Slab Sheild Pour

J Matthers

Dust uh, The slab is rough in some areas as well. Acceptable, but not just what we were looking for. What is the fix? Leveling cement?...2" pour on the top? Lots of room with 9' foundation walls. Who eats the cost? Concrete guy will complain he had to work with something he was not comfortable with. Live and learn I guess. Next time we will make sure he has the Whirlybird on hand and the mix is low moisture.

J Matthers

Pour a floor yesterday over slab Sheild and the concreat guy was not happy. The Slab Sheild prevented any moisture from being drawn downward. I don't really understand the normal curing process but he said the excess moisture will cause the slab to cure too quickly as the water comes to the top? Anyway, he had to power trowl the floor for 5 hours to get a good finish. He noted that when he does slabs using poly and blue board this doesn't happen. I asked why wouldn't it be the same? The poly blocks the downward migration of water just like the Slab shield. He didn't know, just said he never had this problem with blue board. Interestingly, my fireplace mason knew exactly what was going to happen. guess I'll use him next time.

Has anyone run into this befor?

heatboy

Just the opposite......

The guys that just poured the one I did loved Slab Shield. You are right insaying there would me no difference if the slab is covered in 6 mil. Some guys just don't like anything new, I guess. Perhaps the high humidity of late had more of an effect on cure rates than anything else.;) How did the staples work for you?

hb

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J Matthers

You know, the warm temps and high humidity may be a factor. The turf staples didn't work as well as I would have liked. In areas where the subsoil (all hard pack dirty sand) was still firm they held well. In other areas they pulled. I suppose that agrivated the situation some. No question that you need the WWM with the Slab Shield.

Mike Kraft

Re:Crete and slab shield

I had no complaints either.Like heatboy said......some fellers aint happy unless they aint happy:)The mesh as I saw it was a must.To bad the staples didnt work.Thanks for letting us know though.The Watts cable tie tool is a time saver for securing the tubing down to the wire.Perhaps a solution to bending and kneeling.

cheese

PS.......Is the J. for Jerry?That would make you Jerry Matthers as "The Beaver"

J Matthers

J is for Jim...although the beav has been ever present in my life!

marc

concrete curing

the reason the cement finisher does not like any type of barrier is because all the water comes to the top, like you stated, and the slab actually starts to harden before the water is gone. makes it very difficult for cement finisher to turn out a nice slab. one thing for sure is that the homeowner/builder will be disapointed at quality of slab. i have seen some really ugly slabs. the way to approach this is to reccomend to builder to apply 2 in. or more of sand on top of foam. to allow for proper hydration of slab. remember it will be your fault ( your foam forced water up) atleast if you spec. out the sand you cover your butt.

Unknown

water to the surface

Jim, you can expect a lot of cement dust with traffic on that slab. For quite some time.
AL

heatboy

I don't buy it.

Vapor barriers are the norm, so that argument won't hold water (g). It sounds like too much water in the mix and they are trying to blame the Slab Shield for issues they created.

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heatboy

I stand corrected (?)

This is from concretenetwork.com. It says while a vapor barrier may cause cracking due to excessive moisture, the excessive moisture can only come from a bad mix. If the concrete guys know what they are doing and do their job correctly, it seems, too me, this should be a non-issue.

hb

http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/concrete_cracks/plastic_cracking.htm

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Mike Kraft

Jim

IMO stick to your guns!Don't cave.A vapor barrior is a code required material in any pour.Sheild is as we know both insulator and vapor barrier.I have seen masons tear holes in viscaline(sp) paper to allow the water a place to run to.Was the mix very wet?Did you get any pics?Perhaps the mason needed to spend more time instead of rushing the finish.That (IMO) is his profession.Just because he sees some new fangled material it presents him with a problem.Sorry that you're going through the stress.

cheese

kevin_5

slabshield and staples

We just laid out a 21,000 square foot shop. We used all the slab shield we could get our hands on, and the remainder is r-foil.
It was my first time to use the Wirsbo barbed plastic staples instead of wiremesh and ties. Thoughts of the staples not holding, or the incessant Nebraska wind getting under the insulation and sending the whole mess to South Dakota or Kansas were
great for my prayer life. "Oh God pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease..."

We put sand on the edge of the insulation by the forms to keep it down, and laid rebar on the leading edge until we got another pass of insulation and taped the seam together. Then we would move the rebar to the next edge and sand the seam we just taped. I'll post photos in the future to better illustrate.
Over four days, the wind progressively got worse, but by the time we were done, I had quit worrying about everything flying away. A popular Christian song says,"...sometimes He calms the storm, and other times He calms his child..."
If any of you guys are skeptical of how it will work, take my word for it. It's scary the first time if you're used to mesh and ties, but it works well, and your back will thank you!

