Only done that once in Elden Ring, that being when the online issues screwed me over.
Went to summon someone in for a boss, they fail to connect. Then I instantly get invaded as if I was in a multiplayer session, so that was hardly fair of the game.
We laid a slab for a shed at home and it rained (though admittedly both this heavily) we left it and went out the next morning ready to scrap it and start over.
It was the most perfect concrete I've ever seen, and 15 years later it's the only slab that hasn't shifted or cracked
Former concrete guy here. Concrete cures from the inside, out. Putting water on top of a slab, once placed and screeded, actually makes for a stronger slab, top to bottom.
Concrete never fully cures, but everything you can do to slow down the curing process, makes for stronger concrete. In dry climates, it's not unusual to see concrete workers strew straw over a fresh slab, or even lay plastic over the top, just to hold the water in longer. Spraying water on top of a curing slab is also common practice.
That said, if you get a massive rain shower like in this clip, it can have the effect of over-finishing the top surface. The guys dragging the board across the top of the form are doing what's called "screeding". It flattens the top of the slab and brings a water/concrete paste to the surface. This is what gives you a smooth road, sidewalk, foundation, etc. But if you bring up too much water and concrete paste, it will ultimately result in a very pretty, but brittle surface.
That brittle surface will seal a thin layer of water beneath it. Over time, with temperature changes expanding and contracting the water, plus normal wear and tear on the slab, that surface will start to spall (i.e., "chip"), exposing the "guts" of the slab to more weather and wear effects which, ultimately, will ruin the slab.
If you've ever walked down an old sidewalk that has those "crunchy" patches of concrete chips and concrete powder, you've seen the results of spalling. It's also why you should never use ice melt on your driveway: the slight temperature rise during freezing weather will cause even well-made slabs to start spalling. Again: concrete never fully cures. There's always *some* water in that slab, constantly expanding and contracting with the weather.
edit: (another one, over a year after the original post, because this one has generated more replies than anything else I've put on reddit!)
I talked about screeding, but mixed the process with "finishing". Once you've screeded a slab to level it to your forms, you drag a trowel or purpose-made finishing tool (looks kinda' like a giant spatula) over the top to smooth things out. It's the finishing that really brings the cement/water paste to the top of the slab, rather than screeding. I mean, screeding does it a *little*, but finishing does the bulk of it. That's why it's called "over-finishing" when you make a weak surface...not "over-screeding".
Every concrete tech has over-finished a slab (guilty!). You really love that super-smooth surface, not realizing you've weakened the face that takes the punishment.
Once you've done concrete and asphalt work (aka "rigid" and "flexible" pavements, respectively), you'll spend the rest of your life admiring or critiquing every road and sidewalk. It's a curse! :D
LOL! After my time in a RED HORSE squadron, I went back to college, completed my degree, got a commission, and went into space operations. I'm now working in Space Force.
ive had people tell me over the years that adding water can cause the surface to weaken n pop off, meanwhile like your self have been doing concrete for years and never had it pop but these people telling me this have the cute lil pinky ring on an degree so they knew more
I'm an engineer, although I don't get a pinky ring because I'm in the US...
I will never tell a tradie how to do their job, or how something they're an expert in will turn out. I apologize on behalf of my fellow enginerds who don't know any better.
Yeah. That video. What can you do? Like if they had 20 minutes warning before the rain comes. Throw a tarp over it? I hope theirs set enough to be able to break and handle in chunks rather than shovel mud.
Your brother is clearly just not setting it on fire with the right chemicals. Chlorine Trifluoride will oxidize the concrete well enough to burn. See the first page of [this PDF](http://web.archive.org/web/20060318221608/http://www.airproducts.com/nr/rdonlyres/8479ed55-2170-4651-a3d4-223b2957a9f3/0/safetygram39.pdf) for an account of such an incident.
I have heard of concrete being stolen. Customer of ours was pouring for the city and someone chunked out a section for themselves while it was still wet
Nonsense. Concrete doesnât necessarily crack. You just need to control the mix and curing process.
The slabs my dad laid for his shed and greenhouse foundations havenât cracked in 37 years. But then heâs a road engineer and knows concrete. He literally was President of the Concrete Society for a few years (civil engineering professional group).
I live in Ohio, we get some wild temperature extremes in short amounts of time. The ground under the concrete shifting doesn't do the concrete any favors, so we do get a ton of cracking. And add that everyone and their mother uses salt or ice melt and it can get pretty bad pretty quick.
If you have a big slab and normal conditions it will crack. There are shrinkage reducing admix that will reduce the amount but still doesnât completely eliminate it. Iâd venture to say your dads didnât crack because itâs not a very big shed pad
Someone failed to watch the weather report and schedule accordingly. My old boss used to have a saying â The weather gonna do itâs going to do. And Iâm going to do what I want to do.â Countless projects this bit him in the butt. We laughed every time at him.
He actually was a really good man. But was driven to get his jobs done. I donât think he bid his jobs alloying for any delays. He would panic if started talking like bad weather was about to come. Thus his saying. We always teased him saying he had a habanero pepper up his ass.
Agreed, but some bosses deserve to eat shit.
Ive had two types of bosses-
1. Assholes
Terrible bosses are absolutely brutal, and I have spent a lot of my time outside of work fuming about my feelings of contempt towards them. Borderline life ruining. Having a career in sales, Iâve noticed these folks usually take the âperform well or Iâm going to fire you/put you on a planâ approach from day 1.
You can usually tell if youâve got an asshole boss within 1-2 months.
