tbick

Hi all,
I had a concrete driveway poured about 48 hours ago and it currently has white spots and blotches as indicated by the picture below. Is this at all normal? Thanks for your help.

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gregzoll

Nothing to worry about. Typical for fresh concrete to do that, as it is drying and going through the hardening process. See it more with colder nights. Why isn't it covered with a tarp & straw to help hold the heat in, while it finishes hardening this next ten days?

tbick

Thanks for the reply gregzoll. Good to know it's normal. Unfortunately I don't know much about concrete and the contractor did not give me instruction on curing. I'll give the tarp and straw method a try.

gregzoll

The contractor should have taken care of that, if they were watching the temps. Unless your area was not going to go into freezing temps, like it is doing elsewhere, that may be why they did not tarp & place straw over the tarp, to help hold the heat in from the curing process.

jomama45

Completely normal. Nothing to worry about.

I wouldn't take gregzoll's advice on covering it with straw and plastic as this point either, unless you really have nothing better to do with your time..........

tbick

Thanks for the help guys. And it should stay just above freezing the next couple of nights.

psu94psu

I think I have the same issue here. I looks like the concrete started to set up before the did the final finishing and the aggragate didn't get far enough down into the concrete.
My concern is that the white spots will get brittle and crack out leaving a very rough surface.

I poured 70 of sidewalk and a 20x30 pad and most of it has the same look. The side walk is the worse. @ other pads 7x7 that were poured looked all dark gray.

Any advice? Is this normal?

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Canarywood1

Read jomama45 post, it's normal.

tbick

That's what mine looked like for a couple of weeks and it turned out fine.

Bud Cline

The white spots are large pieces of aggregate that aren't holding as much moisture as the mix is holding. Give it time it will all match up in a few weeks depending on your weather.

The aggregate is kind close to the surface but it isn't going anywhere. I personally would have pushed the aggregate a little deeper below the surface but no real harm in what you have there.

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stadry

using a roller screed or vibrating screed would've resolved that issue but its rarely seen on residential work,,, it all looks right-side-up from here

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gregzoll

The Cement contractors in my area will do a roller or vibrate screed. Every job they do comes out looking perfect. There are only a couple of companies in my area that do Patio, Sidewalk or Driveway work. Every job they do is perfect with no problems.

Especially when they do the Stamped jobs.

Canarywood1

And lacking either of those tools, a bull float in the proper hands can achieve the same result.

gregzoll

Only in the hands of the person that knows how to properly use them.

Msradell

Very True! In other people's hands they can be very detrimental to the finished product.