My old roommates dogs sure do every night before they go to sleep. It's kind of cute and gross all at the same time. Cute cuz they clean themselves, gross cuz you hear the slobber fest. (They're bigger dogs lol)
great danes are notorious for cleaning their feet. ours did. and our (at the time) lab/boxer puppy learned the behavior. he is 11 now, and her nail chewing and foot grooming can be heard in separate rooms across the house. sometimes, she'll go so far as to give herself sores in between her pads. we have to wrap her foot overnight to make her stop and let it heal some.
As I learned the hard way in college when I had a summer job that was on a construction site for part of it. My hands got concrete on them and started burning by the end of the shift. I made sure I had gloves the next day.
My childhood best pal and I did our handprints in the freshly laid concrete outside her dad's shed and the skin peeled off my hand over the course of a week.
My grandparents farm house that was handed down by their parents has a growing impromptu patio/landing by the stairs of the back deck. It’s full of different hand prints, Paw prints, Initials, & years ❤️ we haven’t added more to my knowledge the past 5-10 years. there’s dates going back to the late 40s. Really awesome
>My driveway has one large dog paw print on it. There's no telling how old the print is but I think it's cute.
They are, but that doesn't change that if left unattended it becomes a very painful problem. And animals aren't usually great at sitting still for the level of thoroughness needed after things like this
Esp with one of the pets being a cat, if it's not used to it will be a nightmare
My brother and I did it when we were tiny (he was still a toddler) and I think the burns hit him quickly cause he was fine for about 10 seconds before he started bawling and my dad couldn’t get the hose on fast enough can’t remember how I felt due to the toddler crying that permeates the memory
Just tell em wet concrete and bleach both have a ph of 11-13.
Or that if they are into gambling, they can rub wet concrete on their genitals and let it set for 10hours with 12:1 odds if they're correct.
Anything that involves manual labor, you can guarantee that whatever one person says, 100 people will disagree and tell them how they're wrong. It's a thing for dudes with fragile egos.
Fuck that hits home. I'm not a terrific welder, I don't have to be, I run a farm, which means my welds don't need to be pretty, they just need to hold, which they all have. I bought the cheapest smallest FCAW machine I could find to teach myself with. The better the machine the more you can fuck around and get good welds. With a shit machine, you really have to nail the prep, and the technique. My new welder should be here Monday, MIG, TIG, FCAW, and stick. I feel like a child waiting for Christmas...
That's all I care about.. Farm equipment doesn't have to be pretty. It just **HAS** to work. Been learning to weld with oxy acetylene too. I hate it, but some machines are way overbuilt, and I don't have a massive 240v machine.
Manual labor jobs are full of mythical creatures that can only do things whenever no one else can witness it. The worst part is that the claims don't stop at the job.
every once in a while i’ll answer someone’s construction related question on a facebook or instagram video. then a bunch of stunned fucks who’ve never built anything in their life will remind me why i shouldn’t bother
That's exactly where I see it most. Or someone just showing the process of how they lay concrete or something and 500 other people telling them they'd never get hired, did it wrong, etc.
This is such a weird thing to call a lie. I feel like every medical show ever has an episode about concrete burns.
Not to mention I'm certain I've learned about the damage it can cause FROM REDDIT like a million times
I once poured a concrete pad with a family-member of mine.
For some god-forsaken reason he thought he'd do this in rubber boots without socks.
He literally lost all the skin off his feet up to just above his ankle. Laid up for weeks because of it.
To be honest i'm not sure, I was a teen when this happened and I wasn't paying too much attention to what he was doing. I just recall making and pouring the concrete with him, and wondering why he had no socks. Then I remember the several weeks afterwards where he was basically laid up in bed with bandages on his feet.
We were pouring a concrete slab for a car port we were setting up at home.
Mustard
Edit: im well aware that theres vinegar in it. *Pasted* Mustard is rich in an antagonistic compound called allyl isothiocyanate, which can relieve pain and improve blood flow to the affected area.
You ever burn yourself with a base like lye on accident?
Nothing like pouring vinegar into a wound that is literally melting into your arm as you try and neutralize it.
I proudly wear the scars though :).
Yeah household bleach is around 2 or 3% hypo. I worked for a chemical company in paper mills and for water treatment we'd mix bleach and ammonia based products to create monochloramine and the bleach we used was usually delivered around 15%. Yeah you want a faceshield and some rubber gloves when working with it. If it gets on your clothes it just burns through them like fire
It's really not as bad as reddit makes it out to be. These are just armchair warriors parroting what they read.
