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Last Updated: Monday, May 10th, 2010, Created: Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Weather Restrictions: Concrete Surface Patching

. WEATHER & RENOVATION is a joint project of: CTV.ca and JonEakes.com designed to help you plan home improvement projects around weather restrictions. If you have just been checking the weather for your project on the CTV web site -- welcome to JonEakes.com where you will find all the details for your home improvements. If you started here and are looking for weather restrictions related to home improvements, follow this link to CTV.ca where you can get your local weather forecast together with weather restrictions for specific products  on the bottom of the page.

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Concrete patching materials follow many of the same rules as concrete itself. The most important to understand are that you should use as little water as possible to get a good mix as excess water makes it flow great but leads to weakness and shrinkage cracks and that concrete must be kept wet throughout its curing, it does not set by drying but by a chemical reaction that requires water. Surface patching of outdoor concrete in a cold climate requires that we give it the best conditions possible because not only will freeze/thaw cycles tend to crack it but we also get de-icers soaking into the concrete which can help to pop off a patch. We want to work on a concrete surface that is what they call SSD or Saturated Surface Dry -- translated: the surface must be wet (or saturated) with no standing water on it. We should use a primer for best adhesion between the old and the new and we want to keep the job saturated for at least 3 days -- longer if possible. Here are some tips for REPAIRING CONCRETE STEPS, which could also help out with that patio or balcony repair. And it is always a good idea to review the information about OUTDOOR CONCRETE IN A COLD CLIMATE.

Keywords: Concrete, Cracks, Curb, Decks, Freezing, Frost, Outdoors, Paving, Porch, Products, Renovation, Repair, Shrinkage, Stairs, Steps, Water, Weather

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