Concrete Cracks at a Location Near You

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Concrete cracks.  It's a fact of life; it's a material property of concrete.

Some cracks are significant and can indicate a structural deficiency (the new Allen, Texas, high school football stadium comes to mind).  But many cracks that I see on a daily basis are related to normal concrete shrinkage and are not structurally significant.

This past weekend I was out and about in town and, in two separate stores, noticed lots of concrete cracks in the floor.

The first store I noticed the cracking at was at Ikea off the Katy Freeway.  The cracks I took pictures of are actually from the second floor (so it's an elevated concrete slab).  

Then I went into Bassett Furniture, also off the Katy Freeway.  Same thing, except the cracks were on the main floor (slab on grade, not elevated).

When I rubbed my finger over the cracks, there was no faulting that I could tell (one side of the crack higher than the other).  Cracks with significant faulting get my attention; these cracks appeared to just be normal shrinkage cracks.

At any rate, if you look around, you'll see concrete crack just about everywhere you see concrete: streets, guardrails, floors, walls, etc.

Here's a slideshow of the pics that I took; just click on the pictures to move to the next one.

Texas General Soils Map

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Here's a really cool map of the different soils found across the state of Texas.  This map is provided by the US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.

It's fascinating to me how the soils change across the state.

Notice the second page that describes each soil classification. In particular, note that the Gulf Coast Prairie is dominated by "well-developed, clayey soils with high shrink-swell properties."

That's us, Houston.