Watching the crew pour the new plaza in Cincinnati, I noticed they were using a garden sprayer filled with water to lightly mist the edges before the final trowel pass.

The foreman told me it buys you about 10 extra minutes of workable time on a hot day before the skin sets, which is a solid trick for those big, exposed slab edges.

2 comments

2 Comments

thomasm151d ago

Seems like a lot of effort for ten minutes. On a small job, you'd just work faster. Seen guys just throw a wet burlap sack over an edge if it was really that critical. Maybe it matters for a perfect finish, but most concrete just needs to be flat and not crack.

foster.charles1d ago

Hold up, @thomasm15. Read an article by a concrete guy last year. Said that ten minute window is when the surface loses water fastest. If it dries too quick right then, you get tiny cracks you might not even see. They weaken it over years. A burlap sack helps, yeah, but timing it right is the real trick. It's not about a perfect look, it's about stopping those hidden weak spots. Skipping it is like not putting oil in your car because it still runs.