TIL a guy at the supply yard told me I was wasting money on expensive curing compounds

I was picking up rebar at the local yard in Phoenix last Wednesday and overheard this old finisher talking to the clerk. He said he's been using the same cheap wax-based compound for 15 years and never gets cracks, while I've been dropping $40 a gallon on the fancy stuff. I asked him about it and he showed me his trick: he sprays it on heavier and then wets it down twice a day for the first week instead of just once. I tried it on a 30-yard driveway last Friday and so far so good, no checking at all. Made me wonder how many other expensive products I'm using that have a simple workaround. Has anyone else found a cheaper alternative that works just as good for finishing?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnb9518d agoMost Upvoted

The old guy's trick sounds like it works, but how do you know it's the compound and not the extra watering? Maybe the expensive stuff would hold up even better if you doubled down on watering too. Seems like you're only testing one variable here. Did you bother to run a side by side comparison on two small test slabs before you did a whole 30 yard driveway? That's the only way to really know if the cheap stuff is just as good or if you're just getting lucky so far. I'd be watching that driveway like a hawk come summer when the real heat hits Phoenix.

caseyl1818d ago

Figured this out a while back with lawn fertilizer believe it or not. The expensive brand at the big box store isn't any better than the cheap stuff at the feed store if you know how to water it in right. Same thing with car wax, the $5 can works just as good if you take the time to apply it right and buff it off. Seems like half the time we pay more for the name and the instructions on the bottle rather than the actual product quality. Your mileage may vary depending on your climate but I've found a lot of these finishing tricks are just handed down from guys who learned decades ago. The real secret is usually just patience and paying attention to the details.