It comes in pre-measured packets that you throw into the cement truck and mix for several minutes. The fibers are actually made of some type of plastic. Typically you order the concrete from a supplier with the fiber added. The fiber distributes itself evenly throughout the concrete via the mixing.
No.
Reinforcing with chicken wire does nothing. The typical wire mesh for concrete is 10 gauge wire on a 6 x 6 grid.
How? Concrete isn't fluid enough to saturate something like that.
I ordered a fibermesh additive in our garage floor about 7 years ago. Our slab is a one piece 24'x28' with no control joints or any other reinforcing. The finishers acted like it was harder to get a smooth steeled finish with the mesh additive, but I think it turned out great. It's now 7 years later and there isn't a single crack anywhere in the slab. That's good enough for me, I highly recommend the fiberglass reinforcement.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the mesh and rebar served two different functions?
Mesh helps reduce cracking, but as far as I know adds very little strength to the concrete.
Rebar makes concrete stronger, but I don't think it reduces cracking much, other than holding the pieces together when they crack (concrete is strong in compression, weak in tension and flexing. That's where the rebar helps).
Obviously, I wouldn't rely on mesh as my only reinforcement in a strength situation (foundation walls, pillers, bridgework, etc.), but with a slab on a stable base my main concern is cracking. The mesh works great for that.
On the other hand, when I poured our sidewalk out front over recently filled soil, I did add a few runs of rebar. If the soil underneath settles any, the rebar should help the concrete "span" those areas a bit. No cracks there in 4+ years either...
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