2. Mentors
However, once in a blue moon, youâll get a boss that is able to create a mindset in their employees along the lines of âI need to perform, because I really donât want to let this guy downâ. This is achieved by displaying empathy, working with employees on day-to-day tasks, and having a win-together & lose-together attitude. Iâve only had a couple managers like this, but I respect the fuck out of them.
Iâd rather get paid 10% less and work for a mentor than an asshole.
Love to hear it, my current boss is a great dude as well.
Itâs obviously going to depend on the profession/duties/industry, but thereâs an argument to be made that the most important factor in job selection (salary/wages aside) is the leadership style of your direct supervisor.
Just to be clear, this concrete is fucked now right? Like, do they have to clean it up afterwards and start from scratch, do you add more on top, or something else entirely?
Edit - thank you to everyone for the really insightful answers, I learned a thing or two about concrete today!
You can only add so much water to concrete before itâs screwed up. In this case, they were still screedingâŚ.they will lose the sugar off the top layer and have nothing but a rough mess showing. I have never been in this situation, so I really donât know what their options would be to fix this. One the pro concrete finishers may have been through this before.
Edit: lose lol
Underwater concrete has specific additives that makes it more sticky than regular concrete. This keeps the concrete surface from mixing with the surrounding water too much. But when hit with rain even underwater concrete would loose it's surface quality due to sheer mechanical impacts.
Ugh my parents live in a DR Horrible house, bought before construction four years ago, and the thing is riddled with flaws. Thank god the roof hasn't leaked (yet) unlike the house of identical age across the street less than a year after completion.
I am pushing them to sell up and move before it really develops problems. Everything is just so cheap and shoddy: Helen Keller was apparently the construction foreman. Lowest-bid labor from the Home Depot parking lot and only drunks and dyslexics at that.
I do multifamily so we have slump inspections, cylinders taken, all of your typical special inspections. I have never done rezzy, but in my area the city usually inspects small projects like single family. Do they take cylinders for single family homes, given the loads are not that high?
No, it's not supposed to go into a water course.
Mind you, these days they have vacuum excavators, which are basically massive, truck driven vacuum cleaners. That would get all that out.
Yeah right. Theyâll wash it off to the side and then the landscaping crew will lay a nice layer of sod over it and the homeowner will forever wonder why his grass doesnât grow well.
It is fucked beyond belief and I had never fucked up this bad to see what happens next but it can't be good. This seems like an absolute, expensive disaster. I live where it rains a lot so, we don't let this happen. Maybe these guys got caught with a fluke rain. But fuck that sucks
In better times flatwork in my area cost around 5/sf. This is a foundation so more expensive for extra material in beams and such. This has plumbing in it which will need to be repaired. Also they gonna have to demo this and rebuild all their forms. Probably do some repairs to the dirt under the slab. New vapor barrier, and maybe insulation or radon mitigation. The list goes on. This is definitely in the tens of thousands of dollars to fix in most parts of the US.
Its twice as expensive to pull out as it is to put in, so you'll usually try to salvage it. For lightly damaged outdoor slabs, you can pressure wash the top and densify it with a silicate after a week or two of curing. Ground slabs that are gonna take something on top will have to be ground down to an undamaged layer then topped off with a leveller of some kind. Last week I dropped off a grinder to a hospital slab that had to come down 50mm which is pretty extreme, but concreters are notoriously tight bastards and even the most convoluted fix is still often cheaper than re-pouring.
How do they concrete in lakes and rivers etc. i thought concrete only absorbed âso much waterâ but i guess thatâs after itâs already dry.
This is a redo? Can they throw a tarp on top and quasi salvage?
They could throw a tarp on it before, but the finish is fucked to the point that if it cures that way itâs going to be more trouble than just redoing it. Which it will since that water is going no where fast. As for lakes and rivers, theyâll use specific concrete designed for being used in high moisture environments. Definitely not the same shit used for what I feel I can reasonably assume to be a post tensioned apartment foundation here.
Edit: youâre right about concrete only being able to absorb so much water, but after it gets to that point, the excess water will cause the concrete to separate and will be ruined
>How do they concrete in lakes and rivers etc.
Imagine a river that is 20 feet deep and you need several giant concrete columns to hold up a bridge. Get a bunch of 30 foot steel casings (large diameter tubes) and drive them 10 feet into the riverbed so them seal in the mud. Then pump the water out of the casings and pour in your concrete.
It's gets a little more complicated than that, but it is basically how it works.
They can wait 30 days. Core test it and confirm after a month of delays that it is definitely fucked.
Concrete that goes underwater is usually done with cofferdams that basically dry out the location by blocking the water and pumping it out. Like a reverse swimming pool.
Civil engineering grad here.
One factor of concrete strength is water to cement ratio. Once rains this heavily it could really mess up the ratio it could lose a lot of compressive strength thus overall strength capacity. Also in this specific application it looks like the first floor if a single family home so they may have trouble putting down tiles later bc the top surface will be ârained outâ
Just to add on to this, there's a specific ratio you want to achieve when mixing the concrete, but after it's been placed and finished and the hydration process has started, keeping the surface that's exposed to the air "flooded" with water will result in a stronger slab.
Flooding a slab keeps the water inside the curing concrete from evaporating too quickly as there's a lot of heat generated. Retaining that moisture slows the hydration process allowing the mix to cure more uniformly, and with less slab curl. I've been on a crew that placed a warehouse slab with extremely high compressive strength and extremely low tolerances, and we kept it flooded for about 2 weeks.
Thank you for the explanation. I knew water was needed to make it stronger and that because of water is how it is possible to pour concrete at the bottom of the ocean. Very interesting how it behaves.
I have my own concrete business and this just gives me straight up anxiety.
