Today, we cut the control joints in the slab. Cutting the control joints was not as hard as some might have suspected. The blade went through the concrete fairly easily; we just had to take our time and not try to force the blade through the concrete, but rather let the blade do the work. We cut each part of the slab 24 hours after the concrete was placed. We measured for our lines and then used a chalk line on make a straight line and then set our blade to be 1 inch deep in the slab and utilized a laser on the saw to stay on the line. The biggest problem that we encountered was that since the surface is not truly level in spots, we would hit small little bumps or small rocks that would throw us slightly off line if we were not careful.
We cut 170 feet total and went through three blades. It helped to change out the blades when they started wearing down; once the blade starting wearing down, it made it very difficult to get a clean cut. The first blade we used cost $30 and lasted about twice as long as the one that cost $15. In cutting the control joints, we learned that you get what you pay for out of a blade. Both were comparable as far as cost and performance goes; it just depends on if you want to buy several blades or just one blade.
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