With so few days each year at or below freezing, concrete suppliers, vendors and contractors lack the necessary preparations to manufacture, handle and place concrete effectively in cold weather. According to Senior Project Manager Sam Ibrahim, the cold creates many challenges for concrete subcontractors in Central Texas. There are additional steps that must be taken to ensure proper concrete placement and strength achievement. In fact, if the temperature is close to freezing, most, if not all ready-mix suppliers will close operations to protect their plants and avoid damage to their piping system and equipment.
If concrete is available, placing it is only advisable if the temperature is 40 degrees and rising. The first 24 hours of concrete placement is the most critical when it comes to concrete strength. Taking the risk of placing in cold weather, without taking extra measures could result in the concrete not setting (the concrete won’t harden), not making strength, crusting and/or delaying. Some of the measures used in our trade are using hot water in the mix to warm up the concrete, protecting the placed concrete from the weather with blankets and heating the decks from below. In the past we have tented the deck on elevated jobs to heat them, so we can pour in the morning.
Brandon Del Frate, graduate of the Texas State Concrete Industry Management Program and Estimator for BCS, admixtures can be used to increase resistance to cold weather during placement. We try to avoid placing concrete in cold weather due to the risk, however, sometimes schedules demand placement in less than perfect conditions.
The storage of concrete samples (cylinders) is critical during cold weather placement because the weather affects smaller samplers more than the actual concrete placed. Protecting samples from the cold may cause inaccurate testing results. We supply X curing boxes for our samples to ensure to maintain constant temperature for samples.
We don’t face this challenge often, but BCS is ready to assist our clients with our ACI certified team to take appropriate measures to mitigate risk and stay on schedule in spite of cold weather challenges.
To see our past concrete work, visit our portfolio and get a quote from us today.