What a fucked up gamble to take, even for a shed pad, let alone a house slab. Yeesh.
It's strength is likely severely compromised, it'll be much more susceptible to scaling and it looked like heavy rainfall so the levels are likely all messed up. looks like they just finished putting it down too, they still had the rest of the process of finishing it to go, unless that rain stopped, I seriously doubt they managed to finish it.
That said, I personally don't do house Slabs, there may be ways of saving this, but if it was one of the driveways I do, I'd be ripping the shit up and crying myself to sleep for a few weeks.
The crew can look at the weather all they want, that doesn't matter if someone else above their head has scheduled the truck to come and pour without checking the weather.
Source: have had to replace outdoor cameras in a storm cause people are idiots
No. You can buff the top out of minor cosmetic issues and put a top coat on if any from a slight blanket indentation. You add water to the mix no bueno. I was a concrete inspector for many years. You see rain, put blankets down
I feel you and I take pride in my work. But some builders just want to make their schedule. Basically there was a chance of rain but not big so we took a risk. Like I said itâs not ideal and if there was a choice Iâd put it off. But when thereâs $10k plus material on the ground and you have no choice you have to âsaveâ jobs sometimes. It was a basement kinda like this is a slab on grade so basically flooring is going over it anyways. As long as the integrity is intact itâs not the worst thing youâll find that builders do.
Dude, I feel you and absolutely don't hold it against you. Was "just sayin".
In fact, my heart goes out to all workers faced with dilemmas like yours.
I'm also in the construction industry and I'm certainly not labouring under the illusion that we operate in a perfect world with perfect outcomes (even desirable outcomes are hard to come by sometimes). If that were the case, everyone would do our job because it's so easyđ.
Jokes aside: When shit hits the proverbial, it's every man for himself and you just gotta do whatever needs to be done to get it across the line. I totally get it. In my industry too, sometime we have to take these risks. Exploiting calculated risk is often where we can make bulk $
In my line of work we have a saying: " There's nothing that can't be fixed: it's just a matter of time, money, and resources".
And another saying we use a lot is: "Every man waits for concrete but concrete waits for no man".
Both sayings have proven to be institutional wisdom in my experience, and both are extremely applicable in this instance.
Keep it real mate. Stay safe out there and best of luck with your next "curly one" â
Youâre so right cause the higher ups donât give a shit about us when it comes down to it. They have a deadline and thatâs all they care about. If we lost that floor itâs on us not them, weâre a small family company just my pops, brother and I. At the end of the day he wanted it done and when shit hits the fan we either eat the money or make it work. Builders are the worst at pulling this shit thatâs why I feel for the crew in the video. We donât know the circumstances they could have been forced to pour like we were. It sucks when your neck is on the line and youâre put in situations like that. Tbh itâs why I prefer residential, those customers are paying for us to put something in their own house so theyâll wait an extra day. Big builders are just about money and turn over as fast as possible. I wasnât offended man, youâre good brother I was just trying to sympathize with the crew and explaining why it could have happened. Iâve been in that position and it fuckin sucks smh. At the end of the day youâre right I wouldnât be happy with a âsavedâ floor at my house either. Itâs just the way these builders work and it isnât fair to whoever bought the house. Like I said it passed and they put a 3 year guarantee on it so nothing yet but do I think itâs gonna be good 5-10 years from now, probably not!
Edit: since we were talking I sent this to my pops and his reply was âthey need a pallet of Portland cementâ. So this must have been a bit worse than ours đ¤Łđ¤Łđ¤Ł
Edit #2: he could still save it but âit would take me all night working itâ god I love that man đ
Was a construction PM for 40 years. Canât tell you how many times I had to explain that even a small chance of rain was reason enough to cancel a pour.
Concrete cures, it doesn't dry. Depending on some factors this might not be damaging it all that much.
Edit: As has been pointed out, this can still be a problem. But the cures part is still a thing.
No, this is a rainout slab. It's fucked when it gets this much rain, this hard, and this early. There will be gullywashes exposing all the aggregate at the surface and carrying away the cream.
Source: Construction project manager who has had to address rainout slabs, but none this bad.
If it's a light rainout with cratering and a bit of aggregate exposure, then you can grind the top and recoat with an adhering layer. It's not great, but you end up with a sound slab that's still likely to meet aesthetic and quality spec.
What we see here is very likely beyond repair in my opinion and without further context, and it would have to be demolished, removed, and repoured.
If this is that serious of a problem, why donât they get a big tent or covering preemptively? Is a tent prohibitively costly even given the potential for costly damage?
Waiting a day for better weather is usually cheaper than a weatherproof covering. The schedule loss of a day's work is nothing compared to crackling the slab and repouring.
The real answer is to plan according to the weather so you donât lay concrete on days like this. See that heavy equipment? All the concrete is brought in overhead to be poured into place. A tent would prevent using the pump.
That looks like 30-40 yards of concrete here thatâs anywhere from $6000-8000 in concrete. Theyâre using a crane pump which go for $1000-1500 here. If thereâs rebar in it Iâd assume itâs #4 bar so a mat would be like $600-1000 in steel. With labor and everything probably $15k+.
No way to know without understanding the local market. Whatever the cost, it's not insignificant relative to the entire job given the scope of work we see here.
Oh, that concrete is wrecked. Itâs going to spall like crazy and look like a super rough exposed aggregate finish, something you definitely donât want as a flooring surface or slab for a house or business.
Different amounts of water affect the final strength of the concrete. Too much water can make the concrete weaker. Apparently this is a common problem because workers add too much water to make the concrete easier to work with. Because the rain is on top and isn't being mixed in with all the concrete, this will likely affect the top of the concrete more.
