I was planning spring construction of a new driveway and had heard about putting fibers in the concrete. Do fibers work?
Fiber reinforcement is very popular because synthetic fibers are affordable, easy to use and effective in reducing and controlling cracks. Fibers are an alternate system of nonstructural, secondary reinforcement. Thats a mouthful, but many homeowners mistakenly want to replace structural reinforcement (rebar) with fibers. On the contrary, fibers are a replacement for wire mesh. The benefit of using fiber versus wire is the three-dimensional reinforcement fibers provide as compared to the wire, which most often ends up on the bottom of the slab. To be effective in crack control, wire must rest in the top third of a slab. Fibers are added into the concrete at the batch plant in dosages of 1.5 pounds per cubic yard, and are dispersed throughout the entire load of concrete. Fibers reduce plastic shrinkage cracks are form during the critical hours of curing and reduce microscopic cracks that in time turn into bigger cracks. Economically, fibers cost a little more per square foot than wire r
