Vent: Guy on a jobsite told me to 'just eyeball it' for a 50ft curb

Last month I was doing a curb pour on a parking lot in Phoenix and this older finisher walks over, watches me set up my string lines, and goes 'why you messing with all that? Just eyeball it, it's a curb.' I laughed it off at first cause I thought he was joking. But he kept pushing it, saying I was wasting time and that real finishers don't need all that measuring. I told him straight up I wasn't risking a 50ft run of concrete looking like a roller coaster just to save 10 minutes. He got all huffy and walked away shaking his head. Later I saw his crew finishing a slab and it had a dip you could see from 20 feet away. Has anyone else had some old timer try to sell you on skipping the basic prep work?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_faith2d agoProlific Poster

and the wild thing is that guy probably genuinely thinks he's faster and better for skipping steps lol. like yeah you might save 10 minutes setting up but then you spend 3 hours fixing a wavy curb or your slab has a dip and now you're either living with it or grinding it down which takes way longer. i've seen that mentality a lot where dudes act like measuring and layout is for rookies but really it's just them being lazy or trying to prove something. honestly if you can't handle a string line for a 50ft run you're not a real finisher you're just a guy who got lucky on a few small jobs. better to take the extra time and walk away knowing it's flat than to have the homeowner or the GC point out a wave later.

beng512d agoMost Upvoted

Whoa there, hold on - sometimes eyeballing it is fine for a curb, you know, especially if you've done enough of them to just feel the grade and the concrete. All that string line setup can be overkill when you're working fast and the old timer's dip might have been from a bad mix or ground settling, not his eyeball method.

sanchez.ivan1d ago

3 hours fixing a wavy curb is generous, @the_faith - I've seen guys spend a whole day chasing dips they swore weren't there, all because they "had the touch.