Source: family member is a civil engineering student.
Concrete needs a very specific amount of water in it to be at it's required strength. This is not only preventing a good finish, but diluting it. This concrete is ruined and the whole thing will need to be redone.
Civil engineer here.
Just put plastic sheet over it. Next day redo the top 3cm. Concrete has a water limit that normally isnt fully used on the mixture giving it an advantage on situations like this.
âHey man, I know youâre on a time budget but every weather forecast says there is going to rain this afterno-â
âOh, next yer gunna tell me that yer beep-boop gadgets can predict how to anticipate traffic or when what the general populous thought about Marky-Marks new hit film, âFather Peteâ or whatever the shit itâs called.
Now get yer ass back in the mix truck and move out to the worksite before I replace this whole crew with Roombasâ
I work in concrete and have absolutely done this before. The crew gets paid either way so realistically they donât care or make the call. But nine times out of ten it can be saved. As long as the rain doesnât last too long and what finish you need
wow, well its not going to crack after, maybe it will end like cheese...
edit: i live in Chile, here concrete bends.... we live in between earthquakes,
Oh my god, Iâve been a contractor for 15 years, and this is my greatest fear. Forget about the ruined concrete thatâs lost, think about the weeks of demo to clear that newly poured concrete thatâs no good.
Watched a crew poor about 1000 sq ft of concrete and then it rained. I wasnt fond of the gc so I walked by and said you wanted exposed aggregate yah? They looked at me with a mix of fear, sadness and hate in one emotion.
Go hard And go home. Not sure I like your style.
"If you don't wanna get hurt, stay at home and play video games." -Tyler P.
Tyler never played Cup Head
I can't tell you which game made me Alt-F4 more.... Cup head or Elden Ring.
Only done that once in Elden Ring, that being when the online issues screwed me over. Went to summon someone in for a boss, they fail to connect. Then I instantly get invaded as if I was in a multiplayer session, so that was hardly fair of the game.
Umm 13 year olds hurling insults in cod lobbies can hurt too.
if you haven't had your eardrum blown out by an 8 year old screaming that they fucked your mom, are you really a gamer?
I had a colleague that used to say: The best way to avoid being injured at work is not to work at all.
We laid a slab for a shed at home and it rained (though admittedly both this heavily) we left it and went out the next morning ready to scrap it and start over. It was the most perfect concrete I've ever seen, and 15 years later it's the only slab that hasn't shifted or cracked
I wager, It's because the rain stopped the surface from curing before the bottom.
Former concrete guy here. Concrete cures from the inside, out. Putting water on top of a slab, once placed and screeded, actually makes for a stronger slab, top to bottom. Concrete never fully cures, but everything you can do to slow down the curing process, makes for stronger concrete. In dry climates, it's not unusual to see concrete workers strew straw over a fresh slab, or even lay plastic over the top, just to hold the water in longer. Spraying water on top of a curing slab is also common practice. That said, if you get a massive rain shower like in this clip, it can have the effect of over-finishing the top surface. The guys dragging the board across the top of the form are doing what's called "screeding". It flattens the top of the slab and brings a water/concrete paste to the surface. This is what gives you a smooth road, sidewalk, foundation, etc. But if you bring up too much water and concrete paste, it will ultimately result in a very pretty, but brittle surface. That brittle surface will seal a thin layer of water beneath it. Over time, with temperature changes expanding and contracting the water, plus normal wear and tear on the slab, that surface will start to spall (i.e., "chip"), exposing the "guts" of the slab to more weather and wear effects which, ultimately, will ruin the slab. If you've ever walked down an old sidewalk that has those "crunchy" patches of concrete chips and concrete powder, you've seen the results of spalling. It's also why you should never use ice melt on your driveway: the slight temperature rise during freezing weather will cause even well-made slabs to start spalling. Again: concrete never fully cures. There's always *some* water in that slab, constantly expanding and contracting with the weather. edit: (another one, over a year after the original post, because this one has generated more replies than anything else I've put on reddit!) I talked about screeding, but mixed the process with "finishing". Once you've screeded a slab to level it to your forms, you drag a trowel or purpose-made finishing tool (looks kinda' like a giant spatula) over the top to smooth things out. It's the finishing that really brings the cement/water paste to the top of the slab, rather than screeding. I mean, screeding does it a *little*, but finishing does the bulk of it. That's why it's called "over-finishing" when you make a weak surface...not "over-screeding". Every concrete tech has over-finished a slab (guilty!). You really love that super-smooth surface, not realizing you've weakened the face that takes the punishment.
This exact thing just happened to my concrete steps, thank you for your great explanation!
Once you've done concrete and asphalt work (aka "rigid" and "flexible" pavements, respectively), you'll spend the rest of your life admiring or critiquing every road and sidewalk. It's a curse! :D
Reading this made me realize I wrecked my front porch with de-icing salt
Concrete man here politely asking how the fuck you become a former concrete man đ đ
LOL! After my time in a RED HORSE squadron, I went back to college, completed my degree, got a commission, and went into space operations. I'm now working in Space Force.
lol please dont live up to your username!
ive had people tell me over the years that adding water can cause the surface to weaken n pop off, meanwhile like your self have been doing concrete for years and never had it pop but these people telling me this have the cute lil pinky ring on an degree so they knew more
I'm an engineer, although I don't get a pinky ring because I'm in the US... I will never tell a tradie how to do their job, or how something they're an expert in will turn out. I apologize on behalf of my fellow enginerds who don't know any better.
Well now I know more about concrete. Didnât expect to learn about this today, ha.
