I finally stopped listening to that old-timer about curing time

Met a guy named Ray on a job in Tulsa back in 2017. He told me to wet cure for 14 days minimum or the slab would dust forever. I followed his advice for years. But then I did a 3000 square foot warehouse floor with a curing compound instead. Three years later, zero dust issues. Ray was wrong. Has anyone else dumped old rules that turned out to be nonsense?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_allen481d agoMost Upvoted

That "or the slab would dust forever" line hit me. Here's something nobody talks about though. Ray was probably right about wet curing being better but he was wrong about the timeframe. It depends on your mix design not some magic number. High water-cement ratio slabs do dust if you don't wet cure them long enough. Low w/c mixes with proper admixtures can get away with almost anything. Ray was using rules from a time when concrete was different.

abby_scott1d ago

Precisely, @gavin_allen48. The real wildcard nobody mentions is the aggregate. If you're using really porous stone it can suck the moisture right out of the curing surface and cause dusting on any mix. Nobody ever tests their rock before they pour.