Ran into an old concrete finisher near Red Deer who changed how I look at curing slabs

I was on a job site near Red Deer last spring, just pouring a small garage slab, and this older guy walks up (must have been 70 plus) and starts watching. He didn't say anything for like 10 minutes, just stood there with his arms crossed. Then he pointed at my curing blankets and said "you're trapping moisture wrong, son, you need to let it breathe first." I thought he was nuts at first, but he showed me his trick using wet burlap and plastic sheeting with gaps. He explained that if you seal everything too tight right away, you get surface crazing from trapped heat. I tried his method on a driveway last August and had zero cracks compared to my usual blanket method. Has anyone else had a random old timer give them advice that actually worked better than what you learned in trade school?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler_white4222d ago

His wet burlap trick sounds like a recipe for a moisture disaster in my book.

thomas.piper22d ago

You're not wrong, keeping things that damp is just asking for mold and rot problems.