Cure-first flatwork · Alder Moor · the sealing calendar is the business, since 1992
Any crew can pour a slab. We are the crew that cures one.
Thirty-four seasons of patience
The curing ledger
What we do
What curing-first means
The cure-and-seal program
Concrete gains strength by keeping its own water: a spray-applied curing membrane the same day as the pour holds better than ninety percent of the mix-water in, and at twenty-eight days a 30%-solids acrylic seal takes over as the sacrificial coat. The reseal renews every third year on a calendar we keep — you will hear from us, not the reverse.
Broom & salt finishes
The plain finishes that last longest because there is nothing to delaminate: a stiff-bristle broom drawn at right angles to the slope, or a rock-salt texture for the January grip. Five inches of 4,000-psi air-entrained concrete, joints sawed to a quarter of the depth within twelve hours on the 2× grid.
Stamped, with the antique kept
Ashlar slate and running cobble pressed through a powder release agent tinted a shade darker than the field — the antique lives in the grain, and the sealer at day twenty-eight is what keeps it there. Wet-look or matte is your call; the visit that renews it is ours.
Recent pours
The proof is old work
Six slabs from around the Moor, chosen because they have all been through at least one reseal cycle — the ages are in the captions. Ask on the phone and we will give you the street; the oldest customers are the best argument we have.
Water, time, money
Asked at every estimate
Why does curing matter this much?
Because concrete does not dry — it hydrates, and hydration needs water. A slab that loses its water in the first day reaches maybe half of the strength and all of the shrinkage cracks. Our membrane holds better than ninety percent of the mix-water in for the first week; that single step is the difference between a slab and a claim.
Burlap, ponds or spray membrane?
The spray membrane, on everything we pour: it goes on the same afternoon, cannot blow off like burlap and cannot be drained like a pond. Water-curing is marginally better in a laboratory and dramatically worse in a wind — the Moor has wind.
What is actually in the sealer?
A 30%-solids acrylic over the cured slab — it darkens the color back to wet, takes the abrasion and the de-icer, and wears out on purpose every three years so the concrete never has to. The reseal visit costs about a dollar-forty a square foot and is booked by us.
Can we pour in July heat?
Yes — with chilled water in the mix, evaporation retarder on the finish and the membrane down before noon. Heat is a scheduling problem; it stops being an excuse the moment a crew owns a thermometer.
What does the program cost?
Broom drives from $10.50 a square foot, stamped from $14.50, cure-and-seal included — the program is not an extra, it is the product. The only line that moves is rock we cannot see, and we call before we dig it.
How it goes
Pour to first reseal
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0
Pour & membrane
One continuous placement of 4,000-psi air-entrained concrete, finished at the sheen, then the curing membrane sprayed the same afternoon — before the wind gets its chance at the water.
Day 1–3
Joints & the wait
Control joints sawed within twelve hours to a quarter of the slab’s depth on the 2× grid, foot traffic at three days. Everything after this is patience, and the calendar enforces it for you.
Day 28
Seal
Washed and sealed 30%-solids acrylic at full cure — matte or wet-look, your call. Vehicles from day seven; the warranty and the first reseal date are signed the same visit.
Year 3
The reseal visit
We arrive, we do not wait to be asked: renew the acrylic, inspect every joint against the map from your pour, and write the next date on the tailgate calendar. A finish stays a finish because somebody keeps it.
Our last driveway was poured by a crew that left at four and never came back. Everpour left at four and came back at day three, day twenty-eight and year three — the slab is nine years old and has never once looked its age.
The membrane went down while the mason was still cleaning his tools. I asked about it and got a ten-minute lecture on hydration that I have now repeated at three dinner parties.
They resealed the courtyard the same week they resealed the chapel — one visit, both slabs, one invoice, and the antique in the grain looks poured-last-month at nine years.
Five years — and a calendar
If a joint spalls or a sealed finish fails inside five years, we repair it free — and the reseal calendar keeps running either way, because the warranty is only half of what you are buying.
everpour@flatwork.example · Alder Moor · the calendar runs year-round
Pouring runs April to November; the membrane and the reseal calendar run all year. Spring pours are booked by mid-March, but a seal visit in February is a perfectly ordinary Tuesday.
Buy the calendar, not just the pour.
Send dimensions and what is there now — the estimate comes back the same day with the first three reseal dates already written on it. The phone is answered by someone who pours.