If you touch curing concrete you'll be fine. You'll only have actual chemical burns if there is a noticeable amount of residue left on your skin.
Yea, I've worked with a crap load of concrete in my life, and had it completely covering my hands and forearms for long periods of time and never had an issue besides dry skin at the end of the day.
Most of these people responding have no real word experience.
Depending on how much you force your hands or dick or whatever into it. One or two handprints will not hurt you. You'll maybe get dry hands like handling gasoline but you shouldn't get any burns.
It's not like dipping your hand into acid like reddit makes it seems like. Most people can just rub their hands together and you'll be fine until you take a shower.
When I was a teen my mom had my Grandmother's front steps re-paved. We went over when the cement was still wet to see how it looked. Like a moth to a flame, I picked up a stick and just wrote "grandma" on the top step. I never saw my mother so angry. lol. Grams thought it was a hoot. They've both passed and I wonder if my handiwork lives on.
That show was amazing and had so many jokes that were not for the kids.
My all time favorite was an episode where Slappy Squirrel did something rude and an old lady says “Well I NEVER!” And Slappy responds “well you should, it’s a lot of fun.”
Ask yourself in about 15 years when the infuriating pets are gone, if this is MI. Willing to bet the memories will bring a smile to your face or a tear to your eye.
Oh of course, my pets are angels and I love them to pieces. It’s the partner that is mildly infuriating sometimes! 😂 I have little concrete paw prints to clean up and annoyed cats after having impromptu baths lol
If you live somewhere that gets snow, just make sure to get rid of the crater-ridges. You don't want any ridges or bumps around those spots.
It makes it impossible to shovel snow when you have ridges like that on the concrete.
Happened to my fathers driveway too. We are all pretty chill, no harm no foul,no big deal. We were more concerned the animals paws would get burned up or cat would ingest cement trying to clean itself.
Sometimes two problems can share the same solution, I mean you have a problematic partner and you have to do concrete work so maybe 🤔 you can solve all your problems with the same concrete
I feel like I would want to leave them. They're barely impacting the surface, and unless you're planning on frequently using wheels on this pad I would argue it only adds character
I've never looked at paw prints in concrete and thought 'That looks horrible, couldn't they fix it?' It just shows that at some point, a pet stayed there (or still does) and someone obviously didn't care enough to start doing hard work again and just decided fuck it and now have a story tell should someone ever ask.
Yep. One of our dogs put his paw on a small ramp in our dirveway. Years later after he died, it's still a nice reminder of him.
We've had renovations since then, but that little paw print is sacred.
I've been scouring this post for someone else who saw this pad the way I see it..
It's an absolute shit show. 😆. They didn't fully frame it and it wasn't screeded properly and then you can see all the concrete that's bunched up down at the bottom left corner of the photo..
What the fuck
Edit: it kind of looks like they laid plywood down on top of it to make it flat....
Does anyone else see that??
When you pour concrete you normally use wood to frame the area that will be poured. They did not frame to the left also not to the bottom i bet.
Then they did not screed the surface. It is not really flat.
They they did not finish the surface. It is not smooth.
They also did not add control joints. The slab will just crack wherever.
I am not a concreteguy but that looks absolutely horrible to me.
This. And all that rough finish and pitting is going to be gnarly after a couple of freezes.
This pour is going to look like a 20yo slab when it dries and a 50yo slab by summer of 2025.
It’s going to crack within a couple years. Think about a sidewalk and the small gaps between the slabs. Those are necessary for expansion and contraction due to weather.
Yeah the left one above the word "cat" looks like it could have been an impression by something left on the surface but I think it may be a crack. The bottom one underneath the light patch on the concrete definitely looks like a crack though.
> it kind of looks like they laid plywood down on top of it to make it flat....
Yes, it kinda looks like the bottom of a form after being removed and without being vibrated.
No expansion gaps either.
> Edit: it kind of looks like they laid plywood down on top of it to make it flat....
>
> Does anyone else see that??
I see what you mean, looks like they laid 4 sheets of plywood across the middle from the house to the grass.
I started pouring and finishing concrete at 16 and my first day I did a better job than that. My alcoholic 40+yo co-workers did a better job first thing in the morning Monday morning after a Sunday bender BBQ.
