Concrete Raising Glossary

D-G

• Detachable toe: Removeable plate on the inner side of a mold to allow gutter placement adjacent to the existing pavement. 
• Dry concrete: Stiff concrete with low water content. Dry concrete creates less form pressure and ensures consistency for sloping surface placement.
• DCP Test (Dynamic Cone Penetrometer): A tool used to test soil compaction before and after work is performed
• Entrapped air: Excess air that forms in concrete unintentionally. Entrapped air creates gaps in concrete slabs that threaten structural integrity. 
• Expansion joint: A joint allowing pavement expansion due to temperature variations. Expansion joints often feature a material to cushion concrete edges from expansion forces. 
• Fiber reinforcement: Thin, short, fibrous material to increase concrete structural integrity. Fibers may form from plastic, metal, glass or other materials to increase concrete cracking resistance and strength. 
• Finishing: The process of compacting, smoothing, treating or leveling freshly poured concrete. Finishing may also produce certain appearances as an overlay. 
• Flatwork: The process of creating flat surfaces. Concrete flatwork encompasses pouring, leveling and finishing processes for decorative or functional surfaces. 
• Form: A temporary structure in a specific shape to support concrete while it cures. 
• Grade: The ground’s surface or level. Grade can refer to the existing ground level, rate of incline or designation of a subfloor. 
• Grade line: String to establish concrete placement. 
• Grout: A mixture of water and cement materials to define walls or concrete slab joints, often seen with tile, brick and stone patterns as a decorative element.

H-K

• Hangers: A metal bar that allows teams to place straight forms in locations where securing forms would be otherwise difficult. 
• Honeycomb: Result of a concrete pour that allows voids to form in the concrete. 
• Hub: A reference point or survey stake to establish curb, gutter or structure location. 
• Hydraulic cement: Engineered cement variety that hardens with water.
• Hydrophobic Foams: Foams that set up in water, displace water when setting up, and will not lose strength/density when injected into a wet/moist environments.
• Initial set: The degree of stiffening water and cement mixtures. 
• Initial stress: The stresses introduced to concrete before the concrete fully hardens. 
• Integral curb: A vertical section of a curb that teams pour at the same time as a road. 
• Jacking equipment: A device to apply tension to concrete tendons.
• Joint: The necessary break in a concrete structure that controls natural concrete contraction and expansion.
• Key: The slot in concrete surfaces that interlocks with subsequent concrete pours. 
• Keyway forms: Devices for pouring interconnecting slabs. 
• Kneeboards: Accessories for cushioning the knees when concrete finishers perform hand flatwork.

L-O

• Lateral force: The force that acts in a mostly horizontal direction. Forces could include soil pressure, wind or earthquakes. 
• Lifting: The process of restoring concrete to its original form.
• Lock clamps: An accessory clamp to connect flexible and transition forms in flatwork. 
• Low-lift grouting: A simple method of unifying concrete masonry.
• Mass concrete: Concrete with large dimensions prone to cracking from elevated temperatures.
• Maturing: Used to indicate how far concrete curing as progressed. 
• Mix: The general term to describe ingredient combinations of mortar or concrete. 
• Mold: A curb machine’s metal form used to slipform a sidewalk, barrier wall, curb, gutter or other structure. 
• Mudjacking: A method for raising concrete to restore it to its original form.
• Neat cement: Unhydrated hydraulic cement.
• No-fine concrete: Concrete mix using only coarse aggregate gradation. 
• Non-agitating unit: A transportation unit for moving ready-mixed concrete. 
• Outside radius: A bend’s formed outside radius. 
• Overvibration: The excessive use of vibratory tools during concrete placement, potentially causing bleeding and segregation. 

P-T

• Permeation Grouting: Enhancing the strength and stability of granular soils. This technique involves the low-pressure injection of a grout material into the soil’s pore spaces, solidifying the treated area to improve the soil’s strength and load-bearing capacity.
• Polished concrete: A high-gloss finish that is low maintenance and allows for staining to replicate polished stone looks.
• Polymer: The combination of two materials to create polyurethane foam for void filling.
• Pre-tensioning: Compressing concrete by pouring concrete around steel strands, curing it and releasing external tensioning forces. 
• Ready-mixed concrete: Manufactured concrete adhering to a set factory recipe for precise mixtures. 
• Rebar: Reinforcing bars of various strength grades and thicknesses that strengthen concrete.
• Reinforced concrete: Concrete with embedded steel in forms like mesh, bars or rods to reinforce the concrete from resisting forces. 
• Resurfacing: The addition of new materials over an existing surface to repair concrete. 
• Scaling: Breaking hardened concrete surfaces.
• Segregation: The process of two elements separating. Course aggregates may separate from concrete, and grout may separate from mix when concrete is too wet. 
• Slump: A measurement of the wetness of concrete to determine stiffness.
• Tensile strength: The maximum unit stress a material can resist under axial tensile loading. 
• Texturing: The process of giving overlay surfaces or concrete a textured appearance without creating deep lines. 

U-Z

• Unit water content: Water quantity per unit volume of freshly mixed concrete. Unit water content informs water cement rations.
• Unreinforced concrete: Concrete that does not use reinforcing bars. 
• Vibration: The agitation of freshly mixed concrete to assist in the distribution and consolidation of formwork concrete. 
• Water-reducing agents: Materials that increase freshly mixed concrete workability without increasing water content. 
• Wetting agent: Substances that can lower liquid surface tension, facilitate solid surface wetting and permit liquids to penetrate into capillaries. 
• Yield: The volume of mixed concrete a team produces.
• Zero slump concrete: Concrete mixtures with little water, creating no slump.