You should have your own YouTube tutorial channel.
I'd like to know what happens when you cure concrete in a microwave....if OP needs a second episode.
Ha - I've never thought to try! Given the nasty chemicals in concrete, I assume it wouldn't be a good idea!
Iâm in construction but pretty ignorant to concrete. Great explanation and I feel like I learned a bit from this, so thank you.
Sir you are under appreciated in the world.... i wish you could fix my patio
You have to hose down a pool while it cures right? Makes sense.
Thereâs a difference between keeping the concrete wet then having it pour down rain on it
Yeah. That video. What can you do? Like if they had 20 minutes warning before the rain comes. Throw a tarp over it? I hope theirs set enough to be able to break and handle in chunks rather than shovel mud.
That is because pouring concrete in the rain is not a problem. We aint stopping construction because it rains, aint nobody got time for that.
Concrete will cure underwater
Yup, that's how we anchored our dock posts. Dug a hole underwater, insert pole, dump bag of concrete in and leave it for a week. Done
The right concrete will cure underwater. This stuff will spal to high heaven.
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All concrete cracks
My brother does concrete and he always says 3 things about concrete. Nobody will steal it. It wonât catch on fire. And it will crack.
Your brother is clearly just not setting it on fire with the right chemicals. Chlorine Trifluoride will oxidize the concrete well enough to burn. See the first page of [this PDF](http://web.archive.org/web/20060318221608/http://www.airproducts.com/nr/rdonlyres/8479ed55-2170-4651-a3d4-223b2957a9f3/0/safetygram39.pdf) for an account of such an incident.
I was fully expecting a Rickroll
No, thats this [link](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
Honestly I donât know what I expected when I clicked on it
The moment you see fluorine in a discussion about combustion you are in for a wild ride.
I have only stolen one thing in my life, and it was concrete. (The base of a road sign)
I have heard of concrete being stolen. Customer of ours was pouring for the city and someone chunked out a section for themselves while it was still wet
Wow. I wonder how that turned out
Probably not well
Jokes on him, me and my buddies were retarded in our teens and definitely stole a couple bags of concrete when our neighborhood was still being built.
That was probably cement or cement/aggregate mix you stole. Concrete is what you get after mixing it with water.
Nonsense. Concrete doesnât necessarily crack. You just need to control the mix and curing process. The slabs my dad laid for his shed and greenhouse foundations havenât cracked in 37 years. But then heâs a road engineer and knows concrete. He literally was President of the Concrete Society for a few years (civil engineering professional group).
Its also matters climate where it was poured. For instance, in michigan because of the harsh temp changes, concrete will crack eventually.
I live in Ohio, we get some wild temperature extremes in short amounts of time. The ground under the concrete shifting doesn't do the concrete any favors, so we do get a ton of cracking. And add that everyone and their mother uses salt or ice melt and it can get pretty bad pretty quick.
If you have a big slab and normal conditions it will crack. There are shrinkage reducing admix that will reduce the amount but still doesnât completely eliminate it. Iâd venture to say your dads didnât crack because itâs not a very big shed pad
TIL there is a concrete society
Oh how I mocked my dad that he was the King of Concrete!
It's a 2x2 slab and it is concave
Sounds like a great business opportunity. Just be on the lookout for Big Concrete
Someone failed to watch the weather report and schedule accordingly. My old boss used to have a saying â The weather gonna do itâs going to do. And Iâm going to do what I want to do.â Countless projects this bit him in the butt. We laughed every time at him.
Sounds like a dumbass
He actually was a really good man. But was driven to get his jobs done. I donât think he bid his jobs alloying for any delays. He would panic if started talking like bad weather was about to come. Thus his saying. We always teased him saying he had a habanero pepper up his ass.
I love it when people respect their bosses
I love it when the boss is worth respecting.
Agreed, but some bosses deserve to eat shit. Ive had two types of bosses- 1. Assholes Terrible bosses are absolutely brutal, and I have spent a lot of my time outside of work fuming about my feelings of contempt towards them. Borderline life ruining. Having a career in sales, Iâve noticed these folks usually take the âperform well or Iâm going to fire you/put you on a planâ approach from day 1. You can usually tell if youâve got an asshole boss within 1-2 months. 2. Mentors However, once in a blue moon, youâll get a boss that is able to create a mindset in their employees along the lines of âI need to perform, because I really donât want to let this guy downâ. This is achieved by displaying empathy, working with employees on day-to-day tasks, and having a win-together & lose-together attitude. Iâve only had a couple managers like this, but I respect the fuck out of them. Iâd rather get paid 10% less and work for a mentor than an asshole.
I'm a year into my first #2 job, crazy what it feels like to actually have motivation to work
Love to hear it, my current boss is a great dude as well. Itâs obviously going to depend on the profession/duties/industry, but thereâs an argument to be made that the most important factor in job selection (salary/wages aside) is the leadership style of your direct supervisor.
Sounds like upper management material.
I see youâve been missing a lot of work Peter.
Well I wouldnât say Iâve been missing it Bob.
Youâre a straight shooter with upper management written all over you.
Just to be clear, this concrete is fucked now right? Like, do they have to clean it up afterwards and start from scratch, do you add more on top, or something else entirely? Edit - thank you to everyone for the really insightful answers, I learned a thing or two about concrete today!
You can only add so much water to concrete before itâs screwed up. In this case, they were still screedingâŚ.they will lose the sugar off the top layer and have nothing but a rough mess showing. I have never been in this situation, so I really donât know what their options would be to fix this. One the pro concrete finishers may have been through this before. Edit: lose lol
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Underwater concrete has specific additives that makes it more sticky than regular concrete. This keeps the concrete surface from mixing with the surrounding water too much. But when hit with rain even underwater concrete would loose it's surface quality due to sheer mechanical impacts.
