Quote:
Originally Posted by Blahshead
I have a general, off-topic question I thought of while looking at NEMA:
Do concrete buildings expand and contract in the winter/summer months? Can they get "potholes" or erode the way roads do?
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Everything expands and contracts with changing temperature - concrete buildings not so much. All the recent ones I have seen have insulation - even on the slab edges, so probably even less.
Potholes are caused by cars driving over the hole repeatedly, not usually a problem in residential buildings ;-) .
Spalling - where the outer layer of concrete breaks off of the rebar IS a common occurrence, and probably a hefty special assessment. Not sure how much is due to thermal effects, and how much is do to salt+iron => Fe02, for the last 10yrs any rebar that may be exposed to salt has been vinyl coated (green in the photos).