An old foreman's one piece of advice I still think about on every pour

Worked a 14 hour slab pour outside Austin back in 2018, and this older foreman, Hank, told me to stop worrying about the bull float and start watching the water sheen peel off the surface. He said the mix will tell you when it's ready, not the clock, and that stuck with me through every job since. Anybody else have a veteran in the trade whose weird little habit you ended up copying for years?

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linda30511d ago

Watching the water sheen is fine, but that's only half the story. I had a superintendent who was obsessed with the timing of the final pass, and he'd yell at anyone who touched the float too early. Said you'd trap bleed water and ruin the surface, and he was right. A sheen can look perfect while the mix underneath is still pumping water up. The clock matters too, especially when the sun is moving and the air temp is climbing. You need both the eye and the numbers, or you're just guessing with a pretty theory.