oliviagrant•3mo agoProlific Poster

Chatted with a concrete guy named Gary who totally changed my pour strategy

I was talking to Gary over at Sherwood Park Concrete last week about a small patio slab I messed up. He mentioned that he always wets the subgrade the night before a pour, even in summer, to stop the base from sucking moisture out too fast. I never thought about that before, but it makes sense with our clay soil here. Has anyone else tried pre-wetting their base or do you just go for it dry?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettyfox3mo ago

Yeah that reminds me of when my neighbor tried pouring a walkway without wetting the base and it cracked in a week. Gary sounds like he knows his stuff.

amy_foster792mo ago

My father in law did the same thing with his garage slab. Bone dry ground, hot July sun. Cracks showed up before the concrete even set all the way. It's like people think concrete is magic or something. You can't skip the prep work and expect it to hold up. That's the thing with most stuff in life honestly. People want the quick fix but don't want to do the boring groundwork first.

gavin_kelly913mo ago

Wait, you never wet the base before? Man that's like concrete 101 around here. Learned that lesson the hard way myself. Poured a big slab for a shed a few years back. Dry soil. Hot day. Cracked like a puzzle before it even fully cured. Had to rip the whole thing out and start over. Expensive mistake. Now I always hose it down good a few hours before. Even better if you can do it the night before like Gary says. Helps the concrete bond instead of the dirt just sucking all the water out. Clay soils especially need it. They're greedy with moisture.