Curing Concrete 1

[jike]

Concrete specs normally call for maintaining the concrete in a damp condition for 5 days at 70 degrees or 7 days at 50 degrees F. I believe that this is for 28 day concrete.

If I want to use say 3000 psi at 5 days, how should the above requirement be changed?

 

[Ron]

jike....typical for wet cure is 7 to 14 days. If you want to achieve 3000 psi in 5 days, I would continue to wet cure as with conventional concrete strength. One reason for wet curing is to mitigate early drying shrinkage and the ensuing cracks. There's enough water in the concrete to hydrate, but the wet curing will provide more uniform curing, top to bottom, and help mitigate curling, crazing, and excessive drying shrinkage.