It’s the first day of summer, and it’s in full bloom here in North Texas. We’re in the high 90s with a pretty good heat index, (humidity). I guess it’s better than Arizona, where it’s been close to 120 degrees, but it’s a dry heat.
We don’t often think about inside work during this time of year, but if you’re thinking about it, now’s a good time for a few of my men to work indoors and give them some relief. You might even be able to negotiate the estimate a bit.
Please keep in mind, when it’s hot, certain projects will take a little longer to complete. If you have a project that normally should take five days to complete, it may take six days to complete. Construction workers must pace themselves when it’s hotter outside, and that pace may be steady, but usually somewhat slower.
When pouring concrete, we don’t always have the opportunity to pour when it’s cooler, but you will notice that the crew will probably be much larger than normal. You may have a concrete project that may only need 2 concrete finishers, but when it’s hot concrete can set up much faster, so we may have one or two more concrete finishers to make sure everything comes out nice. That’s just the story with concrete. I showed up at one of our projects today. A patio cover, you might think that’s no big deal, but that sun is beating down on the crew, I came into the back yard and the crew was sitting on the side of the house out of the sun. More breaks are needed, more water is needed, it just goes slower.
When we have masonry work going on, besides all the items we’ve discussed previously, there is special care that must be taken with the stone or brick work. The mortar will dry so fast that it doesn’t bind well to the stone, if at all. The mortar must be kept wet enough, normally smaller portions are mixed so we don’t lose mortar to harden to quickly. We also must wet down the stone of brick, sometimes you may see brick or stone sitting in a wheelbarrow or large container of water, this prevent the mortar from drying to fast, allowing the mortar to bind to the stone or brick properly.
At McFall Masonry & construction, year round, we take special care with whatever weather conditions we are into at the time, we have the experience that there is a need to take special care with your project. Give us a call and allow us to give you an estimate for your project, don’t leave to inexperience.