umam95•5mo ago

The Job in Phoenix That Made Me Switch to Power Trowels

I was on a big warehouse slab in Phoenix back in 2018, about 50,000 square feet of concrete. We were using hand trowels like always, and the heat was drying that mix fast. By the third hour my crew was falling behind and the surface was starting to set up uneven on us. Has anyone else had to switch methods on the fly because of the weather?

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3 Comments

burns.fiona3mo ago

@john_singh you got a point but power trowels saved us that day fair and square.

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john_singh5mo ago

You ever read that article about how Arizona concrete sets 40% faster in the summer? I caught it in some trade magazine last year and it made me think of stories like yours. That Phoenix heat is no joke, it just sucks the moisture right out of the mix before you can even get a good finish. Hand troweling in those conditions sounds like a nightmare, your crew was probably fighting a losing battle from the start. I heard some guys out there are using accelerators in the winter and retarders in the summer to balance it out, but that takes planning ahead. Sounds like you made the right call switching to power trowels, sometimes you just gotta adapt to survive.

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tyler4925mo ago

Wait, 40 percent faster? That's insane. I knew the heat was bad but I didn't realize it was that extreme. You're telling me the crew's basically racing against the clock every single pour out there? No wonder guys out there are running retarders in July.

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