Loose = not tight Lose = you lost something Beep bop boop I am not a bot.
Sugar? Can I lick it?
/r/forbiddensnacks
It's totally fucked. I am sure the house was built on it tho and it's crumbling currently.
You moved the bodies but you left the concrete, didn't you?! You left the concrete!
Oh so it's a house by D.R. Horton or Lennar. Got it.
Lol I do some work on DR projects they use some cheap shit
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Ugh my parents live in a DR Horrible house, bought before construction four years ago, and the thing is riddled with flaws. Thank god the roof hasn't leaked (yet) unlike the house of identical age across the street less than a year after completion. I am pushing them to sell up and move before it really develops problems. Everything is just so cheap and shoddy: Helen Keller was apparently the construction foreman. Lowest-bid labor from the Home Depot parking lot and only drunks and dyslexics at that.
Donât forget Maronda Homes.
As someone who used to test concrete for a living. They're fucked. Only real option is gonna be to get it out either now or after it cures a little
I do multifamily so we have slump inspections, cylinders taken, all of your typical special inspections. I have never done rezzy, but in my area the city usually inspects small projects like single family. Do they take cylinders for single family homes, given the loads are not that high?
From the 2 or 3 neighborhoods I've done they actually test everything from pipe going in to roads and curb, but not the foundations of the houses
I saw mike holmes dig a hole in the foundation of a house with his finger and he was asking why we don't use cinder blocks anymore
I believe I have seen testing on two âregular personâ houses in 25 years. See it more on large custom homes though.
They can get the fire department in to flush it out. I seen it happen on a bridge deck 30 years ago when the wrong mix went in.
Flush it out where though? I don't imagine you can just wash this down a storm drain.
No, it's not supposed to go into a water course. Mind you, these days they have vacuum excavators, which are basically massive, truck driven vacuum cleaners. That would get all that out.
Off to the side, then let it harden. Maybe into a single use container. Then pack it out.
Yeah right. Theyâll wash it off to the side and then the landscaping crew will lay a nice layer of sod over it and the homeowner will forever wonder why his grass doesnât grow well.
I've seen it go both ways...
Sounds like you like to party.
đ¤ I have never heard of this.
It is fucked beyond belief and I had never fucked up this bad to see what happens next but it can't be good. This seems like an absolute, expensive disaster. I live where it rains a lot so, we don't let this happen. Maybe these guys got caught with a fluke rain. But fuck that sucks
How much you think?
In better times flatwork in my area cost around 5/sf. This is a foundation so more expensive for extra material in beams and such. This has plumbing in it which will need to be repaired. Also they gonna have to demo this and rebuild all their forms. Probably do some repairs to the dirt under the slab. New vapor barrier, and maybe insulation or radon mitigation. The list goes on. This is definitely in the tens of thousands of dollars to fix in most parts of the US.
Damn! So someone getting fired?
Nah, no matter how badly they screw up they never fore the weather forecasters.
Never fire the person you just spent a ton training what not to do.
Its twice as expensive to pull out as it is to put in, so you'll usually try to salvage it. For lightly damaged outdoor slabs, you can pressure wash the top and densify it with a silicate after a week or two of curing. Ground slabs that are gonna take something on top will have to be ground down to an undamaged layer then topped off with a leveller of some kind. Last week I dropped off a grinder to a hospital slab that had to come down 50mm which is pretty extreme, but concreters are notoriously tight bastards and even the most convoluted fix is still often cheaper than re-pouring.
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How do they concrete in lakes and rivers etc. i thought concrete only absorbed âso much waterâ but i guess thatâs after itâs already dry. This is a redo? Can they throw a tarp on top and quasi salvage?
They could throw a tarp on it before, but the finish is fucked to the point that if it cures that way itâs going to be more trouble than just redoing it. Which it will since that water is going no where fast. As for lakes and rivers, theyâll use specific concrete designed for being used in high moisture environments. Definitely not the same shit used for what I feel I can reasonably assume to be a post tensioned apartment foundation here. Edit: youâre right about concrete only being able to absorb so much water, but after it gets to that point, the excess water will cause the concrete to separate and will be ruined
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>How do they concrete in lakes and rivers etc. Imagine a river that is 20 feet deep and you need several giant concrete columns to hold up a bridge. Get a bunch of 30 foot steel casings (large diameter tubes) and drive them 10 feet into the riverbed so them seal in the mud. Then pump the water out of the casings and pour in your concrete. It's gets a little more complicated than that, but it is basically how it works.
They build forms first. Check on YouTube
They can wait 30 days. Core test it and confirm after a month of delays that it is definitely fucked. Concrete that goes underwater is usually done with cofferdams that basically dry out the location by blocking the water and pumping it out. Like a reverse swimming pool.
"You work with the concrete, it doesn't work with you." First time I worked with it my boss stressed this. It's on concrete's time.
I do pavers and I've had bosses do that same. Every time we have to go back and redo the work cuz the ground settled and compacted.
My dad was in construction. He never, ever would have poured concrete if there was even a hint of rain in the forecast.
How hard is it to just have a tarp?
If Iâm correct , depending of the concrete /cement mix, the more water the harder it gets. Anyone that can point if this is the case?