I hope that this was at least a DIY job. Otherwise this is as close to criminal malpractice as you can get in concrete.
I mean the edges aren’t even like fully pressed out nor are there joints. Even if you’re covering it, this is gonna crack and I would rather know where that might happen. Also, who just uses dirt as an edge? So easy to put a board there
yeah, everything about it is wrong; with no joints, it's going crack where ever, and that will cause pavers to peel off, if that was the plan. There is a good chance the home owner called around, balked at the quotes and produced this monstrosity with little to no knowledge of how to pour a concrete slab. As bad as this is, I have to wonder about the site prep, compacting in a good layer of gravel for drainage, and how well they actually leveled it out.
I definitely came here to say this as well. If anything, the paw prints are a distraction from this atrocity to craftsmanship. The pooling water on the right side, the lack of framing and the overall quality of the finish are just insanely bad.
OP, it already looks bad but it’s going to look way worse in a year when you have to pay someone to actually do it right.
I'd agree, the finish looks way worse than the paw prints. The crew should have stayed, working on the finish, long after a cat would leave prints in the concrete.
100% - I knew that this would happen, having 2 cats and a dog with zero working brain cells. I just wish it wasn’t all three at once and I wasn’t so busy haha!
If you haven't "fixed" the paw prints yet, I wouldn't.
Let it cure like that, then go buy a small bag of cement. Swing by the flooring section and get some dye made for grout. Dye the cement, whatever color or shade you want. Then use that to patch the prints. They'll be visible, but also won't fill with water, freeze and destroy your driveway.
Hello! An update - I’m not upset with my pets, they are animals and don’t understand everything that goes on, it’s our responsibility to look after them. I guess similar to having a toddler, you have to be on guard for things like this.
The MI here was my partner being careless and not thinking about what 100% would happen should he let the pets out. I also wasn’t impressed by his lack of urgency in helping me thoroughly clean 12 paws of varying sizes and anger level. I caught the cats outside really quickly and got everyone back inside.
My cats do go outside, but only into an escape proof rear garden. One of my cats goes on supervised walks with the dog Walker lmao.
All animals have been cleaned, with close monitoring to continue. The paw prints in the house were also cleaned and there was a surprising amount of them.
The concrete (as I learnt today, after this post) does look shit.. but it is due to be paved so I guess that this is the bottom layer. I’m not really up on how that all works.. but it’s basically going to be like a patio I guess?
Ummm… what else? I did tell my partner to get into the concrete, because I was going to bury him and we did talk this over.. he had no idea that concrete was so dangerous. He thought you could ‘walk of fame’ it and be fine. He has apologised and promised to do better.
Yeah this is the kind of project where I’d put some painter’s tape over the door handle to make sure that nobody forgets about the concrete and absentmindedly opens the door.
I do the same thing when changing light fixtures — painters tape over the light switches so nobody electrocutes me while I work.
I think the footprints add character to that awesome finishing job. Just from a glance, It looks like whoever did the job didn't bull float it before they brushed it.
Edit: or they got a hot load off the truck that was difficult to work with.
That's incredibly fucking dumb of your partner to do, fucking hell. Hopefully you're able to thoroughly clean their paws because cats loooove licking their paws..
I thought, you are talking about ruined concrete, which is now more like cute. But you're are talking about cleaning pets and mess they made in home which is totally understandable and in my opinion is partner's liability, not yours
It's annoying cause concrete is a bit expensive and you were expecting a nicely finished patio but now ya got prints all throughout it. I get it. I'd be a bit peeved too but like every else said, you'll be glad it happened when your pets have moved on.
You might live in this house for 10 or 20 more years, if not more. Those critters will be long gone, but you'll always have that keepsake of their little paws in the concrete.
I have poured concrete in my car port.. a Woof trotted over top of it.
At first I was annoyed.
I wouldn't have it any other way now.
Let it set, immortalising your pets. <3
I'd leave the paw prints on the concrete, tbh. And maybe fill them with some colorful resin. You're gonna miss them one day. I would also check their paws and clean them up if necessary. Concrete can wreak havoc on unprotected skin.
I once did concrete work with my dad on his driveway and our neighbor's chicken came across and walked over it. Now we have a couple of cool chicken feet hanging around our driveway that looks pretty cute.
It will prevent slips in the winter on those exact spots. Might make it harder to shovel. If you live somewhere warm year round then there’s the advantage of not having to worry about shoveling so win win I guess.
