How to Sawcut Concrete

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Sawcutting concrete can prevent driveway and walkways from cracking while allowing you to add various designs, such as diamonds and stars. You can use this technique to maintain the quality of your concrete for years.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Concrete vawcutter
Shop Vac
Gloves
Safety glasses
Ventilation mask
Work shoes

Step1

Schedule a time to pour the cement when the weather is between 50 and 60 degrees. The cooler, the better. This type of weather gives the concrete time to dry.

Step2

Decide where you are going to cut the concrete to prevent cracking by creating control joints. The cut needs to be 1/4 the thickness of the concrete slab.

Step3

Put on your gear and align your sawcut with a co-worker behind you with the shop vacuum to catch all the debris, as you cut the control joint or design line.

Step4

Start making your groove lines with the right size cut. Work steadily so you can finish the job in a short amount of time.

Step5

Cut for design by marking your cuts and angles before starting. Plan your design well because making a wrong cut is no fun and causes extra work.

Tips & Warnings

Both scoring and sawcutting can be used for decorative effects and for the necessary work of putting the control joints in the concrete surface. Decorative effects only need to be 1/4" deep, control joints need to be 25 percent of the depth of the slab.
Equipment for sawcutting comes in many sizes and capacities like hand-held angle grinders to large walk-behind tools. Engrave-A-Crete, Inc. is a leader in the business of concrete cutting equipment.
Having a co-worker work behind the cutter with a shop vac or a vacuum attached to the sawcut are necessary for cutting concrete because of the dust caused by the cutting equipment.
Appropriate safety equipment must be used as well.
Cutting control joints in concrete slabs means you are controlling where the concrete cracks. You are actually putting cracks where cracks should be to allow movements brought on by temperature changes and shrinkage caused my drying. Hence, the crack will be a straight line not random lines going this way and that way. The predication is not in stone, but a professional estimate of where to cut is your best guess.