Overview of concrete maintenance

Introduction

Now, the use of concrete is very common. But, do we need to do concrete maintenance?

Whether it is a courtyard or a road, including concrete tables and chairs and concrete walls. We can see them almost everywhere.

But, do they need maintenance? The answer is yes.

The maintenance of concrete will largely affect the strength of concrete. Because the newly paved concrete floor is not strong, maintenance can ensure the strength of concrete.

Moreover, the use time of the ground can be extended.

Besides, what other reasons are there? And what are the other reasons? How should we maintain the concrete?

Let’s take a look together.

Importance for concrete maintenance

When the concrete is just finished, if the weather is very hot and the air is dry, the moisture in the concrete will evaporate quickly. This will cause concrete dehydration.

Moreover, the cement of the concrete cannot absorb enough water and thus cannot become stable crystals. Then, the bonding force of cement is not enough. During the following period of use, the surface of the concrete will fall off.

Besides, the concrete just finished does not have enough strength yet. In this way, the water evaporates too early. This can cause severe peeling of the concrete surface.

In severe cases, there will be cracks on the concrete. Therefore, the concrete must be the maintenance in time when it is just laid.

In this way, concrete will exert its good performance during use. Moreover, this also avoids a lot of trouble.

If people don’t maintain concrete just laid, the strength of it is relatively poor.

Besides, the newly laid concrete needs to be maintained in a naturally humid environment. Because the evaporation rate of water in the natural environment cannot meet the requirements of cement hardening.

It best is to create humidity and temperature conditions. This will accelerate its hardening. In this case, the strength of the concrete is very good.

How to do concrete maintenance

Concrete maintenance is mainly to keep the moisture in the concrete. This ensures that the cement in the concrete can reach enough hardness. At the same time, during maintenance, pay attention to the environment temperature and control the maintenance time.

Here are some methods of concrete curing:

Sprinkler maintenance

Because concrete maintenance requires sufficient water, people have to spray concrete frequently.

This prevents the concrete from drying out and sanding.

Moreover, the curing time is determined by the season.

Therefore, the temperature is high in summer and the curing time is at least one week. Meanwhile the temperature in spring and autumn is low. So the curing time is about two weeks to 20 days.

Besides, it is best to maintain the concrete at a temperature above 16.

Water spray curing

If you have enough time and the area of the concrete floor is small, you can use the water spraying method for maintenance. During the curing process, you need to spray water continuously, as long as the ground is dry. And spray it to keep the ground moist.

Maintenance with the concrete curing agent

Some concrete products are not suitable for sprinkling maintenance. For example, some high-altitude wall panels, narrow corners. At this time, you can use concrete curing agent to maintain it.

The concrete curing agent is a liquid film-forming compound. Moreover, it is watery and has no toxic ingredients. Besides, it is also flame-proof. And it is also very convenient to use.

Spray it on the surface of the concrete. When the water evaporates to a certain level, it will quickly form a colourless and impermeable film.

In this way, it can prevent the evaporation of water in concrete. And this can achieve a good maintenance effect. Moreover, the specific effect of it is: one ton of curing agent can save 2,000 tons of water.

The flexural strength of concrete maintained with curing fluid will also be significantly improved.

Moreover, it does not affect the decoration of other concrete surfaces.

In summer, where the sun is strong, the curing solution can effectively block the sun. Therefore, this reduces dry cracks on the concrete surface.

Scope of application

The concrete curing solution is suitable for dry, hot and windy environments.

And large areas of exposed road surfaces, airport runways, and floor slabs are also very suitable for maintenance with curing fluid.

Because these places have less chance to be maintained, maintaining them with concrete curing liquid can reduce the trouble of regular watering maintenance.

Meanwhile, in this convenient way, they also keep the good hardness of concrete.

Besides, it is also suitable for various concrete panels and indoor concrete floors. They are difficult to sprinkle to maintain. Such as corners that are particularly difficult to touch.

And there are also some floors made with other materials. In this case, water maintenance may damage the ground of other materials. Therefore, using a concrete cleaner to maintain the concrete is a good choice.

How to use a concrete curing agent

On the concrete surface without water, use a spray pump to spray 1-3 times. When the curing liquid on the concrete surface is even, it can stop.

Besides, you can also roll it directly with a roller.

You should flush first the spray equipment. And it can avoid clogging of tools when using them.

Moreover, when it rains, it is not suitable for spraying concrete surfaces. As mentioned before, this will affect the effectiveness of the curing agent.

And then, the concrete curing agent will form a protective film 30 minutes after spraying.

But, in a low-temperature environment, the film formation time will be extended.

However, half a year later, this film will fall off by itself. And the peeling will not leave any stains and smudges.

Therefore, it is particularly convenient to use it to maintain concrete.

Steam maintenance

Steam curing is a very professional maintenance method.

Usually, people put concrete components in a curing room filled with saturated steam or a mixture of steam and air. And it can accelerate the hardening of concrete in a higher temperature and humidity environment.

Generally speaking, the steam maintenance of concrete can be divided into four stages: static stop, heating, constant temperature, and cooling.