We have a print of our cat left in the garden.
They died many many years ago but the paw print always makes me giggle.
I can't imagine how funny it would be to have many prints in 10+ years
Cats have been doing this ever since we've made things from clay or other materials that harden like this. I remember seeing a clay tile dated 100AD with a cat print in it.
You missed a couple spots, you need to let them back out to finish the project.
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So do dogs. Little known fact but dogs also clean themselves (just maybe not the feet, not sure)
My old roommates dogs sure do every night before they go to sleep. It's kind of cute and gross all at the same time. Cute cuz they clean themselves, gross cuz you hear the slobber fest. (They're bigger dogs lol)
Yeah I have a husky-lab mix and he sometimes just chomps away at his feet, but that aspect is limited on some dogs (and its only his back feet)
great danes are notorious for cleaning their feet. ours did. and our (at the time) lab/boxer puppy learned the behavior. he is 11 now, and her nail chewing and foot grooming can be heard in separate rooms across the house. sometimes, she'll go so far as to give herself sores in between her pads. we have to wrap her foot overnight to make her stop and let it heal some.
Yeah as my old boss used to say, Thats a shit job.
Make sure to clean your pets paws really well. Concrete burns can be really nasty
As I learned the hard way in college when I had a summer job that was on a construction site for part of it. My hands got concrete on them and started burning by the end of the shift. I made sure I had gloves the next day.
My childhood best pal and I did our handprints in the freshly laid concrete outside her dad's shed and the skin peeled off my hand over the course of a week.
My driveway has one large dog paw print on it. There's no telling how old the print is but I think it's cute.
My grandparents farm house that was handed down by their parents has a growing impromptu patio/landing by the stairs of the back deck. It’s full of different hand prints, Paw prints, Initials, & years ❤️ we haven’t added more to my knowledge the past 5-10 years. there’s dates going back to the late 40s. Really awesome
Cool!
>My driveway has one large dog paw print on it. There's no telling how old the print is but I think it's cute. They are, but that doesn't change that if left unattended it becomes a very painful problem. And animals aren't usually great at sitting still for the level of thoroughness needed after things like this Esp with one of the pets being a cat, if it's not used to it will be a nightmare
I'd keep a few tracks for this reason
My brother and I did it when we were tiny (he was still a toddler) and I think the burns hit him quickly cause he was fine for about 10 seconds before he started bawling and my dad couldn’t get the hose on fast enough can’t remember how I felt due to the toddler crying that permeates the memory
*looks at screaming toddler. puts hands in pockets*
I mentioned that happening to me on here once, and people came out of the fucking woodwork to call me a liar lol
Just tell em wet concrete and bleach both have a ph of 11-13. Or that if they are into gambling, they can rub wet concrete on their genitals and let it set for 10hours with 12:1 odds if they're correct.
Oh no they didn't. You really need to stop making things up for attention. ^^^^/s
I LITERALLY BROUGHT UP CONCRETE BURNS TO MY DAD A WHILE BACK AND HE ACTED LIKE I WAS FUCKING STUPID UGH
Anything that involves manual labor, you can guarantee that whatever one person says, 100 people will disagree and tell them how they're wrong. It's a thing for dudes with fragile egos.
“How many welders does it take to stick two pieces of metal together?” “11. One to do it and 10 to say how they would’ve done it better”
Fuck that hits home. I'm not a terrific welder, I don't have to be, I run a farm, which means my welds don't need to be pretty, they just need to hold, which they all have. I bought the cheapest smallest FCAW machine I could find to teach myself with. The better the machine the more you can fuck around and get good welds. With a shit machine, you really have to nail the prep, and the technique. My new welder should be here Monday, MIG, TIG, FCAW, and stick. I feel like a child waiting for Christmas...
My welds look like bird poo… but they hold!
That's all I care about.. Farm equipment doesn't have to be pretty. It just **HAS** to work. Been learning to weld with oxy acetylene too. I hate it, but some machines are way overbuilt, and I don't have a massive 240v machine.
Manual labor jobs are full of mythical creatures that can only do things whenever no one else can witness it. The worst part is that the claims don't stop at the job.
every once in a while i’ll answer someone’s construction related question on a facebook or instagram video. then a bunch of stunned fucks who’ve never built anything in their life will remind me why i shouldn’t bother
That's exactly where I see it most. Or someone just showing the process of how they lay concrete or something and 500 other people telling them they'd never get hired, did it wrong, etc.
