The skill required by carpenters to make and erect formwork for concrete is seldom fully appreciated. The formwork must remain true to line and level despite substantial loading from the wet concrete. Column and wall faces have to be strictly vertical, and beam soffits strictly level, or any departure will be easily visible by eye. Formwork for concrete which is to remain exposed to view has to be planned and built as carefully as if it were a permanent feature of the building. Many methods have been tried to make the appearance of exposed concrete attractive: but any of them can be ruined by honeycombing, a bad construction joint, or by subsequent weathering revealing that one pour of concrete has not been identical with adjacent pours, or that the amount of vibration used in compacting one panel has been different from that used in others. If concrete has to remain exposed to public view, then the resident engineer should endeavour to agree with the contractor what is the most suitable method for achieving the finish required if the specification or drawings do not give exact guidance on the matter. The problem is that if, through lack of detailed attention, a mishap on the exposed surface is revealed when the formwork is struck, it is virtually impossible to rectify it.
Sometimes rendering the whole surface is the only acceptable remedy.
Where concrete will not remain exposed to view, minor discrepancies can be accepted. Fins of concrete caused by the mix leaking through butt joints in the formwork should be knocked off. Shallow honeycombing should be chiselled out, and a chase cut along any defective construction joint. The cut-out area or chase should be washed, brushed with a thick cement grout, and then filled with a dryish mortar mix. This rectifying work should be done as soon as possible so the mortar mix has a better chance of bonding to the green concrete.
Shrinkage cracking of concrete is a common experience. The shrinkage of concrete due to drying is of the order of 0.20.5mm/m for the first 28 days. Subsequently concrete may expand slightly when wet and shrink on drying.
The coefficient of temperature expansion or contraction is very much smaller, of the order of 0.007mm/m per degree centigrade of change. Rich concrete mixtures tend to shrink more than lean mixes. The use of large aggregate, such as 40 mm instead of 20 mm, helps to minimize shrinkage. To avoid cracking of concrete due to shrinkage, wall lengths of concrete should be limited to about 9 m if restrained at the base or ends. Heavy foundations to a wall should not be allowed to stand and dry out for a long period before the wall is erected, because the wall concrete bonding to the base may be unable to shrink without cracking. Concrete is more elastic than is commonly appreciated, for example the unrestrained top of a 300 mm diameter reinforced concrete column 4m high can be made to oscillate through nearly 1 cm by push of the hand.