How long to wait on new slab

[dbalika]

Hi...
This is my first post although I have been reading this forum for quite a while and appreciate the help and advice that is given.

My garage floor is being poured tomorrow Wednesday (again thanks to this forum for advising against pouring over old slab) and I was wondering how long before I can start moving my woodworking shop back in. We won't be parking a car on it but the machines I have are fairly heavy (Table saw, band saw, 8" jointer, 15" planer, and drill press) I can get a crew for the next Sunday but that is only 4 days...It would be 2 weeks before I can get enough help to move them back. I'm not sure the weather will hold up that long and I'm not fond of moving everything back during a rain or snow storm.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Don1357]

You do know that for maximum hardness you should keep that slab very wet if not flooded altogether. Usually you would cover it with plastic to stop the water from evaporating. If you let it dry up just once the benefit of keeping it wet goes away.

Beyond that your main issue would be gauging your concrete. You can drive a car in it 48 hours after poured but it takes a lot longer for the surface to reach optimal hardness, the kind that would stop a metal leg from marking its path across the floor.

My neighbor had his shop built pretty fast. For that year he had to put up with everything rusting as it took forever for his slab to shed all the humidity. The estimate is that a slab takes 30 days to dry for each inch poured.