water down concrete for 28 days?

[Cory Lechner]

We just had our concrete driveway replaced (416 sq. ft in total) with new concrete (on Monday - a scorcher of a day). The concrete guy said that concrete needs 28 days to cure completely, and the best curing conditions is

100% humidity (which he says "that's under water"!!!). He says that I need to keep the pad wet for 28 days. I've been watering it down at least five times a day since Monday.

1) Is this really necessary?

2) Is this possible to keep it wet for 28 days??

3) In the August heat wave we have right now, the temperatures are reaching

35-36 degrees Celsius (hot for Saskatchewan, Canada), it is hard to keep up - the concrete's surface dries up so fast. It seems like a big waste of precious water (yikes - our water bill!)!!!

4) any other comments / advice?

Cory Regina, Saskatchewan

[Yaofeng]

Cover the driveway with plastic sheets. Run tap water under the sheets so you only need to replenish one or two times a day. If you can, do it for 28 days. That's how long it takes to reach its full strength.

Yaofeng

[Cory Lechner]

sounds like a good idea... how do you get a uniform coverage of water once the plastic sheets are on the concrete?

Cory

[Liam McGowan]

You may not. You worry too much.. Put sandbags around the perimeter and flood the damn thing.

-- A: Because it disturbs the logical flow of the message. Q: Why is top posting frowned upon?

[mark Ransley]

did he break in expansion joints? Wet means not dry, or just mild sprinkling, not flooding, but watering mildly will help,

[Blake]

[jim]

they were doing alot building in the area that i am in now.. some/not all the concrete slabs for the houses had mud dams all around the slab and visquine over the cement and about 6 inches of water on the plastic to hold it in place..... the concrete could not loose much moisture with this setup.... it was done by the owner/builders to make sure the concrete set up strong.....