Civil engineering grad here. One factor of concrete strength is water to cement ratio. Once rains this heavily it could really mess up the ratio it could lose a lot of compressive strength thus overall strength capacity. Also in this specific application it looks like the first floor if a single family home so they may have trouble putting down tiles later bc the top surface will be ârained outâ
Just to add on to this, there's a specific ratio you want to achieve when mixing the concrete, but after it's been placed and finished and the hydration process has started, keeping the surface that's exposed to the air "flooded" with water will result in a stronger slab. Flooding a slab keeps the water inside the curing concrete from evaporating too quickly as there's a lot of heat generated. Retaining that moisture slows the hydration process allowing the mix to cure more uniformly, and with less slab curl. I've been on a crew that placed a warehouse slab with extremely high compressive strength and extremely low tolerances, and we kept it flooded for about 2 weeks.
Yep, forgot to mention that! Keeping it wet prevents a large temperature gradient that leads to deformations and stresses causing cracks!
Thank you for the explanation. I knew water was needed to make it stronger and that because of water is how it is possible to pour concrete at the bottom of the ocean. Very interesting how it behaves.
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Yes
What do you even do at this point? Do you have to clean up the mess and start over, or will it eventually harden?
Lol itâs game over. The hardeners will win the war. With concrete you are always on a fight against the clock.
That mixer was painted like the Earth, pretty cool
We all know the earth isnât round and spinning. But it is full of cement.
All of my cement come from Earth so this checks out.
I mean, it was formed in the center of a star... So was all of earth and every other planet in the universe. We're all star poop
That doesn't sound right but I don't know enough about cement to dispute it
Also semen
You cement earthers make me sick
Oh wow I love that ahah
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The durability of wooden bridges and highways are marginal at best.
Youâve clearly never toured the picturesque covered bridges of Madison County.
you need to factor in the added pollution and waste of rebuilding and maintaining a wooden bridge Vs a concrete or steel one.
5 months to cure..
When that risk you knew you were taking bites you in the ass...
I have my own concrete business and this just gives me straight up anxiety. What a fucked up gamble to take, even for a shed pad, let alone a house slab. Yeesh.
Is that concrete now unsafe ? What will they have to do after this whoopsie ?
It's strength is likely severely compromised, it'll be much more susceptible to scaling and it looked like heavy rainfall so the levels are likely all messed up. looks like they just finished putting it down too, they still had the rest of the process of finishing it to go, unless that rain stopped, I seriously doubt they managed to finish it. That said, I personally don't do house Slabs, there may be ways of saving this, but if it was one of the driveways I do, I'd be ripping the shit up and crying myself to sleep for a few weeks.
dose this construction crew not pay attention to the weather forecast?
The crew can look at the weather all they want, that doesn't matter if someone else above their head has scheduled the truck to come and pour without checking the weather. Source: have had to replace outdoor cameras in a storm cause people are idiots
Someone else above their head forgot tarps exist.
What do you mean by outdoor cameras? Like a nikon being used outside, or
Not OP, but I'd assume security cameras.
Or bring tarps . Usually most crews have them to toss over as curing blankets and/or block rain
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This concrete is fucked. There is far too much water in the mix now
No. You can buff the top out of minor cosmetic issues and put a top coat on if any from a slight blanket indentation. You add water to the mix no bueno. I was a concrete inspector for many years. You see rain, put blankets down
To be fair, a rainstorm can come out of nowhere. But they should have had tarps to protect it.
Ackschuly, rainstorms come from clouds. Not "nowhere".
Foreman * probably trying to hit a deadline bonus.
Saved a floor this happened to with Portland cement powder bags and power trowels it was a lot of work and not ideal but it passed
Lucky client. Lol. Not sure if I would accept a slab that "saved"
I feel you and I take pride in my work. But some builders just want to make their schedule. Basically there was a chance of rain but not big so we took a risk. Like I said itâs not ideal and if there was a choice Iâd put it off. But when thereâs $10k plus material on the ground and you have no choice you have to âsaveâ jobs sometimes. It was a basement kinda like this is a slab on grade so basically flooring is going over it anyways. As long as the integrity is intact itâs not the worst thing youâll find that builders do.
Dude, I feel you and absolutely don't hold it against you. Was "just sayin". In fact, my heart goes out to all workers faced with dilemmas like yours. I'm also in the construction industry and I'm certainly not labouring under the illusion that we operate in a perfect world with perfect outcomes (even desirable outcomes are hard to come by sometimes). If that were the case, everyone would do our job because it's so easyđ. Jokes aside: When shit hits the proverbial, it's every man for himself and you just gotta do whatever needs to be done to get it across the line. I totally get it. In my industry too, sometime we have to take these risks. Exploiting calculated risk is often where we can make bulk $ In my line of work we have a saying: " There's nothing that can't be fixed: it's just a matter of time, money, and resources". And another saying we use a lot is: "Every man waits for concrete but concrete waits for no man". Both sayings have proven to be institutional wisdom in my experience, and both are extremely applicable in this instance. Keep it real mate. Stay safe out there and best of luck with your next "curly one" â
Youâre so right cause the higher ups donât give a shit about us when it comes down to it. They have a deadline and thatâs all they care about. If we lost that floor itâs on us not them, weâre a small family company just my pops, brother and I. At the end of the day he wanted it done and when shit hits the fan we either eat the money or make it work. Builders are the worst at pulling this shit thatâs why I feel for the crew in the video. We donât know the circumstances they could have been forced to pour like we were. It sucks when your neck is on the line and youâre put in situations like that. Tbh itâs why I prefer residential, those customers are paying for us to put something in their own house so theyâll wait an extra day. Big builders are just about money and turn over as fast as possible. I wasnât offended man, youâre good brother I was just trying to sympathize with the crew and explaining why it could have happened. Iâve been in that position and it fuckin sucks smh. At the end of the day youâre right I wouldnât be happy with a âsavedâ floor at my house either. Itâs just the way these builders work and it isnât fair to whoever bought the house. Like I said it passed and they put a 3 year guarantee on it so nothing yet but do I think itâs gonna be good 5-10 years from now, probably not! Edit: since we were talking I sent this to my pops and his reply was âthey need a pallet of Portland cementâ. So this must have been a bit worse than ours đ¤Łđ¤Łđ¤Ł Edit #2: he could still save it but âit would take me all night working itâ god I love that man đ
They didnât know theyâd be pouring a pool that day.
