From the moment the concrete is poured and until it is ready, some time must pass. The amount of time required for this depends on the grade of concrete and the nature of the work being carried out.
Strength gain time
For a self-leveling floor, no strength gain will occur if the concrete is not poured with water for almost the entire curing period. Concrete ceases to gain strength if it dries up and cracks, so it is necessary to use technology to close the concrete floor screed with polyethylene and additionally water it with water if the weather is very hot.
Concrete frozen in winter also cannot gain strength, no matter how much time has passed. Therefore, it is not recommended to work with concrete outdoors in winter. If, after freezing, the concrete is thawed or heated, a set of strength will occur, but the strength will be lower than the original.
The concrete curing process is nonlinear, and therefore in the first weeks is the most intensive. In the future, concrete does not gain strength so quickly.
At a temperature of 20 ° C and normal humidity, concrete should harden in 20 days. At the same time, under the same normal conditions, for the first three days, concrete gains no more than 30% of its total strength. It takes 7-14 days to gain 60-80% of the brand strength with the same normal conditions. And only after 20-28 days, complete solidification is possible up to 100% compliance with the brand strength. After 90 days, if the conditions have remained normal all this time, the concrete will gain 120% of the strength originally declared.
Influence on the hardening time of concrete
Although the setting time of cement is not a common answer for all jobs in which it is used, there are methods to speed up and slow down its setting.
With large volumes of work, concrete hardening in a month cannot occur, and therefore it would take more than 3 months to wait without special solutions.
After pouring the concrete, the formwork must be removed after 12-24 hours. Otherwise, removing it can become problematic.
How long you have to wait until it solidifies completely depends on the nature of further work. The construction of a wooden fence can begin 3-4 days after the installation and concreting of the supports, and it is not worthwhile to erect a building on a foundation in such a short time.
The foundation should be loaded with various structures no earlier than on the 28th day after pouring, and only if there are no cracks in the concrete.
