review of the concrete mix submittal

[kylesito]

Early in my career I was taught to review the concrete mix submittal for general items such as placement method, water left out of mix for addition at site, compressive strength, etc. Now I find myself wondering how much more I should maybe be looking at these and making judgments on admixtures or components.

I see two schools of thought. One, it's not my job to be a concrete mix expert and I should only care if it meets specs and achieves the overall required strength. Two, I am the SER and if it goes into the project then I want my personal blessing to be on it.

Just curious what others thoughts are on it. Does anyone have an established rubric or checklist they use when reviewing the mix?

PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi

 

[JedClampett]

Our specifications are pretty extensive, requiring submittals of aggregate testing, sieve results, cement certifications, fly ash, etc. I make sure all those items are included (and they almost never are for the first go around), do a very quick scan to make sure that the attributes are within the limits, verify w/c, strength, etc.
You're right, most concrete suppliers are pros and don't want to provide anything less than specified, but I feel that it's good if they know we're watching. Plus, I feel I owe our clients the test results noted above for their records, in case something happens to the concrete (ASR?) in the future.

 

[peconsultant]

I agree with the first school of thought. Use your judgement and review the most important items a little more closely. On some jobs, you might only care about the 28 day strength. On others, you may be worried about the 7 day strength, or the add water, or whatever other component could have an impact on the function of the concrete for a specific application. At the end of the day, if you prepare a proper spec and the mix meets the spec, then you have done your job.

 

[TLHS]

In Canada, the responsibilties of the specifier/owner, contractor and supplier in the specification process are all laid out in a table in A23.1 - Concrete materials and methods of concrete construction.

I go through and make sure that anything that was my responsibility to define or specify was actually used as an input or was properly matched by the supplier. Anything else is beyond my scope but I'll likely take a glance at it to make sure they've hit all the major points.