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Flat Work


Flat Work is the bread and butter of concrete construction. It includes floors, walls, foundations, footers, and is usually what Harkins Concrete Construction is asked to provide. For residential jobs it includes driveways, patios, sidewalks, and any indoor parts of the structure parallel to the commercial components described above. Though not technically difficult, Flat Work requires specific grades of concrete suited to the climate and its use. Finishing Flat Work is its own specialty to ensure it is, well, flat and level. Quality Flat Work is the mainstay of Harkins Concrete Construction. 

Super Flat Floors


Flatness may seem like something easily measured, but the fact is it has always been a difficult, some said impossible, thing to measure. The technique had always been to lay a straight edge across it and measure the spots where it wasn’t flush. A typical tolerance might be 1/8th inch total out ten feet. But because measuring was so tedious, it was rare for two people to get the same measurement.

The solution was to get as close as you could and the introduction of new tools that made pouring and finishing more precise. The issue became hot again when a study found that floors with even small bumps had a dramatic impact on machine maintenance for warehouses with robotic fork lifts travelling across it. Again, subcontractors and finishers began turning away jobs as problematic.
 
Harkins Concrete Construction happily picked up the slack, at least in the Salisbury, Maryland area. Although they don’t do automated warehouses, there are plenty of other examples where super flat floors are in the specifications. A recent example in this area was a gym floor where a Super Flat and level floor was required for athletic competitions. Harkins Concrete Construction met the challenge. 

Post Tension Construction


Subcontractors like Harkins must also know how to implement different types of construction. Although there are too many types to go into here, that decision has already been made when Concrete Construction gets involved. The important thing to know is that given its quarter century of experience, Harkins has learned them all and brings its quality standards into play however novel the engineering style chosen.
 
A simplified way to look at this is to divide the methods into conventional and non-conventional. A conventional building method would be to assemble precast parts that are brought to the site. A more common conventional method would be to pour decks on the site and strengthen them with support columns and rebar. 

The non-conventional method that has been around a long time and which we are one of the few subcontractors in this area who can reliably install it is called post tension construction. Towers are built at each end of the slab and steel cables sheathed in plastic sleeves are run the length of the slab. Concrete is poured over the cables and when it sets up the cables are attached to the towers and stretched. This is what gives the concrete its strength. 

Hambro


Hambro is a proprietary flooring system that claims to be faster to erect and safer than other building procedures. Harkins Concrete Construction can with Hambro and most other building systems. 

Let Us Build Your Project


Harkins Concrete Construction, Inc. is the original Harkins company founded in Salisbury more than 25 years ago by George Harkins. Since then it has established itself as a reliable, versatile and highly-skilled company capable of almost any job a contractor might need help with.
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