Vent: Took me like 6 hours to fix a tiny bubble in my slab

So I was finishing a patio last Tuesday in Phoenix and everything looked perfect until I noticed this tiny little bubble near the edge. Like maybe the size of a quarter. I figured I'd just smooth it out quick and move on. Nope. Every time I tried to trowel it flat it just popped back up or left a weird mark. I spent the next hour fighting it with different tools and techniques while my partner finished the rest of the pour. Finally I realized the mud underneath was too wet in that one spot from a hose drip I missed. Ended up having to cut out that little section and patch it in by hand. Took me from 10 AM to almost 4 PM for maybe 2 square feet of work. Has anyone else had a tiny defect ruin a whole day?

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hollyramirez1mo ago

Did you see that video from Mike Haduck about this exact problem? He had a bubble in a garage slab and spent a whole day on it too. The concrete just kept lifting up because the base was wet underneath. I heard him say that if you don't let that moisture dry out first, no amount of troweling will fix it. Sounds like your hose drip was the culprit. That Phoenix heat probably made the top dry fast while the bottom stayed soggy.