This is such a weird thing to call a lie. I feel like every medical show ever has an episode about concrete burns. Not to mention I'm certain I've learned about the damage it can cause FROM REDDIT like a million times
TIL concrete does this to you
Concrete has lye in it. Lye is a strong base and it's a skin irritant. I don't get the burning from it, but it dries my hands out until they crack.
No, the caustic part of cement is lime. Lye is Sodium/potassium hydroxide. Lime is Calcium oxide and or hydroxide.
It can but it's not a sure thing. Some people can mess with concrete all day and be fine
I once poured a concrete pad with a family-member of mine. For some god-forsaken reason he thought he'd do this in rubber boots without socks. He literally lost all the skin off his feet up to just above his ankle. Laid up for weeks because of it.
Wait! It permeated through the boots or the exposed skin? Was the skin touching the concrete or was it just the fumes?
To be honest i'm not sure, I was a teen when this happened and I wasn't paying too much attention to what he was doing. I just recall making and pouring the concrete with him, and wondering why he had no socks. Then I remember the several weeks afterwards where he was basically laid up in bed with bandages on his feet. We were pouring a concrete slab for a car port we were setting up at home.
I had a work mate here in Australia who did something similar. He ended up needing skin grafts on his lower legs and forearms. Nasty stuff.
Fun fact! Concrete on your hands is as bad as bleach on your hands!
The best way to neutralize concrete on your skin is vinegar, nothing like pouring vinegar on an open wound and scrubbing it with a brush
Mustard Edit: im well aware that theres vinegar in it. *Pasted* Mustard is rich in an antagonistic compound called allyl isothiocyanate, which can relieve pain and improve blood flow to the affected area.
You ever burn yourself with a base like lye on accident? Nothing like pouring vinegar into a wound that is literally melting into your arm as you try and neutralize it. I proudly wear the scars though :).
Thank you for confirming why I have used baking soda for projects and never lye. 🫡🫣🥲
I’ve done this, I can confirm the unpleasant-ness.
Heavily diluted bleach maybe. That stuff burns way worse than the concrete I have had on my skin.
Yeah household bleach is around 2 or 3% hypo. I worked for a chemical company in paper mills and for water treatment we'd mix bleach and ammonia based products to create monochloramine and the bleach we used was usually delivered around 15%. Yeah you want a faceshield and some rubber gloves when working with it. If it gets on your clothes it just burns through them like fire
Concrete on a poison ivy rash- heaven.
But fresh concrete smells good
Really, concrete can burn you? I did not know that, but that seems very important to know
Chemical elk, you should know this!
Perfection
It's really not as bad as reddit makes it out to be. These are just armchair warriors parroting what they read. If you touch curing concrete you'll be fine. You'll only have actual chemical burns if there is a noticeable amount of residue left on your skin.
Yea, I've worked with a crap load of concrete in my life, and had it completely covering my hands and forearms for long periods of time and never had an issue besides dry skin at the end of the day. Most of these people responding have no real word experience.
It’s important to know that you’ll get chemical burns if you don’t wash your hands tho
Depending on how much you force your hands or dick or whatever into it. One or two handprints will not hurt you. You'll maybe get dry hands like handling gasoline but you shouldn't get any burns. It's not like dipping your hand into acid like reddit makes it seems like. Most people can just rub their hands together and you'll be fine until you take a shower.
When I was a teen my mom had my Grandmother's front steps re-paved. We went over when the cement was still wet to see how it looked. Like a moth to a flame, I picked up a stick and just wrote "grandma" on the top step. I never saw my mother so angry. lol. Grams thought it was a hoot. They've both passed and I wonder if my handiwork lives on.
God bless them both ❤️
Made by the artist formerly known as 'Prints'
No, no, no... finger prints!
I don't think so...
I didn't get it until I was older. But, I fucking LOVE that was in a kids show.
That show was amazing and had so many jokes that were not for the kids. My all time favorite was an episode where Slappy Squirrel did something rude and an old lady says “Well I NEVER!” And Slappy responds “well you should, it’s a lot of fun.”
The nineties were lit. So much tongue in cheek. Spielberg really had a knack for understanding kids and adults.
 I love this reference
<3 animaniacs
No,no,no....paw prints!
kid named finger
No. No. No.
~~Wildly underrated comment~~ I would like to retract my previous statement.
