c/concrete-finishers

20

jordan_hill•11h ago

Had a concrete pour go sideways on Tuesday and almost lost $700

I was finishing a driveway near Austin, plain gray mix, nothing fancy. Showed up at 6am like usual, everything looked fine. But the mix came in way too wet, like soup almost. I had to cut water and add dry mix on the fly while the driver was giving me attitude on the radio. Took two extra hours just to get it to a workable slump. By the time we finished the broom finish, the sun was beating down hard and I spent another hour fighting crust on the edges. Total nightmare. Has anyone else had a ready-mix driver mess up your whole schedule like that?

24

anthony763•21h ago

Can we talk about how much fiber mesh adds to the price of a load?

I was looking at my quote from the supplier last week and noticed fiber mesh tacked on an extra $15 per yard. Never really added it up before but that's like $300 on a 20 yard pour. Does anyone just skip it on flatwork or is that asking for trouble?

23

abby_cooper•3d ago

Tried a magnesium float finish on a garage floor and it backfired

I used a magnesium float on a 400 sq ft garage slab last Tuesday thinking it would close the surface tighter, but it ended up sealing too fast and trapping air bubbles underneath. The finish came out patchy with little craters that I had to grind down and patch the next day. Has anyone else had trouble with mag floats on certain mix designs?

1

olivermason•3d ago

Hit 100,000 square feet of flatwork last Friday. Didnt even realize.

Poured a warehouse floor in Cleveland. 40,000 square feet. Owner wanted F-min spec. We hit it. Got me thinking about numbers. Checked my records. I've done 102,000 feet this year. That blew my mind. Anyone else keep a running tally of their yearly yardage?

20

iris_schmidt•3d ago

Customer in Austin asked me to stamp a heart into his driveway for his wife's birthday last spring

I was finishing up a driveway pour in Round Rock, Texas back in March. Guy comes out with a piece of paper showing a heart shape. He wanted me to press it into the wet concrete near the front walk. I told him it might chip over time but he didn't care. I used a small hand stamp I had for decorative edges. Took maybe 5 minutes. He slipped me an extra $40 cash. Has anyone else had people request personal stuff like this in their concrete work?

19

danielm80•3d ago

Tried a magnesium float on a driveway pour in Phoenix today

Had a 95 degree day and figured the stickiness would be an issue, but that float actually pulled the cream way smoother than my usual aluminum one. Anyone else found a go-to float for hot weather pours?

27

nina_hall48•4d ago

That $80 'budget' finishing trowel I bought off Amazon last month

Man, I learned a hard lesson about cheap tools. I bought this stainless steel trowel for $80 thinking I was saving money over the $150 ones at the supply house. First job I used it on, a driveway pour in Akron, the blade flexed all wrong and left drag marks everywhere. I spent an extra 2 hours trying to buff them out and ended up having to grind and resurface a 4x6 patch. Total waste of my time and money, I should have just bought the good one from the start. Has anyone else had luck with any of those off-brand finishing trowels or are they all junk?

3

charles_baker28•4d ago

Finally figured out a better way to float my driveways

Used to just trowel and pray with a magnesium float for years, leaving swirl marks I'd try to fix later. Switched to a resin float about 6 months ago after watching a guy in Oregon demo one at the supply house. It glides smoother and leaves a way more even finish with less effort. Has anyone else made that swap and noticed a difference on bigger slabs?

19

iris_schmidt•5d ago

Hit 90 degree weather on a pour last July and the slab set way too fast

We were working a driveway in Phoenix and the mix started going off before we could get it screeded flat. Foreman yelled at me to get the evaporation retardant but by then we already had cold joints forming. Any tips for slowing down set time when the temp spikes like that?

17

kellygrant•5d ago

Old timer told me to wet the ground before pouring and I always thought he was nuts

Been doing concrete for about 8 years now. There's this guy Jerry who's been at it since the 70s, always giving advice nobody asks for. He kept telling me to spray the subgrade down before I pour, especially in hot weather. I thought it was dumb, like why add moisture when you're about to mix in water anyway. Last summer we had a job in Phoenix, 105 degrees, and I skipped the wetting step because I was in a hurry. That slab cracked in three places within a week. Jerry just looked at me and said 'ground stole the water from the mix.' Now I wet everything first and haven't had a crack since. Has anyone else had an old timer give you advice that turned out to be dead right?

23

grantw41•6d ago

Had a slab blowout on me yesterday with a bad batch of mix

Pouring a 12x16 patio in Austin and the truck showed up looking watery. I should have sent it back but figured it would be fine after some mixing. Halfway through the pour the edges started cracking and crumbling like sand. Lost the whole load and had to tear out about 10 yards of fresh concrete. Has anyone else had a bad batch ruin a pour and did you get the supplier to cover the cost?

0

theas28•7d ago

Vent: Had a young guy ask why I still use a hand float and it got me thinking

I was finishing a sidewalk in Austin last tuesday and this kid fresh out of school asks why I'm not using a power trowel for the whole thing. He said hand floating is for guys who don't trust their tools. But my dad taught me to feel the concrete set by hand (you know, that drag tell you when it's ready), and I realized I never really explained that to anyone. Does anyone else still mix old school methods with new gear just because it works better for certain pours?

