Tried adding a little dish soap to my finishing mix... big mistake

I was out on a patio job in Austin last week and the sun was just baking everything way too fast. I remembered some guy mentioning soap as a way to slow down the set a bit, so I squirted like a teaspoon into my mix. Man, that stuff made the surface all slick and weird, I couldn't get a decent broom finish on it at all. The homeowner asked why the concrete looked like it had some kind of oil stain in spots... I had to tell him it was a learning experiment. I ended up having to grind down and reseal the whole thing, cost me an extra $150 in materials and a full Saturday. Has anyone else tried this trick and actually got it to work without ruining the slab? Or is there a better additive that doesn't mess up the final look?

2 comments

2 Comments

carr.brian1mo ago

My buddy tried the same thing up in Dallas last summer and ended up with a surface that looked like a slip n slide for a week. He figured out later that even a tiny bit of soap breaks down the surface tension way more than you'd expect. Now he just uses a spray bottle with water to mist the top if the sun is too hot, keeps it simple.

alex_hall911mo ago

Man I learned that lesson the hard way too... ended up with concrete that looked like a skating rink for two weeks. Pretty sure my neighbors still think I was running some kind of weird slip n slide cult.