New Concrete Driveway....Is It Strong Enough?

Kayteg1 wrote:
Spend 30 years in construction/remodeling and in my life have never seen concrete contractor coming back to saw the pad.
I did small pads myself and they did not crack.
Back in Europe I have seen 70 years old bunkers with no crack on them.
From what I figure, concrete is having a process of settling, when waters comes to the top and then cures to get full strength about 60 years later.
Commonly it is said 3 days to walk and 30 days to drive.
What none of driveway contractor does is vibrating the concrete. Then it should be floated for long time. Good luck to see if they do that for few minutes.
Most of contractors just let the concrete dry out and smooth the surface, when water trapped in the mix will create weak spots and cracks.

Absolutely Correct! yeah I drove a mixer for a few years, went into business with a guy and did small jobs, Patios,walk ways,repairs.
What we found out was,, not enough effort tamping! You gotta tamp it to bring the butter up and compact it! The more solid it is as one piece the less if at all it will crack!
I did (with six buddies) a 25'x25' exposed ag (sprinkle) pad in my back yard (new House), we rented three times the amount of tampers and I made sure every one understood the importance of good thorough tamping!
finished it, sprinkled the pea gravel, lightly tamped it in and brought the good butter to the top!
Sprayed the sugar water and waited!
Turned out perfect! Didn't open the beer coolers until after it was brushed and hosed off!!

That was 27 years ago and the only crack I have is three feet in on one side from a tree root! It raised the slab by two inches before it started cracking! It stayed solid for 27 years, no bird baths or anything else! Did run some small fence wire under it to hold it but thats it! Poured right on a one inch layer of pea gravel vibrated down flat!