That trick with a garden hose for wet curing saved my driveway pour last summer

I was fighting 95 degree heat on a job in Phoenix and the concrete was setting way too fast, so I soaked burlap with a hose nozzle on mist and kept it covered for 3 days instead of using expensive curing compound. Has anyone else done the cheap hose method on a big slab and had it work out?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew64627d ago

Keep pushing back on this one. I've seen plenty of guys do the wet burlap trick and end up with a mess of cracking anyway because they didn't keep it consistently damp. Soaking it for three days straight is a lot harder than it sounds, especially with 95 degree heat drying everything out in a couple hours. You got lucky more than anything else, or you were checking it way more often than most people have time for. Curing compound is cheap insurance for a reason, and wet curing gone wrong can leave you with a slab that looks fine but has hidden weak spots.

williamt4427d ago

Wait, what are you saying, three days? I've always heard seven days minimum for wet curing, sometimes even longer depending on the mix. Did I miss something or is there some new shortcut going around? That just sounds like asking for trouble to me, especially with the heat you're talking about. I remember my old boss used to say you can't half-ass curing and expect full-ass results, and he'd literally set timers to go off every two hours day and night. You really ran it for only three days?