The hotel driveway pour that went sideways last Tuesday

I got called out to a hotel near the airport last week to fix a section of their driveway that was only 3 months old. The original crew did the pour when the temp dropped to 38 degrees that night, and nobody covered it. The surface is already spalling bad, like chunks coming off in your hand bad. They're gonna have to rip out a 20 by 30 foot section and start over, which is going to cost them probably $4,000 more than if they just did it right the first time. Has anyone else dealt with a client trying to skip the cold weather precautions and blaming the finisher later?

3 comments

3 Comments

wells.christopher9d ago

Oh man I feel this so hard. I had a similar mess last fall with a parking lot extension for a small strip mall. The owner wanted to pour late October even after I told him the forecast had lows in the mid 30s. He said "just add more accelerator and it'll be fine." I pushed back hard and he finally agreed to covers and heaters but then didn't want to pay for the extra labor. We did it anyway and that section is the only part of that lot that has zero issues a year later. But I've seen other crews just go ahead and pour without the cold weather stuff and the customer always blames the finisher when it flakes apart. You're dead right that they're going to spend way more tearing it out and redoing it than if they just did the extra work upfront. It's the same story every time.

the_eric9d ago

Honestly I used to think cold weather concrete was overhyped, like yeah it's cold but how bad could it really be. But watching a buddy's driveway pour disintegrate after one winter changed my mind completely. Now I'm the guy nagging everyone about blankets and accelerators even if it costs more upfront.

henryt189d ago

Call me crazy but sometimes I think rushing the pour can work out fine if you know what you're doing, and the client just gets spooked when they see a little surface wear that's actually cosmetic not structural. @wells.christopher makes a good point about the covers and heaters but that extra labor cost adds up fast and small crews like mine can't always eat it. Maybe the real problem here is nobody telling the hotel upfront that cold weather concrete comes with tradeoffs and a higher price tag.