Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 22Apr 01, 2013 12:58 pm All slabs should be cured but it is critical to do it on hot and windy days where drying out will prevent proper hydration of cement. Obviously on cold, humid and or rainy days it is not as critical. Other issues that could cause excessive cracking are: incorrect layout and placement of reinforcing steel and concreters adding water on site to the premixed concrete. excess water will weaken concrete and cause shrinkage cracking. There is a lot to know and a lot to do. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 23Apr 02, 2013 6:50 am Agreed. Though concrete exothermic cure is slowed by cooling to quickly. A decent barrier will help retain the warmth on cold days. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 24Apr 02, 2013 9:30 am The art of building is knowing methods of slab curing. The art of economics is picking the right one for the circumstances. Which method? It depends! Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 25Apr 03, 2013 5:12 am So long as everyone is on the same page we will know which battles to choose to fight, without knowledge we are guided by a profession. A profession is guided by ,knowledge experiential development and the purchasers can choose between upfront cost and longevity and economics. Just like buying the $39 printer and refiling the ink at $59, or do you pay more for the printer and save on the ink refills?? A bit obscure but I'm sure you get the picture. All I can do is offer what I know and not be concerned about the choice someone will make. Sorry of it annoys anyone but it has to be said that if it gets to the point where someone says, oh yes well I knew that but thought you meant ?? something else, then time has been wasted. I choose my battles do you? Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 26Apr 03, 2013 5:31 am In my situation I shall be guided by the advice of the artisan of the speciality concerned. I can, as an OB, afford to wait the required time, more so due to the intended finish, where there won't be timber, tiles or carpet to hide cracks. Yes, I know there will be some. Waiting time won't be wasted time, many other things to do. Understand some builders need to progress quickly, but they won't live there... Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 27Apr 07, 2013 2:47 am We have gone with an aggregate concrete floor for our new home. The upgrade to our slab was about $15k for the colour we wanted and to polish it is costing about $35k so we are pretty keen to make sure it is laid well and cured well so that we get the best result we can get. We have asked our builder to confirm how they plan to cure it and we expect it to be by ponding, covering it in plastic or covering it in a curing coating (I don't know what it is called). We will then let our guy know, see if he is happy with it and go from there. Pretty sure our builder knows how pedantic I am going to be about our floors LOL. I am okay with some small cracks but I will crack it myself if there are any big ones or other damage!! We have also arranged to spend about $2k on covering it after the initial grind with fibro sheets. Our concrete is from BGC and we are getting the whole house except the bathroom and the garage. Later we will get the same mix laid outside and have it honed so it all matches. I am excited about it. Our polisher said to get out when it is going down and get a container of it so that he can polish us a sample to take when we are shopping for stuff. I think that is a great idea but funny as we will walk in with our "swatch" and it will be a big slab of concrete. Good luck with yours. p Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 28Apr 07, 2013 3:29 am I would be I interested to know how many sq mtrs you intend to have Polished? If the cost to polish is 35k then I would expect the area to be about 285sq mtrs. Will the concrete polisher beusing a resin sealer over the top of the ground / Polished concrete? Or is there no topical coating? The covering cost is about the cost of coreflute(3mm plastic sheeting that looks like cardboard) and will need to be replaced in a few areas of high traffic. Good luck with the process. I'll be interested to hear how it goes. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 29Apr 07, 2013 10:21 am Hi kittyranch There is lot more to exposed aggregate finish than curing and polishing. Apart from expansion joints and placement of reinforcing there are other things like, experience, supervision, placing of wet concrete (if it's dumped aggregate will sink and you will get a blotchy finish, seeding etc.) Quality is about planning, monitoring and control Is there specification of works to be done? I am currently involved in giving evidence in a dispute where slab has cracks and there are no expansion joints and yes a blotchy finish. Guess what? OB and there is no specification and yes there was no control. OB just trusted a subbie. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 30Apr 07, 2013 11:05 am b e are you talking exposed aggregate or polished concrete? I'm pretty sure kitty is talking about polished concrete. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 31Apr 07, 2013 11:39 am Kitty is talking about aggregate and colour, fair assumption that it is exposed polished aggregate finish. Either way the point about control joints is valid. As a subbie you will know that it does not matter how well you do your job, if the slab is crappy the finish will be crappy, and then they may blame you for it. I am sure you will have a beef about that. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 32Apr 07, 2013 12:25 pm Fresh from HIA Home Show VIC. Smallish floor grind company were quoting $35 p sq m for a levelling grind, and $85 p sq m for full polished ( Hiperfloor ) standard. Samples and photo albums showed good results Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 33Apr 12, 2013 10:52 am Blotchy colour is from using water to 'finish' the slab. Aggregate separation usually happens when the concrete has 'fallen' from a height greater than 1 metre and has a slump of greater than 90. We have polished several slabs that we didn't pour and that were less than ok. In one instance the slab had 3 x 20mm deflections over 3 mtrs, the polished concrete finish ended very well http://www.australianecoformations.com. ... idwood.jpg Where you are coming from is where you are going to...
Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 34Dec 09, 2014 9:59 pm Hi Building Expert, I will have my slab poured just before Xmas in Melbourne, and I'm a little nervous about hot, windy weather. I intend to pond the slab, since I live close by, and it won't be any trouble to fill up the water levels. But, just wondering how long do I wait for, after the slab pour, to build the dam walls and flood the slab? Thanks David Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 35Dec 10, 2014 7:19 am akapacker Hi Building Expert, I will have my slab poured just before Xmas in Melbourne, and I'm a little nervous about hot, windy weather. I intend to pond the slab, since I live close by, and it won't be any trouble to fill up the water levels. But, just wondering how long do I wait for, after the slab pour, to build the dam walls and flood the slab? Thanks David The sooner the better (the whole point of curing is to stop slab from drying out in hot windy weather). I have done it as soon as final power trowelling with helicopter was done. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 36Dec 10, 2014 7:49 pm Thanks Building Expert. Will the dirt wall I put around the perimeter get stuck in the concrete? Does it matter? The concreter might look at me a bit funny when I start shovelling mud onto his freshly levelled slab! Cheers David Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 37Dec 10, 2014 11:15 pm no it won't stick but it may stain. you will have to 'bund' the wet areas too or it won't pond. Plastic can be an option but does become waste though could be used for drive way and alfresco or other (WPM) for concrete, doubled up. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 38Dec 10, 2014 11:31 pm Hello, this is very interesting. I intend to pond my slab and want to know roughly how big the "dam" should be that one creates around the end of the slab to pond the water. Are we talking a little (less than 5cm) type bund, or higher? Please to see from comments above that it can be ponded pretty much after the helicopter is done I'm not keen on using plastic due to securing it from the afternoon winds, and also excess waste. Se Re: Did you wet cure your slab? 39Dec 11, 2014 5:33 am Beazley77 Hello, this is very interesting. I intend to pond my slab and want to know roughly how big the "dam" should be that one creates around the end of the slab to pond the water. Are we talking a little (less than 5cm) type bund, or higher? Please to see from comments above that it can be ponded pretty much after the helicopter is done I'm not keen on using plastic due to securing it from the afternoon winds, and also excess waste. Se 25-50 mm of water cover as your slab is unlikely to be perfectly flat and some tolerance is allowed. Another advantage of ponding is that as you flood the slab it will show up low and then high spots. This will be important as you need to know how much levelling compound you need to use before laying porcelain tiles or similar and also if there are high spots that need to be ground off. If you are just carpeting you may not have to be doing any additional levelling. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Did you wet cure your slab? 40Dec 14, 2014 8:50 pm building-expert I think that the thread was most relevant to OB's When the concreter has poured and finished the slab he is usually paid then gone. Then you as OB got to take care of the curing. Hi there, My pad was poured on Sat morn and I was told to pond it in the afternoon. Im in WA so the water doesn't hang around long with the Freo Doctor rolling in. I went back and hosed it sat night and Sunday morning. It seems to have developed this blotchy appearance over night in dark grey/black. Is that perhaps because the guys had an accelerator added to the concrete mix and its leaching to surface, or it's just uneven curing? Just wondering if its likely to be on surface or all the way through as was thinking we might have a go at retrospective polished concrete in a couple of rooms...on the plus side it seems pretty level with only a couple of little high points which will be under beds so who cares Looks like this All sorted guys. Just needed to buy a blade with the correct bush. Dunno how to delete this post, can't find any help file. Cheers. 1 2805 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 30511 No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. I’m not sure what was removed, as it was done quite some time ago - well before what I can see with photos online… 2 9107 |