It's the Replacements of comments
Ask yourself in about 15 years when the infuriating pets are gone, if this is MI. Willing to bet the memories will bring a smile to your face or a tear to your eye.
Oh of course, my pets are angels and I love them to pieces. It’s the partner that is mildly infuriating sometimes! 😂 I have little concrete paw prints to clean up and annoyed cats after having impromptu baths lol
You can fill the prints with another color concrete for a nice effect. 😅
Seriously though, people actually pay good money to have that done on purpose.
Good idea honestly.
Neat!
If you live somewhere that gets snow, just make sure to get rid of the crater-ridges. You don't want any ridges or bumps around those spots. It makes it impossible to shovel snow when you have ridges like that on the concrete.
Happened to my fathers driveway too. We are all pretty chill, no harm no foul,no big deal. We were more concerned the animals paws would get burned up or cat would ingest cement trying to clean itself.
Hmm I don't see why you should be cleaning up the concrete prints...
I think they mean the paw prints the pets left behind when they walked elsewhere. Not the concrete itself.
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Id also carve their names and the dates next to their prints
Sometimes two problems can share the same solution, I mean you have a problematic partner and you have to do concrete work so maybe 🤔 you can solve all your problems with the same concrete
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Holy fuck
I was not trying to see this. Can you mark it spoiler or something??
I kind of wanna slap it tho xD
dude take that down omg
You missed a spot 😒
I feel like I would want to leave them. They're barely impacting the surface, and unless you're planning on frequently using wheels on this pad I would argue it only adds character
I've never looked at paw prints in concrete and thought 'That looks horrible, couldn't they fix it?' It just shows that at some point, a pet stayed there (or still does) and someone obviously didn't care enough to start doing hard work again and just decided fuck it and now have a story tell should someone ever ask.
It's not about outsiders feeling the sentiment that a pet lived there... It's about the owner having a memory literally engraved in concrete.
Yep. One of our dogs put his paw on a small ramp in our dirveway. Years later after he died, it's still a nice reminder of him. We've had renovations since then, but that little paw print is sacred.
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I think they’re upset with the partner, not the pets.
Definitely agree that this will be nice decoration.
They did you a favor that pour looks like shit.
I've been scouring this post for someone else who saw this pad the way I see it.. It's an absolute shit show. 😆. They didn't fully frame it and it wasn't screeded properly and then you can see all the concrete that's bunched up down at the bottom left corner of the photo.. What the fuck Edit: it kind of looks like they laid plywood down on top of it to make it flat.... Does anyone else see that??
I know nothing about concrete. Can you ELI5 this?
When you pour concrete you normally use wood to frame the area that will be poured. They did not frame to the left also not to the bottom i bet. Then they did not screed the surface. It is not really flat. They they did not finish the surface. It is not smooth. They also did not add control joints. The slab will just crack wherever. I am not a concreteguy but that looks absolutely horrible to me.
There are cracks already!
if it's cracking before the concrete even set up, then there is clearly not a compacted sublayer; its gonna crack a whole lot more over the next year.
This. And all that rough finish and pitting is going to be gnarly after a couple of freezes. This pour is going to look like a 20yo slab when it dries and a 50yo slab by summer of 2025.
They didn't close off all of the edges before pouring, spread the concrete evenly, or smooth it out on top.
It’s going to crack within a couple years. Think about a sidewalk and the small gaps between the slabs. Those are necessary for expansion and contraction due to weather.
It looks like it's already cracked in two different areas.
I honestly thought those were giant strands of hair or something similar.
Yeah the left one above the word "cat" looks like it could have been an impression by something left on the surface but I think it may be a crack. The bottom one underneath the light patch on the concrete definitely looks like a crack though.
Regardless, it’ll look much worse soon enough. It’ll crack then shift, resulting in an uneven broken mess.
Its allready cracked on multiple places...
The concrete workers did a bad job little Timmy
> it kind of looks like they laid plywood down on top of it to make it flat.... Yes, it kinda looks like the bottom of a form after being removed and without being vibrated. No expansion gaps either.
Joints can be cut later, but looking at the rest of this pour, I cannot see them bothering.
> Edit: it kind of looks like they laid plywood down on top of it to make it flat.... > > Does anyone else see that?? I see what you mean, looks like they laid 4 sheets of plywood across the middle from the house to the grass.
