Cylinder break test

Definition

The samples cast at the pour and crushed later to prove the concrete met its strength.

Why It Matters

A test result is the average of a set of cylinders broken at twenty-eight days, and failing one does not end at a retest: the federal guide specification treats it as a deficiency requiring a mitigation plan, and the remedy is coring, where cores pass only if they average eighty-five percent of design strength with none below seventy-five. That is a structure already built and an argument about who pays to fix it. The break record is the only written history of whether this company's work stands up.