A sudden downpour hit our pour in Eugene right after we finished edging

We were finishing a patio slab, and the sky just opened up. The rain started washing out the surface cream before it could set. I grabbed a big piece of plastic sheeting we had in the truck and three of us ran to cover the whole area, about 400 square feet. We weighted the edges with scrap wood and had to wait two hours for the rain to stop before we could pull it back and finish the troweling. Has anyone else had to save a pour from a surprise storm like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

bell.felix1mo ago

We keep a roll of 6 mil poly and a bag of sand tubes in the trailer just for that. Had to use it on a driveway pour in Gresham last spring. The worst part is the waiting, just standing under the tailgate watching it rain. Your crew did the right thing, that extra couple hours saved a full day of grinding and patching later.

michael_jenkins391mo ago

Man, that plastic sheeting save is clutch. I had a smaller slab go sideways once. My brilliant plan was to just work faster. Ended up with a surface that looked like the moon. My so-called finish was just me trying to hide the craters. Sometimes the smart move is just to cover it up and wait.

the_jennifer1mo ago

You are so right about that plastic sheeting being clutch. I had the exact same panic on a garage floor pour a few years back. We saw the dark clouds but thought we had time. We did not. Throwing that plastic down felt like a crazy race, but it was the only thing that saved us from a total redo. That two hour wait under the eaves felt like forever, but it was nothing compared to the mess we would have had.