The mix had a lot of cement but it also had very low water content so that should have kept shrinkage (paste) down. For example the mix was intended to have very little if any bleed water and was supposed to be placed using a plasticizer. The plasticizer was supposedly used and that was the...
I did have 6% air entrainment and a corrosion inhibitor additive. I will look into the methacrylate sealer...something to fill the cracks and maintain a uniform look might be a good option at this point.
Thanks for the comments. The idea with the high cement content was to get a denser concrete for better durability..
The biggest crack is in the 3800 psi stair...the next biggest crack occurs in another stair where they hit the 5000psi, but they had the plastic blowing around on a hot Saturday...
Recently designed some replacement exterior concrete stairs for a client. We did not use "nose-bars" as they were a reason for the failure of the existing stairs (corrosion/spalling due to inadequate cover and salt applications for snow-melting). I used plenty of temp-shrinkage reinf in a mat...
