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The foreman in Gary who told me to stop floating so early on a 90 degree pour
We were pouring a 40 by 60 slab outside Gary, Indiana back in July and I had the bull float out before the bleed water even quit. The old foreman, Roy, walked up and told me to put the tools down and wait or I'd trap all that water under the finish and get blisters by next spring. He was right, we lost 2 small spots on that job and I've watched the clock on every hot pour since. How do you all time your first float when it's pushing 90 out there, do you go by the sheen or just feel it?
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kevin_williams14h ago
Man, Roy sounds like he saved you from a real mess with that call. The bleed water thing trips up so many guys because they see the concrete getting hard on top and figure it's time, but that water's still working its way up. My question for you is how do you tell the difference between bleed water and a little surface moisture from the humidity, because at 90 degrees with the sun beating down I've had it look wet when it wasn't really bleeding anymore. Do you watch for the sheen going dull or do you drag a finger across it and see if it fills back in? And on a pour that size, did Roy have you waiting on the whole slab at once or were you floating in sections behind the screed? I've seen guys get burned trying to float the whole thing on one clock when the shady side was setting up way slower than the sunny side.
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