What Home Maintenance Should You Prioritize at the End of the Summer? (and Why Your Concrete is One of Them)

If you’re working on home maintenance and going through a checklist, you might think that high heat might be good for any concrete renovations you might have been thinking about. However, it may be better to work on other items during the sweltering temperatures.

Updating and maintaining your concrete floors, fixtures, and sidewalks is imperative for the end of summer. Later in the summer when the weather starts to cool off and the air begins to get crisp it might seem like it wouldn’t be the optimal time to pour concrete to those laymen who don’t know the process, or for the DIY home repair person who hasn’t poured concrete before. You might be thinking that concrete needs to dry and set which is absolutely correct. However, concrete needs to dry and cure slowly and gradually.

Hot weather removes water from the surface of the poured concrete, and this evaporation in the high heat of early and mid-summer can crack the surface or cause shrinkage within the poured slabs or poured surface, which leads to repairs needing to be done almost immediately. This can ruin the structural integrity of the concrete despite it being new. Some might think that you can curb that evaporation by rehydration of the surface however, that too can weaken the concrete and hurt its integrity. Some chemicals can be added to the mix such as evaporation retarders or finishing aids that can help slow evaporation from the concrete. However, those in combination with the cooler weather of late summer can pair for a better overall pour and cure set of the concrete.

With hot weather, you also run the risk of it setting and curing much faster, which means that errors and issues cannot be resolved as easily as in a cooler temperature. A drastic change in temperature in hot daylight versus a colder night temperature can also cause damage to the surface poured. This can make the job feel rushed and lead to mistakes or issues further down the road for your concrete surfaces.

Hiring a professional can take a bit of arrangement to fit into your schedule and you need to plan accordingly to ensure you can get the job done promptly and in the seasons and conditions that will yield the best results. So, if you’re thinking of doing anything with concrete it may be time to set up a consultation now, so you can get in with enough time to get done before it starts getting cold and too close to winter.