Why does everyone ignore the water-cement ratio on small pours?

I was on a job last month in Austin and watched a crew dump extra water into the mix to make it easier to spread. They ended up with a slab that dusted after two weeks and had hairline cracks everywhere. The water-cement ratio is the single most important number in the mix design and guys treat it like a suggestion on small residential work. Am I the only one who checks the slump before letting it hit the forms?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayden_butler271mo agoTop Commenter

Dusting after two weeks is a dead giveaway they killed the mix with extra water.

abby_black4d ago

@the_margaret, I started bringing my own slump cone to small jobs and it saved me every time.

the_margaret1mo ago

Learned that the hard way after my driveway looked like a moonscape inside six months.