Pour Concrete in Winter

Curtis Gomes runs a building and remodeling business in Providence, RI just south of where I live. Read what he sent  me:

"At what temperature is it too cold to pour concrete in sonotubes? 30 degrees F?"

Here's my answer:

Curtis, believe it or not, you can pour concrete successfully at much colder temperatures, even down in the single digits!

Your task, however, is to keep the concrete above 32 F until such time as it gets above 500 PSI in strength.

If you're mixing the concrete yourself from bags, you can do two important things:

• Keep the bags in a VERY WARM place overnight before use
• Mix the concrete using HOT water

Immediately after the pour, wrap the sonotubes with insulating blankets and cover the top of them with the blankets.

If the sonotubes are in a hole, you can fill the hole with dry straw to really help retain the heat as well. Cover this with plastic or a tarp to keep the straw dry.

READ ALL these past columns of mine for more IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

opens in a new windowConcrete in Cold Weather

opens in a new windowCold Weather Concrete Tips

opens in a new windowCold Weather Concrete Installation