What to Expect While New Concrete Cures

Summary:

Cesar draws a distinction homeowners often miss: concrete being hard and concrete being cured are two different things. It hardens quickly and keeps gaining strength well beyond that point, with most of the gain occurring early. ACR gives every homeowner a timeline at completion, adjusted for the specific job and the weather that week. Foot traffic is permitted first, with vehicle traffic considerably later, and he notes that the gap between the two is larger than most people expect because a vehicle is a fundamentally different load than a person. He also covers what to avoid early on: heavy trailers, dragging objects across the surface, staining materials, and letting the slab dry out too quickly.

Answer:

The thing people need to understand is that concrete being hard and concrete being cured are two different things. It gets hard pretty fast. It keeps getting stronger for a long time after that, and most of that strength comes on in the early stretch. So we give every homeowner a timeline when we finish, and it's a little different depending on the job and on what the weather is doing that week. Walking on it comes first. Driving on it is later, and that gap is bigger than people expect, because a vehicle is a completely different load than a person walking. The other thing is what not to do early on. Don't park a heavy trailer on it. Don't drag things across the surface. Don't put anything on it that's going to sit there and stain it. And don't let it dry out too fast in the sun. If we tell you to keep water on it, that's not us being difficult, that's the concrete needing it to cure right.