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.