emery290•1mo agoProlific Poster

Had a slab crack on me this morning in Phoenix but caught it before the homeowner saw

Was pouring a 12x20 patio for a retiree in Sun City and the mix started setting too fast because the truck sat for 20 minutes, so I had to work in some control joints with a hand groover and wet cure it with mist every half hour to save the finish, has anyone else dealt with hot weather flash setting like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy1mo ago

Man oh man, that brings back a story my buddy in Flagstaff told me. He had a driveway pour go sideways when the ready mix plant sent a hot load an hour late. He said the concrete was like trying to spread peanut butter with a butter knife. He ended up dumping a whole bag of ice into the mixer and still had to hand trowel half of it while his helper was running extension cords for a fan. By the time they got it flat, the sun had baked the edges into a crust that looked like a jigsaw puzzle. He swore off summer pours after that, at least without a retarder in the truck.

the_jamie1mo ago

Ever tried explaining to a homeowner why their new patio looks like a patchwork quilt because you had to fight the concrete like it was a living thing? I had a similar mess in Tucson last July, mix was stiff as a board before I even got the screed on it. Ended up throwing shade cloth over the whole thing and praying the temperature dropped while I worked the grooves in with a hand tool. Nothing beats that panicked feeling when you hear the truck driver say "oh, by the way, I got stuck in traffic" right as the mix starts setting up like quickcrete.

riverh491mo ago

the_jamie that part about "fighting the concrete like it was a living thing" made me laugh but I gotta push back a little. Concrete's not alive, it's just chemistry and you gotta respect that. If your mix is stiff before you even get it on the ground, that's on you for not accounting for the heat or the truck timing. I've been there too, don't get me wrong, but blaming the concrete is like blaming a hammer for a crooked nail. You can plan around a hot day or a late truck, but you can't plan around bad prep. A little retarder in the truck goes a long way, too.