Best Practices for Hot Weather Phoscrete Concrete Repair

The days are getting shorter, but summertime is just beginning to bake our concrete pavements and structures. Working with Phoscrete in hot weather is easy when you follow this one rule: Chill Phoscrete Activator, and keep Phoscrete Dry Mix out of direct sunlight.

Phoscrete sets fast even in 70°F (20°C) temperatures. Cooling activator down below 40°F (5°C) buys sufficient working time to get a good finish.

Phoscrete offers a points promotion, where buying Phoscrete earns you a free 150 quart cooler that holds up to 17 jugs of activator each.

It is important you understand that placing 40 lbs of ice on top of  85°F (30°C) activator jugs in a cooler will cool the activator to 40°F in about four [4] hours. However all your ice will have melted, and the temperature of the activator begins to climb almost immediately.

So either refresh the ice in your cooler after 4 hours, or start with supercooled activator. Because the freezing point of Phoscrete Liquid Activator is -20°F (-27°C), you can supercool it in a chest freezer the night before.

Supercooled activator and already cold activator on 40 lbs of ice will both stay cold for more than 48 hours, and you can fix it fast with Phoscrete.

Another advantage to supercooling activator before transferring them to a large cooler is the jugs will stay under 32°F (0°C) for at least six [6] hours, and the colder the activator, the more working time you get.

Regardless of the material temperatures, when working in hot temperatures, colder  activator always increases working time, with one [1] hour set times still achievable.

For more information on cooling/supercooling activator, and also best practices for using fast-set and slow-set admixtures to manage your working and set times in any temperature, contact your local Phoscrete representative, or click here.