When Concrete is too Wet

What should you do when a load of concrete arrives on your jobsite and it is too wet? One easy answer is to say, “When in doubt, throw it out.” But this kind of a decision is worth some thought. If you reject a load, it will take some time before another one arrives to your jobsite and in the meantime you are paying for nonproductive labor. If you are on a commercial or public project where samples are tested for strength and other characteristics by a testing company employed by the owner, the choice might be very easy—others will reject the load. But if you are on a residential project where no one will know, what do you do? And if you are a decorative concrete contractor, how will concrete with excessive slump affect your work?

Concrete basics

When there is too much water in the concrete, there is greater shrinkage with the possibility for more cracks and reduced compressive strength. As a general rule, every additional inch of slump decreases strength by approximately 500 psi. So for example, if you ordered 5-inch slump concrete and received 7½ inches, a mix designed to be 4000 psi would end up being 2500 psi. This represents a serious loss in strength, especially if you were placing exterior concrete in a freeze/thaw climate where the standard requirement is 4000 psi for proper durability.

Decorative Concrete

Joe Nasvik

In this issue, there is an article about polished concrete that is meant to update you on the changes to this industry since the first article on the subject was published five years ago. There have been several improvements over the past few years including enhanced tools, diamond pads that actually do the cutting, and an understanding of how to make the process work the best.

Joe Smith is quoted in the brief decorative polishing section of the article. In my talk with him, he mentioned that his primary business was installing in place high-precision polished stone—an industry very different than concrete work. He admitted not knowing much about concrete when he was invited to install his first polished floor and realized that this wasn't a good position for him to be in. So he subscribed to Concrete Construction magazine as one of the sources he could turn to for help in learning about concrete, even though most of what is written in these pages doesn't directly apply to him. But he says the broad understanding of technical issues concerning concrete helps him understand more about this new branch of his business and avoid costly mistakes.

There are many of you decorative contractors out there who come from other disciplines. One of our Artistry in Decorative presenters, for example, detailed cars and applied some of that knowledge to decorative work. Some decorative contractors may think they don't need to know anything more than how to apply their particular decorative technique, so what lies below their creative expression is of no particular concern to them. But I think Joe Smith has the right idea. Understanding technical information about concrete can help you solve problems before they become problems. Hopefully the technical information we present in our pages helps you install better work at the best possible profit margin.

— Joe Nasvik, Senior Editor

As you increase the amount of water in a mix, you also increase the porosity of the hardened concrete. Many more canals are formed as water migrates to the top of a slab. The porous surface of the slab reflects light differently and if you are placing integrally colored concrete or applying a chemically stained finish, the results will be different than expected. Increased porosity also results in more efflorescence, causing the color of the surface to be less intense or whitish.

Excessive slump also can result from accidentally adding too much water-reducing admixtures or super-plasticizers to a mix. This can result in aggregate segregation and a serious loss of strength. There is no question about rejecting this concrete. But if the overdosed admixture isn't high enough to cause segregation, the concrete will eventually set and achieve a higher than expected compressive strength.

Weighing options and making decisions

Your first impulse is probably to place the concrete anyway. This option gets the best productivity from labor and doesn't strain relations with your ready-mix producer. The risk, however, is that work can both look and be compromised, and the resulting lower durability might force you to remove and replace at some point in the future.

Another solution is to send the load back to the plant and add more portland cement to “dry it up.” Sometimes more aggregate is added as well. But there is unpredictable chemistry between concrete that is starting to hydrate and newly added material. One outcome is that the concrete passes through the initial set phase very quickly, reducing the time you have to complete your work. If you are stamping patterns in concrete, you may not be able to finish your decorative applications.

If one load of concrete is too wet in a sequence of loads, you should reject that load because the results will be significantly different from the others.

If there is more than one load involved in a placement, another option is to spread the load low, placing concrete with the proper slump on top of it. This can work if the concrete still has structural integrity.

Your decision about whether to accept or reject concrete also will depend on just how wet the mix is. Many specifications permit slump variances of 1 inch. If the slump exceeds 1½ inches from what was ordered, reject it.