Who’s the Boss?

If you ask Vassar Enterprises employees who the boss is, they’ll tell you it’s Paul Vassar. If you ask Paul’s 4-year-old daughter Aria, she’ll say she’s the boss. But when it comes to details about concrete specifications, neither Paul nor Aria gets the final say. That honor goes to an organization called the American Concrete Institute (ACI).

ACI serves as both a resource and authority on best practices in concrete use, providing education to contractors and information to regulatory agencies across the United States and internationally. From publications to conferences to certification programs, they produce a steady stream of updated content for contractors who want to incorporate the most current recommendations in their work.

While the scope of ACI may seem far too broad to affect how we pour a small concrete pad here in Idaho, it actually does affect us! Anytime we talk about our default specs for any concrete pour, such as our default patio specs of 4 inches of road mix compacted and followed by 4 inches of concrete with relief joints at least every 10 feet, we are taking our direction from ACI. 

Sometimes local conditions affect the implementation of ACI standards, and we’ll talk about that in a future blog post. In the meantime you can check out ACI’s many publications at www.concrete.org or just ask the Vassar Enterprises crew for a summary of what specs are being incorporated on your job.

If you’re ready for some new concrete from a company that prides itself on staying abreast of the latest recommendations, head over to our instant quote tool at www.vassarenterprises.com/instant-quote or call us today at (208) 602-3583 so we can get you on the schedule!