When To Start Finishing Concrete After Pouring (Troweling & Broom Finishes)

hey guys mike here so today we've got this house swab we're doing on a 35 yard slab concrete mix it up right now it's about seven in the morning we're gonna talk about when you start finishing concrete today so we'll keep track of the time after we get it poured and then we'll talk about you know when's the best time to start we got two finishes going on we got a power trowel finish back here and then up front on this piece this is a broom finish so we got two different finishes going on so that should help you out trying to figure out when to start [Applause] finishing [Applause] [Applause] oh [Applause] so [Music] all right so we got it all poured as you can see concrete drive is just washing out it's about 8 30 right now 8 30 in the morning as you can see if you can if you can see this right here look see how wet that is all right as you can see that's a little too wet to start finishing see that see look if i push my finger down i can push my finger right down in there so again we just got done pouring so we got to let this thing dry up a little bit before we start putting a finish on it i'll fix that right there we gotta let some of this bleed water dry up can you see the bleed water on there so what happens is once we get the the concrete excreted and both loaded the aggregate the stone and the concrete starts to settle a little bit when it settles it pushes that mixing water up to the surface so that's what that's what that bleed water comes from is that mixing water getting pushed up to the surface just from gravity the gravity of the the aggregate sinking in the in the concrete and that's pretty normal so we'll give this we'll give it about 30 minutes then we'll come back and check it and we'll see how it's how it's firming up from there okay so it's about 9 15 now it's been 45 minutes since we checked it the last time i can tell just by looking at it it's not ready there's there's still a lot of bleed water on it we got to wait for that bleed water to dry out before we start finishing we don't want to finish the bleed water into the surface of the concrete because it'll weaken the surface of the concrete and we'll end up with uh you know a bunch of cracks that we don't want so we got to wait for that bleed water to dry up if we have to sometimes we have to squeegee the water off to get rid of it but we're hoping it's gonna dry up today but we can check it again real quick by sticking our fingers in it so let's take a look see that so it's still really really soft so it's nowhere near ready nowhere's near ready to stop finishing so it's been 45 minutes since we got done pouring we'll give it we'll give it another 30 to 45 minutes we'll come back check it again so i can let you guys know just how it's finishing it's about 70 75 degrees here today it's uh i mean it's pretty nice day out so this is pretty typical for concrete drying and again the the concrete trucks had an hour to drive before they got it this much so they were batched out at six we started pouring around seven we got done pouring about 8 30 and it's about 9 15 right now so we'll check in again in about 30 to 45 minutes all right so it's 10 o'clock it's been 45 minutes since we checked it last time i can see there's still a little bit of bleed water on it but it is drying up some of the spots are drying up a little bit more but let's take a look and see just how hard the surface is actually getting see that so i can still press my finger down i don't know about a half an inch or so but not down as far as i could last time so it is getting firmer but we still got some time before we need to start finishing this thing so we'll give it give it another 30 minutes and we'll see how it feels then so it's 10 20 right now it's just about two hours after we got done pouring we got done pouring at 8 30 and we're just starting the finishing process and really the only thing we're doing is just mag magging some edges it's still a little too too wet on the surface most of the bleed water is drying up but it's still leaving it a little bit slimy on top but we can start magging the edges at least just to help flatten them out and fill in anything so but before we get on it we're gonna have to let it dry up a little bit all more so it's 10 30 it's two hours exactly two hours after we got done pouring and we're just starting the finishing process so you can see we're putting an edge on this front piece this front piece you can see if you see that string right there so this front piece slopes an inch and a half this way and that's that's like a that's like a covered patio area screened in patio air so that's really not part of the house the house goes from the string over so that part will be built this part will be just like a screened in porch gonna have a broom finish that's gonna have a power trowel finish so the finishing process is just starting here we are two hours after the pour let's see if i press my fingers in there now i'm only going down about a quarter to three eighths so we're getting real close two hours after the floor when we're gonna start finishing what i'm gonna do with this part here is i'm gonna