Shoutout to the old foreman who told me to quit overworking my concrete

Guy with 40 years on the job told me last year I was troweling too early and too much. I figured he was just old school and slow. Proved myself wrong on a driveway in Odessa last month where I ended up with a crusty surface that wouldn't finish right. Had to grind down a 10x30 section and redo it. Has anyone else had a senior guy give advice that went against what you learned at trade school?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlieh746d ago

I ignored a 50 year vet about water curing once and paid for it.

sanchez.ivan6d ago

My cousin read me a thing from some concrete science journal once about how overworking the surface pulls the fine aggregate up and traps bleed water underneath. That's exactly what happened to me on a patio job last summer, turned into a dusty mess that looked like a big chalkboard. @charlieh74 you're spot on about ignoring the old guys, they've seen it all fail before. Gotta admit, that crusty surface you describe is brutal to fix, grinding it down throws dust everywhere and takes forever. Maybe they don't teach the real-world stuff in school because every pour is different depending on the weather and mix.

charlieh746d ago

The real angle nobody's hitting on is timing, not technique - those old guys learned to read the concrete's body language, not just follow a clock. When you're out there in Odessa heat fighting that surface, what you really need is to wait until the bleed water disappears before you even touch a trowel, because your mix and weather that day are the only things that matter. School teaches you a system, but those foremen teach you to feel the pour, and that's why their advice sticks even when it sounds wrong.