5

ruby659•8d ago

TIL most guys are using way too much water in their mix

Watched a 20-year veteran finish a 300 square foot driveway with barely wet mud last week, and I finally saw the light on how much better the surface holds up. Has anyone else noticed that drier mixes just seem to float out smoother and resist cracking longer?

30

alice928•9d ago

The hotel driveway pour that went sideways last Tuesday

I got called out to a hotel near the airport last week to fix a section of their driveway that was only 3 months old. The original crew did the pour when the temp dropped to 38 degrees that night, and nobody covered it. The surface is already spalling bad, like chunks coming off in your hand bad. They're gonna have to rip out a 20 by 30 foot section and start over, which is going to cost them probably $4,000 more than if they just did it right the first time. Has anyone else dealt with a client trying to skip the cold weather precautions and blaming the finisher later?

30

miasanchez•10d ago

Wasted $200 on a fancy sprayer for small jobs, shoulda just stuck with buckets

I bought a Graco airless sprayer last spring thinking it'd speed up my garage floor jobs and smaller patios. Used it twice and the tip clogged up on me both times, spent more time cleaning it than actually spraying. Now it's just sitting in my shed collecting dust and I'm back to using a roller and brush for anything under 200 sq ft. Anyone else regret buying a tool that seemed like a good idea at the time? What do you use for small residential concrete coatings?

12

ruby659•10d ago

Warning: Cheap colored concrete sealant turned my driveway pink

I put down a dark gray sealant from a big box store last Saturday on a driveway in Phoenix. Looked fine for two days, then the sun hit it and now it's got this weird pink tint in patches. It was a $35 bucket, so I should have known better. I'm gonna have to strip it all off and start over with a brand I've used before from the supply house. Anyone else have colored sealant go bad on them like that?

13

thomasgonzalez•11d ago

Just saw a 4 month old slab that we finished vs the neighbor's crew job

We used a power trowel with a pan after the bull float, theirs just hand troweled. The difference in surface hardness and color uniformity is night and day, has anyone else noticed big gaps between power versus hand finishing on residential driveways?

28

jenny198•12d ago

Old school hand float vs power trowel for small residential slabs

I did a 20x30 patio last month in Austin where I used a hand float instead of my power trowel. Everyone at my shop said I was crazy but the finish came out way smoother with zero burn marks. The power trowel kept grabbing the mix even at low speed and left those little swirl patterns I hate. Hand floating took me about 45 extra minutes but the customer texted me a pic later saying it looked like glass. Has anyone else found that power trowels are overkill on jobs under 500 square feet?

12

nathankim•13d ago

Hit 10,000 square feet today on a single pour

Started the day thinking we'd do maybe 6,000, but the crew was on fire and the weather held. Troweled that last section right at 5 PM and just stood there for a second. Has anyone else had a pour just click like that where everything lined up?

7

dylan463•14d ago

I was dead set against using fiber mesh in my mix until a job in Phoenix last July

I always figured fiber mesh was just a gimmick to sell more bags of stuff. But we had a big 4,000 square foot driveway job in Phoenix last July and the temps were hitting 112 every day. The foreman insisted we add it to control shrinkage cracking since we couldn't keep the surface wet long enough. I figured I'd prove it was useless, but after 6 months not a single hairline crack showed up on a slab that would have had at least a dozen in normal conditions. I'm still not buying every additive they push, but that one earned some respect from me. Has anyone else had a job where a certain additive actually saved your butt more than the usual methods?

18

daniel_cooper34•15d ago

I used to think a broom finish was always the way to go for driveways

After watching a guy in Tucson do a exposed aggregate on a 95 degree day with no sealer and it held up better through 3 summers than any broom job I've ever seen, I'm rethinking everything - anyone else had better luck with aggregate on hot climate residential work?

1

keith274•16d ago

Saw a crew in Austin using a weird new trowel finish

I was visiting family in Austin last weekend and watched a crew finishing a driveway off Lamar Blvd. They were using some kind of foam roller attachment on a power trowel instead of the usual steel blades. Anyone know what that technique is called? Does it hold up better in hot weather?

9

fiona_kim97•18d ago

Picked up a trick from an old-timer about broom finishes

He said to wet the concrete with a mist sprayer about 20 minutes before you finish brooming it - makes the lines way more consistent. Anybody else try this or got another method for keeping broom lines straight?

17

olivia_white93•19d ago

Heard a new guy say 'just level by eye' on a driveway pour

We were doing a 30 yard residential driveway in Phoenix. He kept eyeballing it while screeding. Reminded me of my first year mistakes. How do you tactfully correct someone without making them hate you?

7

the_holly•19d ago

Old foreman told me to wet the ground before pouring. I thought he was crazy.

My first year on a crew in Phoenix, this guy named Rico kept yelling at me to wet the dirt before we poured a slab. I figured it was just extra work and skipped it a few times. Then we had a 100 degree day and the concrete set up so fast the finish looked like a desert floor. Cracked in a week. Now I always spray it down first. Anyone else had a boss give you advice that seemed dumb but saved you?