Concrete Deck Question

[geomarq]

The guy doing my stamping job stopped by last night to go over this weekends' pour. Had some concerns, looking for some opinions.

I've done all the prep work (8" compacted base, forms, permit, etc.), he's doing the pour and stamping with his crew, and I'm doing the cleanup, saw cuts and sealing.

He's telling me:
- no control joints during the pour (I wanted clean saw cut lines as it's a seamless stamp pattern)
- to let the concrete setup with the release powder left on for a few days (will protect finish as there's a lot of leaves still blowing around and it will help the curing process)
- on the fourth day or so, carefully wash off the release powder, then make my saw/control cuts
- he's saying it will crack regardless if the cuts are put in the next day (as I believe is normal) or 3-4 days later

Any thoughts on this?

 

[bobby1017]

When they did my deck they poured on Thursday, sawed the reliefs on Friday & power washed the deck, sealed on Monday.

 

[geomarq]

He suggested a roughly 30 day wait before sealing to avoid a white haze from forming. Did you expereince this?

 

[bobby1017]

I dont see any but if the concrete color was darker maybee you would. One guy was spraying the sealer and another was using a leaf blower to "even" it I guess.

 

[Lershac]

In my experience, contractors who overly complicate things are looking for an "out" for the possibility of thing not turning out exactly the way the customer wants.

 

[JasonLion]

Often builders develop a routine, some of which has reasons and some of which is just habit. Or perhaps they do things a specific way because of a single problem in the past that they never completely understood, but simply learned to avoid by making some only partially related change in their routine. They then often forget which things are really important and which aren't. They just know that if they do it this way, everything is good.

My policy is to not mess with that kind of knowledge. If you get them out of their routine things often go wrong.

 

[mart242]

What do you seal it with? Doesn't it become slippery?