get on it with my skids and i'm gonna mag it out real nice and then we're gonna put a broom finish on it hey guys if you want more detailed finishing learning how to finish concrete and the complete finishing process for this house lab and this boom finished patio then check out my link to the concrete underground below just click the show more tab in the description below and then click on the concrete link to the concrete underground and you'll see more information down there guys thanks but we got the we got the patio here all magged out first we're going to give it about five minutes and we're gonna mag it again just so it gets a little bit firmer and it gets a little bit finer broom finish on it and then we'll pull the broom across it and then that piece will be done and all we got to worry about is just finishing the house it was about 10 45 you can see luke's walking on it now so two hours 15 minutes after we got done pouring just firm enough to walk on he's you know he's sinking in about an eighth of an inch roughly that's just about where you want it when you start floating it so we get the power trowel hanging right there ready to go and we're going to get on this pretty soon he's just magging out his edges we're using the mbw trout today we got our float blades on it you can see these blades right here we slide them we slide them on over the finish blades these are the finish blades right here these are the float blades so we're to hit it with the float blades first then we'll kick those float blades off then we'll use the finish blades for all the other passes after that all right so it's 11 o'clock two and a half hours exactly two and a half hours after we get done pouring is when we're first starting the power trowel so it's just firm enough to start the power trowel that gives you an idea it's about 75 degrees out now sunny pretty warm day out we used a 4000 psi concrete today for this slab started pouring at seven in the morning got done about eight thirty and now it's about eleven o'clock and we're just starting a power trial you can see luke's on the lay down blades now so he he got it all floated and then it's drying so fast he kicked the blow blades off and he went right to lay down so this thing's now that it's starting to dry it's drying really really fast so you got to stay right on it okay it's now 12 o'clock it's noon time do you remember he got on this started power trown at about 11 o'clock this is the fourth time he's gone over it and it's just about done it's what we call right over here we call that kind of black and shining out that's done so he's got just a couple other areas he might have to hit again for a fifth time real quick but it's pretty much done so we got done remember we got done pouring the slab at 8 30. we started finishing right around 10 30 by hand a little bit got this broom finish thing done and we didn't put the power trowel on it till about 11 o'clock and at 12 o'clock in one hour it's all done it's all power trial so it dries once it starts drying it goes really fast so you really got to know what you're doing you got to be prepared that's where experience comes in but hopefully this video will help you out a little bit with the timing teach you a little bit about how fast this stuff dries when to start all right so it's 12 40. if you remember we started power troweling at 11 o'clock we got done pouring the concrete at 8 30. so about four hours later here we're starting it that's how fast this stuff dries in the summer so you know if you're thinking of doing this yourself you got to really be prepared you got to know what you're doing and we always saw our expansion joints in the same day that's why we got that saw that's a special saw for doing it green you can saw him in the next day you know i'd do it early the next morning if i was selling them the next day but we have that soft cut saw we do we saw them in the same day that's why we have the saw but it's hard enough to saw you can see we got all the forms stripped off already this has styrofoam all the way around it and under it so by the time from the time we got done pouring 8 30 until we're tons and so on it was only about four hours that's how fast this stuff dries hey guys again so if you want to learn how to finish concrete like we do then come join me in the concrete undergrounds my private training site membership site where i coach you on how to how to finish concrete how to pour concrete and how to run a concrete business click the show more tab below the video then click on the link to the concrete underground and i'll see you in there thanks

Channel: Mike Day Concrete

Views: 174,764

Keywords: finishing concrete, how to finish concrete, concrete finishing tips and tricks, broom finish concrete, concrete finishing techniques, finishing concrete slab, concrete, how to concrete, when to start finishing concrete, concrete finishing machine, concrete finishing tools, diy concrete, how to pour concrete, concrete skills, concrete tools, how to pour a concrete slab, how to pour a concrete floor, how to pour a concrete patio, edging concrete, mag float concrete

Id: s1u30qLejdA

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020