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You should water new concrete by spraying it five to 10 times per day for the first seven days. This process of moist curing allows the concrete to become as strong as possible to prevent cracks and weak concrete. Moist-cured concrete is 50% stronger than concrete that was not sprayed with water during the first week. The only exception is if you pour concrete in the winter. Then, spraying with water is not recommended.

Unfortunately, concrete cracks happen, so there’s no surefire way to avoid them long-term. To slow down the cracking, apply a sealant every two to three years and use sand rather than salt to melt snow or ice. Using salt speeds up the freeze-thaw cycle, which may increase the likelihood of cracking. Additionally, keep vehicles and heavy machinery off of your concrete, as the weight can lead to more cracking.

Concrete slump can be affected by the amount of water in the mix, the size of the aggregate components, the mix’s temperature, how long the concrete is mixed, and more. Mixing concrete with the correct slump depends on almost every component of the concrete mix being correctly balanced and is critical to ensure the concrete performs as expected.

For most homeowners, wood and wood screws are the best materials to make concrete forms because they’re affordable, readily available, and easy to work with. Steel is a better concrete form material because you can use it thousands of times for repeated work, but this is most useful in commercial applications where one job is necessary many times over.