Had to eat crow on a slab pour last week

I always argued against using admixtures for cold weather pours. Said it was a waste of money. Then we had a 40-yard pour at a site near Milwaukee in late November and the temp dropped faster than forecast. Took us 3 extra days to get the forms off because the concrete just wouldn't set. Definitely cost us more in labor than the admixture would have run. Anyone else learned this lesson the hard way?

2 comments

2 Comments

carr.blake4d ago

Double down on that lesson with a set of accelerator packets in your truck for the rest of winter. They're cheap insurance compared to burning a weekend waiting on cold concrete to gain strength.

brian_coleman1d ago

Haha man that's a rough one! I was just reading in some trade magazine how those accelerators can cut cure time by like 40% in cold temps, but I always figured it was just snake oil for salesmen. Seeing your story though, yeah I'm totally grabbing a bucket of that stuff for the truck this weekend. Better to spend a couple hundred bucks on chemicals than lose a whole weekend staring at wet concrete, lol.