Warning: a 4 inch slump pour in Denver cost me 9 extra hours because I trusted the truck driver
Had a pour in Denver back in June, about 30 yards of flatwork behind a strip mall, and the driver shows up 45 minutes late with a slump that looked fine off the chute. I let it ride because we were chasing daylight and he said the batch plant was backed up all morning. Big mistake. By the time we got the first 10 yards down, the mix started setting up way faster than the pour rate and we were fighting it with every screed pass. The finishers on my crew had to chase it with a mag and a bull float just to keep the edge from drying hard, and I burned through two floats and a brand new edger trying to catch up. What should have been a 4 hour job turned into a 13 hour day, plus we had to saw cut the next morning and buff out a bunch of cold joints that never should have been there. The driver admitted at the end the plant had dumped extra accelerator in the load because of a cold front coming through, but nobody bothered to tell me. If a load smells off or sets faster than your first pass, do you guys sent it back right there or try to work it anyway? I have been finishing 18 years and I still get burned by not making the plant show me the batch ticket.
I used to just work it and cuss later, but after watching a 20 yard load flash set on me in Aurora I stop everything and make them pull the batch ticket now. That 45 minute wait hurts way less than a 13 hour day.