These saws go on the slab as soon as it can carry a walker, often 1 to 4 hours after finishing, and cut a shallow groove about 1 to 1.25 in deep with a skid plate that keeps the edges from raveling. The early timing beats the random cracking that conventional wet saws, run 4 to 12 hours later at full quarter depth, sometimes arrive too late to stop. Crews often call any of them a Soff-Cut after the best-known brand.
Get the early-entry saw on the warehouse slab the minute it holds you, it's supposed to be 95 and windy.
Also heard as
- Soff-Cut
- early entry
- dry-cut saw
Related terms
Control joint
A planned groove or sawcut that makes a slab crack in a straight line exactly where the crew wants it.
Green concrete
Concrete that has set but is only hours or days old, still weak enough to cut, mark or damage easily.
Wild crack
An uncontrolled crack that wanders across a slab panel instead of forming under a control joint.
Drying shrinkage
The volume loss of hardened concrete as it gives up moisture over months and years.