Concrete drying

[dombanks]

Does anyone know how long it takes concrete to dry before you can work on it ive got a 30x30 ish trench for a small wall and then the new floor which is about 50-60mm thick

The Internet seems to say anything from a day to be able to lay blocks to a few days 

[CraigHew]

ive always gone by 24 hours, but I'm sure it's temperature-related.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

If the weathers been resonably warm and dry then the top surface will be cured enough to start building up to dpc level the following morning. If its been pariculary wet or cold then I'd wait a day.

bear in mind though that it takes a long time for concrete to dry and cure fully. Whilst the surface will dry quite quickly it will take weeks for it to dry fully.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Yep, as Mark said, depends on the weather conditions for the immediate drying, but building up to ultimate strength happens over weeks, not days, so ultimately it depends on the load put on it. (Concrete needs time for the internal crystalline structure to grow and provide the interlocking bonds that provide its real strength).

[Terry Everall]

yep you can work on it after 24 hrs in normal conditions but the 7 day and 28 day concrete strengths are important 

[Blatman]

4 hours ago, dombanks said:

30x30 ish trench

Millimeters, inches, feet, yards, meters, acres, hectares, or what? 

[dombanks]

Haha hectare... 30cm x 30cm x 4m

Cheers guys. Load will be small and i only need 2layers of blocks so ican put the new floor in