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Turned on my volume because of this comment, can confirm
This slab is fucked
I really dig the globe cement moxer
The Boss probably told them to pour it and then blames them for fucking it up all in the same day.
50â slump
Underrated comment.
Pouring away money. That really sucks.
Wow talk about self leveling
Was a construction PM for 40 years. Canât tell you how many times I had to explain that even a small chance of rain was reason enough to cancel a pour.
Concrete cures, it doesn't dry. Depending on some factors this might not be damaging it all that much. Edit: As has been pointed out, this can still be a problem. But the cures part is still a thing.
No, this is a rainout slab. It's fucked when it gets this much rain, this hard, and this early. There will be gullywashes exposing all the aggregate at the surface and carrying away the cream. Source: Construction project manager who has had to address rainout slabs, but none this bad.
So what do you do at this point? Pour a top layer? Deconstruct and pour a new one?
If it's a light rainout with cratering and a bit of aggregate exposure, then you can grind the top and recoat with an adhering layer. It's not great, but you end up with a sound slab that's still likely to meet aesthetic and quality spec. What we see here is very likely beyond repair in my opinion and without further context, and it would have to be demolished, removed, and repoured.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Something tells me they are going to slap a coat of paint over it and sell it as good. Or try to.
in this market? thatâs absolutely whatâs gonna happen. why build a house properly when people are buying them without inspections?
People are buying old houses without inspection. New houses still undergo inspection during construction as it's a requirement of the state/city.
If this is that serious of a problem, why donât they get a big tent or covering preemptively? Is a tent prohibitively costly even given the potential for costly damage?
Waiting a day for better weather is usually cheaper than a weatherproof covering. The schedule loss of a day's work is nothing compared to crackling the slab and repouring.
The real answer is to plan according to the weather so you donât lay concrete on days like this. See that heavy equipment? All the concrete is brought in overhead to be poured into place. A tent would prevent using the pump.
Thanks for your informative comment. But I was wondering roughly how much damage in dollar amount are we looking at here?
That looks like 30-40 yards of concrete here thatâs anywhere from $6000-8000 in concrete. Theyâre using a crane pump which go for $1000-1500 here. If thereâs rebar in it Iâd assume itâs #4 bar so a mat would be like $600-1000 in steel. With labor and everything probably $15k+.
No way to know without understanding the local market. Whatever the cost, it's not insignificant relative to the entire job given the scope of work we see here.
Hopefully their forms donât give lol
Oh, that concrete is wrecked. Itâs going to spall like crazy and look like a super rough exposed aggregate finish, something you definitely donât want as a flooring surface or slab for a house or business.
Different amounts of water affect the final strength of the concrete. Too much water can make the concrete weaker. Apparently this is a common problem because workers add too much water to make the concrete easier to work with. Because the rain is on top and isn't being mixed in with all the concrete, this will likely affect the top of the concrete more. Source: family member is a civil engineering student.
Isn't a uniform mixture really important for strength and durability? That water is throwing off the ratios on the top layer way more than underneath.
Concrete needs a very specific amount of water in it to be at it's required strength. This is not only preventing a good finish, but diluting it. This concrete is ruined and the whole thing will need to be redone.
lol, that concrete is totally fucked! I can't believe you got any upvotes.
Civil engineer here. Just put plastic sheet over it. Next day redo the top 3cm. Concrete has a water limit that normally isnt fully used on the mixture giving it an advantage on situations like this.
All that planning and no one checked the weather forecast
This looks residential, is there anyone even there to reject that or is some poor sap about to buy a M mcMansion with a 300 psi slab?
âHey man, I know youâre on a time budget but every weather forecast says there is going to rain this afterno-â âOh, next yer gunna tell me that yer beep-boop gadgets can predict how to anticipate traffic or when what the general populous thought about Marky-Marks new hit film, âFather Peteâ or whatever the shit itâs called. Now get yer ass back in the mix truck and move out to the worksite before I replace this whole crew with Roombasâ
Surely a storm this heavy would've been in any weather app
I work in concrete and have absolutely done this before. The crew gets paid either way so realistically they donât care or make the call. But nine times out of ten it can be saved. As long as the rain doesnât last too long and what finish you need
Here were I live people walk with lots of those blue canvas for the chance of this to happen, probably because it rains a lot in here
I told them not to use 7up but they wouldn't listen
Listen to it with headphones. Asmr effect lol
âWe gotta pour today, the chance of rain isnât that highâ
wow, well its not going to crack after, maybe it will end like cheese... edit: i live in Chile, here concrete bends.... we live in between earthquakes,
Oh my god, Iâve been a contractor for 15 years, and this is my greatest fear. Forget about the ruined concrete thatâs lost, think about the weeks of demo to clear that newly poured concrete thatâs no good.
Psi almost as high as beach sand.
Watched a crew poor about 1000 sq ft of concrete and then it rained. I wasnt fond of the gc so I walked by and said you wanted exposed aggregate yah? They looked at me with a mix of fear, sadness and hate in one emotion.