Besides, the steam curing of concrete should meet the following regulations:

1. First, during the static stop, the environment temperature should be kept at not less than 5℃. And the temperature can be raised only 4-6 hours after the completion of pouring and the final setting of the concrete.
2. Second, the heating rate should not be greater than 10℃/h.

Other options

In addition to the above maintenance methods, there are some convenient and low-cost maintenance methods. These methods are more suitable for small concrete products. Or some floors are convenient for curing.

Moreover, these methods can also prevent water evaporation. But the effect of the above method will be better. So, the following method is more suitable for less demanding concrete products.

Use plastic to maintain concrete

Plastic film curing is a commonly used method. This method can also prevent water from evaporation. And the method of laying plastic is more suitable for concrete products with low requirements.

The specific method is:

1. First, prepare the plastic film;
2. Meanwhile, spray water on the concrete floor in advance;
3. Then spread the film flat on top;
4. Next, To prevent the edges of the film from being blown up by the wind;
5. At last, use sand on both sides of the membrane and the membrane interface.
6. When the cement in the concrete is fully absorbed and hardened, the maintenance is completed.

Use straw curtains to maintain concrete

If you have straw curtains in your home, you can spread the straw curtains on the concrete floor. And then spray water on the straw curtains. The straw curtains will absorb enough water to keep them warm.

Next, wait until the moisture on the straw curtain has almost evaporated. And continue to spray to keep the straw curtain moist and moist until complete the concrete maintenance.

Be careful, the cover of the cement should be clean and free of chemicals. So,  they will not contaminate and corrode the concrete surface.

Daily concrete maintenance

Daily maintenance of concrete includes daily cleaning and cleaning of plugged pores. You can use blower blow, high-pressure flushing or vacuum cleaning to clean and block pores.

As for the sand, gravel, dirt and dirt on the road, you should remove them, especially concrete roads. Moreover, vehicles will damage the surface of the road, when they roll over the small fragments of rocks on the road. Besides, if there is oil pollution, you must remove them in time. And you should check these stains once a month.

Other situations

And then, drain the water in time during the rain and snow season. And this prevents moisture from penetrating into the concrete base.

If you don’t maintain the joints of the concrete in time, it will cause the concrete part to fall off and burst.

At the same time, there is a great risk that the joints will peel off. Therefore, joint maintenance is important for daily concrete maintenance. Usually, you can always check the joints.

In addition, if the concrete slab has cracks, you can fill them with asphalt or epoxy resin. But, if there are cracks in other parts under the concrete slab, you should pour the cracks under the slab first.

Temperature is important for concrete maintenance

Moreover, when the temperature changes greatly, the concrete may have gaps or some materials may be squeezed out. At this time, fill the gap or produce the extruded part in time. This will not affect the normal use of concrete products.

Precautions

1. Do not wax or use other sealant coatings on the concrete surface.
2. To achieve better results, you can choose a cleaning machine with a downward pressure of 30 kg and a black fibre sanding pad to clean the concrete.
3. Or you can also clean the surface with a high pH cleaning machine. But the cleaner should not contain sulphates and hydroxides.

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Requirements of concrete maintenance

After removing the mould, the concrete may come into contact with running water. Then, before the concrete contacts with the flowing water, people must take some effective insulation measures.

Meanwhile, the maintenance time should be longer than usual. That makes the strength of concrete more than 75% of the design strength.

In some conditions, concrete would contact with seawater or saline soil directly. And, before reaching the design strength, it is necessary to ensure the concrete unaffected by these substances.

Moreover, as much as possible, postpone the time of direct contact between concrete just laid and seawater or saline soil. Generally, time is not less than 6 weeks.

When the day and night average temperature is lower than 5 degrees or lower, people cannot carry out the concrete maintenance with water. And people should use a curing solution to maintain the concrete. Besides, people need to take some measures to insulate concrete.

If the environment will corrode the concrete. then, in addition to the prescribed maintenance, it is necessary to extend the moisture-curing time of the concrete.

When doing the concrete maintenance，people should control the weather of the maintaining environment. In this way, the temperature difference between inside and outside meets the requirements of concrete maintenance.

Safety Precautions

1. People should overhaul the pipelines and equipment used for maintenance frequently.
2. Circuit management should meet the requirements of electricity usage regulations.
3. There should be a dedicated person to handle the steaming equipment. And, They should inspect and repair regularly the concrete to prevent fire and scaling accidents.
4. The steaming equipment shall be handled by a dedicated person, and shall be inspected and repaired regularly to prevent fire and scalding accidents.
5. Dangerous areas should have obvious warning signs.
6. Maintenance personnel must wear safety belts and non-slip shoes when working at heights.
7. The support used for maintenance must have sufficient strength and rigidity. And the setting up of tents should be standardized and reasonable.
8. When the concrete is just laid, it is forbidden to walk on it and to make impact actions on concrete.

Conclusion

Concrete maintenance is very important for concrete products. Especially when the concrete is just finished. If there has no maintain in time. They will be many problems.

For example, the strength of the cement won’t be strong enough. In this situation, it will has influence on the service life. Moreover, it can also have cracks on the concrete surface.

During the maintenance, pay attention to the water and temperature of the environment. This two aspects are very important for concrete maintenance.

Meanwhile, during the daily use, repair the concrete when it has broken.

That’s all for concrete maintenance, thank you for reading.

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