What is a cracked slab?
The term cracked slab is not a technical term. You will not find it in any engineering text we are familiar with. The term cracked slab is used by lay people and foundation repair contractors. I frankly do not like the term and believe it should not be used. Language can be used in a way that helps us understand and solve problems and language can be used to obscure and confuse. In my opinion, the term cracked slab serves no legitimate purpose. The term cracked slab can be understood literally to mean a slab that has cracks. But if this is what term is taken to mean, then it conveys no useful information at all. All concrete exhibits cracking. It is a characteristic of the material that it cracks. There is, in fact, no difference between a cracked slab and a concrete slab since all concrete slabs have cracks. The other meaning of the term cracked slab is a slab that has failed. But this usage, in our opinion, is illegitimate. Slab-on-ground foundations do not fail in any normal sense.
