Hot-weather and cold-weather concreting
Hot-weather and cold-weather concreting
(OP)
How do you handle hot-weather and cold-weather concreting requirements in your CD's? ACI 305R and 306R explicitly indicate they cannot be directly incorporated into project specifications.





RE: Hot-weather and cold-weather concreting
RE: Hot-weather and cold-weather concreting
That much is clear, but have you tried to write a specification based on ACI 305/306? It's not easy. For example, how do you define "hot weather?" Hot weather can mean 75 degrees (with low humidity and a drying wind).
RE: Hot-weather and cold-weather concreting
In my opinion it is not necessary to include every provision of 305 or 306 in your specification, but moreso to stress the general quality control of concrete production, delivery and placement using some tolerable constraints, i.e. inspect the batch plant, check the aggregate moisture control, check the procedural mix controls by the supplier, don't let the contractor control the concrete mix (i.e. adding water at the site indiscriminantly for placement convenience), observe and test delivery and placement, document batch and delivery times, water addition, temperatures, slump, slump loss, placement procedures, finishing, curing, sawcuts, etc.
A few fundamental practical considerations are that good concrete is made from good aggregates, good cement, good admixtures, and good water....bad concrete is all too often made from the same stuff! Ready mix suppliers (I'm not one, but occasionally they need defending)are less likely to compromise the quality of the concrete than the construction crews. In many years of failure investigations and concrete problem solving, more problems are caused by improper placement, finishing, and curing than by specifications or concrete production.
I will see if I can come up with a reasonably unedited spec for you that you might use as a guide.