25
Hit 500 pours today and it hit me different, watch your numbers folks
Finished my 500th concrete pour this afternoon on a driveway in Akron, and I almost missed it because I was too busy fighting the slump. But when the crew chief noticed the tally sheet, he pointed out that 500 is the exact count where my old mentor used to say most finishers get lazy and screw up a big job. I checked my records and sure enough, my last two bad cracks both happened right around pour number 412 and 447, so he wasn't wrong. That number matters because it's easy to think you've seen it all and skip the basic steps like checking the subgrade or timing the float. I actually found myself rushing the edge work today because I was so used to the routine, caught it just in time. Anyone else notice their own mistakes cluster around a certain job count or maybe a certain month? Has another number ever snuck up on you like this?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
mason28317d ago
My buddy Rick hit 300 pours and started making the same kind of connections, and honestly I think it's just noise. Numbers don't cause mistakes, people do. If you start believing that 500 is some kind of curse or milestone, you're just looking for patterns that aren't there. I've seen guys screw up their first pour and guys screw up their 900th, it all comes down to sleep, weather, and how much you're rushing that day. The fact that your cracks happened at 412 and 447 proves nothing, that's like saying you always get flat tires on Tuesdays. Every job is its own thing, and if you get lazy, that's on you, not the tally sheet.
4