Saw a pour going sideways at a Home Depot parking lot in Phoenix

Watched a guy try to finish a walkway in 107 degree heat with no sunshade and a worn out bull float. He must have spent 3 hours fighting that slab just to get a rough broom finish. Has anyone else seen jobs that should have been obvious no-gos from the start?

3 comments

3 Comments

derek_perez1mo ago

Walked past a crew in Tucson last month who were trying to pour a driveway at 2pm in August (you know, because that makes perfect sense). The concrete was setting up before they even finished screeding it off, and the guy on the bull float looked like he was trying to smooth a giant pizza with a spatula. A few hours later I came back (I had to pick up some lumber) and saw they'd left the slab covered in wet burlap and a sprinkler running on it. It was basically a mud puddle with some rocks in it by then. Too many guys think you can just muscle through extreme heat if you go fast enough, but the physics doesn't care about your schedule.

jamesroberts1mo ago

Wait they left a sprinkler running on it?

dianahayes1mo ago

You're coming down too hard on them. Pouring at 2pm in August is the only way to keep the day moving when you've got a crew booked solid for the next three weeks, and wet burlap with a sprinkler is standard practice to keep it from cracking. A little water on top isn't going to ruin the slab if they kept the mix right and got it floated before it went off.