I finally quit floating my slabs with a magnesium float on air entrained mix
Everybody in my area swears you have to hit air entrained concrete with a mag float first, and I did it that way for close to 20 years. Last April we poured a 32 by 40 driveway in Fort Wayne with 6 percent air and the mag just kept tearing the surface open, bringing cream up in chunks while the rock sat there. A kid on my crew asked why we even owned the thing, so on the second truck we went straight to a big blue steel trowel and the finish closed up way cleaner. The mag is fine on straight concrete, but on air entrained it drags the paste around and you get that blotchy look that shows up after a winter of salt. We poured three more drives that spring with the steel first and not one call back about scaling, which used to happen about twice a season. I know this goes against what most guys around here were taught, but I'm not going back. Anybody else skip the mag on air entrained, or am I the only one who switched late?