The staples don't look like much, but they are great. I'll never go back to wire ties. Two of us laid out 1000 linear feet per hour, which is much better than we can do with the wire ties. The only trouble was if there was concrete underneath,(next to footings)the staples didn't want to penetrate, but you could angle the staple, and finish poking it through by hand. The slab shield seems to be a little more substantial product for holding the staples, but the r-foil was just fine as well.
Our concrete guy had no problem at all with the finish. It was pretty hot out, but he had an 8 foot riding power trowel. They poured roughly 7000square feet a day,and would be off the slab by about 1:30 in the afternoon. I don't mind saying that I'm a small town guy, and had never seen such a contraption. It looked like a cross between a hover craft and a helicopter moving around out there!
Thanks for all YOU do Mr.H!
Sincerely,
Kevin O. Pulver (The wethead so wet, he's wet behind the ears!)

kevin_5

slabshield and staples

We just laid out a 21,000 square foot shop. We used all the slab shield we could get our hands on, and the remainder is r-foil.
It was my first time to use the Wirsbo barbed plastic staples instead of wiremesh and ties. Thoughts of the staples not holding, or the incessant Nebraska wind getting under the insulation and sending the whole mess to South Dakota or Kansas were
great for my prayer life. "Oh God pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease..."

We put sand on the edge of the insulation by the forms to keep it down, and laid rebar on the leading edge until we got another pass of insulation and taped the seam together. Then we would move the rebar to the next edge and sand the seam we just taped. I'll post photos in the future to better illustrate.
Over four days, the wind progressively got worse, but by the time we were done, I had quit worrying about everything flying away. A popular Christian song says,"...sometimes He calms the storm, and other times He calms his child..."
If any of you guys are skeptical of how it will work, take my word for it. It's scary the first time if you're used to mesh and ties, but it works well, and your back will thank you!

The staples don't look like much, but they are great. I'll never go back to wire ties. Two of us laid out 1000 linear feet per hour, which is much better than we can do with the wire ties. The only trouble was if there was concrete underneath,(next to footings)the staples didn't want to penetrate, but you could angle the staple, and finish poking it through by hand. The slab shield seems to be a little more substantial product for holding the staples, but the r-foil was just fine as well.
Our concrete guy had no problem at all with the finish. It was pretty hot out, but he had an 8 foot riding power trowel. They poured roughly 7000square feet a day,and would be off the slab by about 1:30 in the afternoon. I don't mind saying that I'm a small town guy, and had never seen such a contraption. It looked like a cross between a hover craft and a helicopter moving around out there!
Thanks for all YOU do Mr.H!
Sincerely,
Kevin O. Pulver (The wethead so wet, he's wet behind the ears!)

kevin_5

slabshield and staples

We just laid out a 21,000 square foot shop. We used all the slab shield we could get our hands on, and the remainder is r-foil.
It was my first time to use the Wirsbo barbed plastic staples instead of wiremesh and ties. Thoughts of the staples not holding, or the incessant Nebraska wind getting under the insulation and sending the whole mess to South Dakota or Kansas were
great for my prayer life. "Oh God pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease..."

We put sand on the edge of the insulation by the forms to keep it down, and laid rebar on the leading edge until we got another pass of insulation and taped the seam together. Then we would move the rebar to the next edge and sand the seam we just taped. I'll post photos in the future to better illustrate.
Over four days, the wind progressively got worse, but by the time we were done, I had quit worrying about everything flying away. A popular Christian song says,"...sometimes He calms the storm, and other times He calms his child..."
If any of you guys are skeptical of how it will work, take my word for it. It's scary the first time if you're used to mesh and ties, but it works well, and your back will thank you!

The staples don't look like much, but they are great. I'll never go back to wire ties. Two of us laid out 1000 linear feet per hour, which is much better than we can do with the wire ties. The only trouble was if there was concrete underneath,(next to footings)the staples didn't want to penetrate, but you could angle the staple, and finish poking it through by hand. The slab shield seems to be a little more substantial product for holding the staples, but the r-foil was just fine as well.
Our concrete guy had no problem at all with the finish. It was pretty hot out, but he had an 8 foot riding power trowel. They poured roughly 7000square feet a day,and would be off the slab by about 1:30 in the afternoon. I don't mind saying that I'm a small town guy, and had never seen such a contraption. It looked like a cross between a hover craft and a helicopter moving around out there!
Thanks for all YOU do Mr.H!
Sincerely,
Kevin O. Pulver (The wethead so wet, he's wet behind the ears!)