LESLIE: David in Texas has a question about concrete. What can we do for you today?
DAVID: Yeah, we’re getting ready to pour a concrete driveway and they were talking about putting fiberglass fibers into the concrete. What’s the purpose of that?
LESLIE: Is that like a reinforcement?
TOM: Yeah, it’s a reinforcement material. It’s a way to make the concrete stronger. See, concrete by itself is actually pretty weak especially in certain types of bending actions. For example, if you try to bend concrete, if it’s not reinforced it’ll bend very quickly. Now, with a driveway or a sidewalk it’s usually best to put reinforcing wire in there, but if you don’t put reinforcing wire then you can use a fiberglass reinforcement fiber inside and that helps to tie it all together so that it won’t break.
LESLIE: Is there a choice ever as to when fiberglass is used over rebar or over that rolled-up sort of squared wire?
TOM: I would imagine that fiberglass is probably less expensive than putting the rebar in but personally, if I was doing it, I would probably always try to do a rebar reinforcement. Are they giving you an option, David?
DAVID: Yeah. We’re still going to use a rebar or the wire but I just wanted to make sure.
TOM: OK. So they’re going to do both?
DAVID: Yeah. I’m going to have both.
TOM: No, I think you’re in very good shape. Both of those is going to stop that concrete from cracking and shifting. It’ll be much more stable that way. I think it’s the right way to go.
DAVID: And it’s fairly cheap, too. It’s not a big expense so …
TOM: It’s a good investment.
DAVID: Alrighty. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, David. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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