you pay for. That our supplier does not offer a guarantee on the product I purchase from them to install for you is why I and my crews make every effort to mitigate the possibility of pre-mature cracking. Less than 2% of the jobs we’ve completed have had issues with pre-mature cracking beyond the designated cracking sites below the control joints.
All new installations can typically be walked on within 12 hours, unless otherwise instructed. It’s recommended to refrain from dragging objects across the fresh surface, including feet and hard materials like wood, plastic or metal, so as not to affect the surface’s finish. Even larger dogs with thick claws should be kept off your freshly poured concrete for at least 24 hours. Driveways, garage floors and parking lots, however, should be given a full seven days before driving on them.
There are two types of control joints; hand cut and machine cut. Hand cut joints are typically done on sidewalks and sometimes on the approach of a driveway between the street and the house-side of a public sidewalk. These joints are wider with a rounded lower groove. Machine cut joints are done on the remainder or entire driveway, floors, larger patios and parking lots. These joints are thinner and appear crisper. Both types of joints are cut approximately ½ - ¾” deep.
The purpose of cutting control joints in concrete is to guide where the cracks will eventually occur below these joints. The joints act as a weak link throughout the concrete matrix whereby due to the thickness of the concrete being reduced by ¾” along those joints, the cracking is intended to occur below them and is therefore not visible. If joints were not cut, the concrete would eventually crack in a random and uncontrolled fashion.
According to the data and direct experience, rebar is most definitely worth it. Rebar acts as an internal skeleton that maintains stability and interconnectedness when the concrete eventually cracks, which it will do at some point in the future. Nebraska’s temperature swings are one of the most extreme on the planet with wind chills dipping to -40F in January and heat indexes reaching 110F in July. That’s a 150-degree temperature swing over a six-month period. Swings of this nature impact the sub-base below the concrete causing soil to expand and contract, thus raising and lowering the sub-base. This movement dynamic inherently imposes negative impacts on the longevity of concrete. If all goes as planned, the cracking is restricted to below the control cuts as mentioned earlier. Despite the cracking, rebar use is designed to maintain the structural integrity of the entire concrete matrix to raise and lower together, rather than eventually forming trip hazards due to adjacent panels moving independently from one another.
