Nearly lost a slab when the sun hit a half-finished pour last June

I was working a driveway in Phoenix, about 400 square feet, and the temp shot up to 105 by 10 AM. I had my crew going but we got behind because the rebar was tied wrong from the day before. Right as I started the final pass with the bull float, I noticed the surface was already skinning over and cracking at the edges. I grabbed a spray bottle with evaporation retarder and hit the whole thing fast while yelling at my guys to get the tarp rigged. We got it covered and misted it for two hours straight, but that panic reminded me how fast you can lose control. Has anyone else had a close call with a hot day pour and a slow crew?

2 comments

2 Comments

lunah8611d ago

Phoenix at 105 degrees with a 400 square foot slab, that's a race against the clock for sure. You're right that the rebar issue was the real culprit, but just a heads up, a spray bottle of evaporation retarder won't do much once the surface already has started to skin over.

mitchell.dakota11d ago

...and the real kicker is nobody talks about how the rebar being wrong probably cost you more time than the heat did. I've been in the same spot where the prep work the day before came back to bite me right when the sun was cooking everything. That delay from fixing the rebar gave the concrete a head start on setting, so you were fighting two battles at once. Heat gets all the blame but usually it's a chain of small screw ups that leads to the close call.

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