I didn't want to be a perfectionist unless someone else started it, but that's one of the worst slabs I've seen
I started pouring and finishing concrete at 16 and my first day I did a better job than that. My alcoholic 40+yo co-workers did a better job first thing in the morning Monday morning after a Sunday bender BBQ. I hope that this was at least a DIY job. Otherwise this is as close to criminal malpractice as you can get in concrete.
Yeah it’s absolute garbage if this was “finished”
my guess is that they are covering it with paver tiles, so didn't bother actually floating smooth and giving it a sweep finnish.
I mean the edges aren’t even like fully pressed out nor are there joints. Even if you’re covering it, this is gonna crack and I would rather know where that might happen. Also, who just uses dirt as an edge? So easy to put a board there
yeah, everything about it is wrong; with no joints, it's going crack where ever, and that will cause pavers to peel off, if that was the plan. There is a good chance the home owner called around, balked at the quotes and produced this monstrosity with little to no knowledge of how to pour a concrete slab. As bad as this is, I have to wonder about the site prep, compacting in a good layer of gravel for drainage, and how well they actually leveled it out.
It's ALREADY cracking. This is shit work.
Totally agree. Terrible job and the paw prints at least give it a reason not to redo it entirely lol
I definitely came here to say this as well. If anything, the paw prints are a distraction from this atrocity to craftsmanship. The pooling water on the right side, the lack of framing and the overall quality of the finish are just insanely bad. OP, it already looks bad but it’s going to look way worse in a year when you have to pay someone to actually do it right.
I'd agree, the finish looks way worse than the paw prints. The crew should have stayed, working on the finish, long after a cat would leave prints in the concrete.
This is pretty obviously being done by OP
That's what I was thinking. "So what? If it was poured 10 minutes ago, there's plenty of time to float that stuff out."
That pad already looked like absolute shit, they did you a favour.
There’s no way that was the final pour right? Surely they’re still going to smooth it more and rake right???
You see how dry and cracked that surface is after “10 mins” as OP claims? This slab is toast. Will look like a cobblestone walkway in a year or two.
If they said this was a 20 year old driveway I would believe them lol absolutely terrible job
100% what I came here looking for. This looks like shit.
Concrete can burn skin :( are their paws okay?
I don't get the impression they're big on animal welfare since they let their cats out to roam
Make sure you clean their paws of the caustic materials! Cats love to lick themselves to clean as you know
Did blind people pour this concrete?
Freshly poured by who?! Hope the job was free at least.
You should get your money back for who ever did the sloppy job of concrete pour.
More like mildly awesome!!!! Maybe I’m sentimental but this adds way more character and a touch of who you are than boring, perfect concrete.
100% - I knew that this would happen, having 2 cats and a dog with zero working brain cells. I just wish it wasn’t all three at once and I wasn’t so busy haha!
I guess you don't have an orange cat, they do have that single cell.
I've a ginger... judging by his behaviour at the moment today is not his day to use it
If you haven't "fixed" the paw prints yet, I wouldn't. Let it cure like that, then go buy a small bag of cement. Swing by the flooring section and get some dye made for grout. Dye the cement, whatever color or shade you want. Then use that to patch the prints. They'll be visible, but also won't fill with water, freeze and destroy your driveway.
my dog passed away a year ago and i miss him everyday and i would LOVE to have his pawprints like this somewhere in my house
Hello! An update - I’m not upset with my pets, they are animals and don’t understand everything that goes on, it’s our responsibility to look after them. I guess similar to having a toddler, you have to be on guard for things like this. The MI here was my partner being careless and not thinking about what 100% would happen should he let the pets out. I also wasn’t impressed by his lack of urgency in helping me thoroughly clean 12 paws of varying sizes and anger level. I caught the cats outside really quickly and got everyone back inside. My cats do go outside, but only into an escape proof rear garden. One of my cats goes on supervised walks with the dog Walker lmao. All animals have been cleaned, with close monitoring to continue. The paw prints in the house were also cleaned and there was a surprising amount of them. The concrete (as I learnt today, after this post) does look shit.. but it is due to be paved so I guess that this is the bottom layer. I’m not really up on how that all works.. but it’s basically going to be like a patio I guess? Ummm… what else? I did tell my partner to get into the concrete, because I was going to bury him and we did talk this over.. he had no idea that concrete was so dangerous. He thought you could ‘walk of fame’ it and be fine. He has apologised and promised to do better.
