Pouring a new slab — garage, warehouse, parking pad, commercial floor? If you don't saw your control and expansion joints, the concrete will crack wherever it wants, and it will show. Joint sawing is a precision-and-timing job: cut at the right moment, to the right depth, at the right spacing. We serve concrete contractors, flatwork crews and builders across Ottawa-Gatineau, with volume pricing for larger sites.
The rules of the trade
- Early-entry (green) cutting: we saw as soon as the concrete carries the saw without ravelling — often 4 to 12 hours after finishing, before shrinkage starts cracking the slab
- Depth: one quarter of the slab thickness — a 6-inch slab gets sawn at least 1.5 inches deep
- Spacing: generally 24 to 36 times the slab thickness — for a 6-inch slab, joints every 12 to 18 ft depending on the mix and conditions
- Straight, continuous joints, lined up on columns and inside corners where cracks naturally want to start
What we bring to your site
- Early-entry saws for green cutting and walk-behind flat saws for harder concrete
- Joint layout from your drawings, or laid out to standard practice if there's no jointing plan
- Dry or wet cutting depending on site constraints
- A crew that shows up on time — we know a slab that waits is a slab that cracks
- Volume pricing for contractors and repeat work
Need slab or wall sawing for trenches or openings on the same project? We bundle it into one visit.
What happens when joints aren't done right
Concrete shrinks as it cures — that's unavoidable. A sawn joint is a deliberate weak line that tells the crack where to run: below the joint, hidden, where it does no harm. No joint, or a joint sawn too late or too shallow? The slab cracks wherever it wants, diagonally, right through the middle of panels — and at that point there's no fixing it. Missing the green-cutting window by a day can wreck the look of a $50,000 slab. That's why good flatwork contractors schedule the sawing from day one, not as an afterthought. We work with your crew, not against it: tell us when you're pouring and we'll book the saw. We also keep spare blades and a backup saw on the truck, because a breakdown at hour six of a green-cut window is not an acceptable excuse.
A real job site: commercial garage slab in Ottawa
A typical example: a 4,000 ft² slab for a commercial garage in Ottawa, poured in two stages. We were on site the evening of the first pour for green cutting and finished the full jointing the next day — roughly 900 linear feet of joints. Zero shrinkage cracks at inspection, and a happy contractor who's called us back for every pour since.
Saw line and drain
Basement before sawingJoint sawing generally runs $2 to $4 per linear foot depending on depth, reinforcement and access — or a day rate for larger sites. A minimum trip charge applies to small jobs. Contractor volume pricing: call us to set up a rate.
Frequently asked questions
When should joints be sawn after the pour?
Early entry, generally 4 to 12 hours after the pour, as soon as the concrete holds the saw without ravelling the aggregate. Waiting too long means the concrete cracks on its own before we arrive.
What depth and spacing?
The usual rule is one quarter to one third of slab thickness for depth, and spacing of roughly 24 to 36 times the thickness. We adjust for the mix, the reinforcement and how the slab will be used.
Do you offer volume pricing to contractors?
Yes. Joint sawing is recurring work for formers, builders and concrete contractors — we set a linear-foot rate for regular contracts.
Do you work nights and weekends?
Yes. Early-entry sawing is scheduled by the concrete's set time, not by our office hours. We come when the slab is ready, including nights and weekends.