Placing, finishing, and curing
Planning can help tremendously when doing concrete work. Prepare the surface you are going to cover with concrete, have the forms in place, and have tools ready to use near you. Having extra people help you can make the process go quicker as well. Have the ready-mixed concrete loaded directly into the forms. Try to always place concrete as close to its final destination. Start by placing concrete in piles that are touching; never pour the piles separately and rake them together. Don’t pour concrete on frozen or muddy surfaces and dampen the ground if it is too dry so it does not soak up the concrete’s water. Use a square shovel to move around and spread concrete. Don’t use gardening tools such as hoes or rakes because they will separate the aggregates from the mix. Always concrete work by placing it in a corner.
Work after placing concrete
After pouring concrete, the materials will slowly sink to the bottom. This forces water to come up to the surface of the concrete. If any work is done to the concrete while the water hasn’t evaporated, dusting and scaling can occur. You can prevent this by doing all of the striking off, bull-floating, and placing before the water comes up to the surface. After all of the water has evaporated, edging, jointing, floating, and troweling must be done.
Striking off the concrete will bring the surface of the concrete to the correct height. Put the board across the form edges and move back and forth to level out the concrete.
Right after striking off the concrete, use a bull float to fill spaces that the board couldn’t get to. This will also embed the coarse aggregate below the surface slightly.
Finishing concrete
Finishing will have to wait until the water layer evaporates and the concrete is stiffened. The waiting period is crucial to get concrete with durable surfaces. On hot, windy days, this process can take a short amount of time, while on cool, dry days, the waiting period can be several hours. If you used an air-entraining agent in the concrete then the period could be extremely fast or there might be no wait at all. After waiting you will have to edge, joint, float, trowel, broom, and curd the concrete to completely finish.
Information sponsored by M3 Industries of St. George, UT.