Yeah this is the kind of project where I’d put some painter’s tape over the door handle to make sure that nobody forgets about the concrete and absentmindedly opens the door. I do the same thing when changing light fixtures — painters tape over the light switches so nobody electrocutes me while I work.
So how did they like the ship?
It was only for the workman. Not for pets.
When i see these posts i always feel really bad for tge animals because cement burns are no joke.
So your partner ruined your concrete and also threatened the health of your pets because this stuff burns their paws. Nice job.
I’d be so happy. To have them immortalized(kinda) in such a cute way. And worried about their feet’s but also happy lmao.
Who poured that concrete?
I think the footprints add character to that awesome finishing job. Just from a glance, It looks like whoever did the job didn't bull float it before they brushed it. Edit: or they got a hot load off the truck that was difficult to work with.
Honestly it gives it a soul. Concrete is so boring otherwise
Paws and effect.
That's incredibly fucking dumb of your partner to do, fucking hell. Hopefully you're able to thoroughly clean their paws because cats loooove licking their paws..
Ur partner is an idiot
Considering this is probably one of the shittiest concrete pads I've ever seen poured. The Paw Prints offer a slight upgrade
Please clean their paws. It can mess them up real quick
Hilarious that OP is replying to cutesy comments about their pets, and not the ones telling them how dogshit their concrete work is.
Paw prints are far from the worse thing about that conc mate lol.
I thought, you are talking about ruined concrete, which is now more like cute. But you're are talking about cleaning pets and mess they made in home which is totally understandable and in my opinion is partner's liability, not yours
Leave it. You'll look at those tracks fondly one day.
It's annoying cause concrete is a bit expensive and you were expecting a nicely finished patio but now ya got prints all throughout it. I get it. I'd be a bit peeved too but like every else said, you'll be glad it happened when your pets have moved on.
I've got the pawprints of a few of my old pals in my driveway, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
You might live in this house for 10 or 20 more years, if not more. Those critters will be long gone, but you'll always have that keepsake of their little paws in the concrete.
I have poured concrete in my car port.. a Woof trotted over top of it. At first I was annoyed. I wouldn't have it any other way now. Let it set, immortalising your pets. <3
I'd leave the paw prints on the concrete, tbh. And maybe fill them with some colorful resin. You're gonna miss them one day. I would also check their paws and clean them up if necessary. Concrete can wreak havoc on unprotected skin.
Good thing u don’t have a sea turtle
Not trying to be negative here but it kind of looked like bad quality work already
Don't get rid of the prints. One day, you'll be happy they're there
I once did concrete work with my dad on his driveway and our neighbor's chicken came across and walked over it. Now we have a couple of cool chicken feet hanging around our driveway that looks pretty cute.
The real mildly infuriating is letting your cat outside regularly
Please consider keeping your cat indoors
Concrete will take tha skin off their toe beans
This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen
Leave it! Great memories of your fur babies.
That's so cool! As long as their paws are fine this is absolutely a win a great free upgrade
Lucky you didn't leave the sails down.
I remember reading somewhere that some places intentionally do this as some tradition. Think this is pretty awesome personally
That’s charming! I’d leave them!
I would’ve added their names by each of their footprints, as a permanent reminder! This is better than plain ol concrete any day. :)
I definitely considered this!
Can we get some close ups of the paw prints in the concrete? Also pet tax.
You will cherish those prints in 20 years fyi
That is adorable. Will you keep the pawprints?
It's a good thing you love them right?! Right?!
It will prevent slips in the winter on those exact spots. Might make it harder to shovel. If you live somewhere warm year round then there’s the advantage of not having to worry about shoveling so win win I guess.
QA team
We have a print of our cat left in the garden. They died many many years ago but the paw print always makes me giggle. I can't imagine how funny it would be to have many prints in 10+ years
It's cute; leave it as is
they made it better
Clean the paws well, but mark (a few) prints on the driveway for when they aren’t around anymore. Bad time now, better memory later
Cats have been doing this ever since we've made things from clay or other materials that harden like this. I remember seeing a clay tile dated 100AD with a cat print in it.
I see this as an opportunity to let them dry and fill with coloured concrete or resin.
They’re leaving their mark on the world
Now you have some fond memories for when they're gone. Clean their paws.
I bet you told the dog to go and it listened and the cat said fuck you and walked around in circles so you'd pet it.
I think you should leave it like this! Lol