Line Cost. New flooring: install 2,500 sq.ft. of mid-grade 5/8 x 4-1/2 wide vinyl plank flooring and 500 linear feet of matching baseboard. $2.49. per sq.ft.
The drying shrinkage of concrete is analogous to the mechanism of drying of timber specimen. The loss of free water contained in hardened concrete, does not result in any appreciable dimension change. It is the loss of water held in gel pores that causes the change in the volume.
1 This will allow for a 10 cm (4 in) layer of hardcore plus a 10 cm (4 in) thickness of concrete. 2  Peat and heavy clay soils can shrink in dry weather, reduce the effect this may have on the concrete surface by excavating a further 5 cm (2 in) and increasing the depth of the hardcore to 15 cm (6 in).