Over the past few decades, shopping at big box stores, like Costco, has become common place, but the first time you walked into a superstore you were probably struck by its expanse of space – and for good reason. An average neighborhood supermarket, a Kroger or Albertsons, sits atop 40,0001 square feet of concrete. Compare that to your local Home Depot at 125,0001 square feet or a Wal-Mart supercenter at twice that size – often 250,000 square feet1 – and you start to get a sense for their enormity.
The continuing popularity of such stores translates to massive volumes of concrete poured into commercial construction projects in the United States every day. Most shoppers see little beyond the surface of the concrete. Architects, engineers and construction crews, however, all recognize the potential damage that can lie beneath due to a phenomenon known as “carbonation.”