The day a 5 gallon bucket of water changed how I finish

Been doing concrete work for about 4 years now and I always thought you had to get the surface as dry as possible before troweling. Last summer on a job in Austin the humidity was insane and I kept getting this crust forming no matter what I did. My buddy's dad who's been finishing since the 80s walked over and just dumped a bucket of water on the slab before I started. I thought he was messing with me honestly but he said I was fighting the surface drying out too fast. Sure enough that little bit of moisture let me work it way longer and the finish came out smooth with no crust. Turns out I was overworking dry concrete this whole time and making it worse. Has anyone else been doing it backwards like I was for years?

3 comments

3 Comments

jana_shah23d ago

My buddy Mike had been doing stamped concrete for like 15 years and he told me a story about a driveway job in Florida where it was like 95 degrees and the concrete was getting that crusty skin in like ten minutes. He said he was about to give up when some old timer on site just walked over with a garden hose and sprayed the whole slab down. Mike was thinking this guy is nuts, you don't put water on concrete that's setting up. But the old timer said you're not wetting it to soak it, you're just giving the surface a drink so you can actually work it smooth. Mike said it was like night and day and now he carries a spray bottle on every hot job. Your buddy's dad sounds like that kind of guy who just knows from years of doing it.

the_elliot23d ago

My buddy who does a lot of patios and walkways had a similar thing happen on a job in August... He was pouring a small sidewalk and the mix was starting to set way too fast, he was about to just call it a loss. An older guy from the house next door came over with a sprayer and told him the exact same thing, just a light mist to keep the surface alive. Now my buddy keeps a pump sprayer in his truck all summer long and swears by it. That old timer wisdom is real, @jana_shah, and it's wild how something that sounds wrong actually saves the whole pour.

wendy13123d agoMost Upvoted

lol reminds me of when my neighbor tried to fix his cracker dry lawn with a garden hose and ended up flooding the whole street instead.