Concrete pour day: what to say before, during and after
A pour does not wait. Once the first mixer truck backs up to the chute, every instruction gets said once, fast, over the noise of the pump — and if it has to route through the one bilingual guy on the crew, it arrives late or not at all. This is the vocabulary for the whole day, in the order you will need it.
All of it comes from the ChambaTalk glossary, in Mexican jobsite Spanish: the pour is el colado and the verb is colar (crews from elsewhere say vaciar); forms are la cimbra, not encofrado; rebar is varilla; and the mixer truck is simply la olla.
Before: forms, rebar, and the inspector
The night before is when the checks happen. Nothing gets fixed after the truck arrives.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| formwork | cimbra |
| rebar | varilla |
| rebar chair | silleta (pollo on Mexican crews) |
| We pour at 7, so have the forms ready by 6:30. | Colamos a las siete, así que ten la cimbra lista a las seis y media. |
| Check the formwork one more time before the trucks roll in. | Revisa la cimbra una vez más antes de que lleguen las ollas. |
| Tie the rebar on 12-inch centers before the pour. | Amarra la varilla a cada 12 pulgadas antes del colado. |
| Set the mat on rebar chairs, don’t leave it lying on the plastic. | Pon la parrilla sobre silletas, no la dejes tirada sobre el plástico. |
| The inspector has to see the footing rebar before we pour. | El inspector tiene que ver la varilla de la zapata antes de colar. |
During: slump, placing, and keeping it moving
The driver will ask about slump, and the man on the vibrator needs to hear you over the engine.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| slump | revenimiento (asentamiento outside Mexico) |
| mixer truck | olla |
| chute | canalón |
| vibrator | vibrador |
| The spec calls for a four-inch slump on this pour. | La especificación pide un revenimiento de cuatro pulgadas en este colado. |
| Don’t add water to the truck, it kills the water-cement ratio. | No le eches agua a la olla, echa a perder la relación agua-cemento. |
| Swing the chute over here and give me half a yard. | Gira el canalón para acá y dame media yarda. |
| Run the vibrator in every lift or we’ll get honeycomb. | Mete el vibrador en cada capa o nos va a salir panal. |
| Slow the pour down or we’ll get a blowout on that tall wall. | Bájale al colado o nos va a dar un reventón de cimbra en ese muro alto. |
| Grab the other end of the screed and keep it tight to the forms. | Agarra el otro extremo de la regla y mantenla pegada a la cimbra. |
| Keep the trucks coming or we’ll end up with a cold joint. | Que no paren las ollas o nos va a quedar una junta fría. |
The blowout line is marked safety-critical in the glossary, and the app translates it as an alarm, not a remark.
After: finishing and curing
Finishing is timing. The Spanish for the machine trowel — el helicóptero — is one everyone on the crew will recognize.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| bull float | flota de mango largo |
| power trowel | helicóptero |
| broom finish | acabado escobillado (rayado in Mexico) |
| Float the slab as soon as the sheen leaves the surface. | Flotea la losa en cuanto se le quite el brillo a la superficie. |
| Get the power trowel on the slab as soon as it holds your weight. | Sube el helicóptero a la losa en cuanto aguante tu peso. |
| Cut the control joints within twelve hours of the pour. | Corta las juntas de control antes de doce horas después del colado. |
| Cure the slab for seven days before you load it. | Cura la losa siete días antes de ponerle carga. |
| Fresh concrete — don’t step on it. | Concreto fresco — no lo pises. |
Here “set” finally does mean fraguar: “Don’t load the slab until it sets” is No le pongas carga a la losa hasta que fragüe. On a framing crew the same word means place. ChambaTalk knows which crew is talking.
The safety lines
Wet concrete is caustic. It burns skin slowly, through a wet glove or a boot full of slurry, and it does not feel like a burn until the damage is done. Eyes are worse. OSHA expects the site to provide the protective equipment and to train the crew in a language they understand.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| Bring your rubber boots; we’re pouring the footings tomorrow. | Trae tus botas de hule; mañana colamos las zapatas. |
| Wear your gloves. | Ponte los guantes. |
| Wear safety goggles, not just glasses, when you grind concrete. | Usa goggles de seguridad, no nomás lentes, cuando esmeriles concreto. |
| Got concrete in your eye? Straight to the eye wash station, don’t rub it. | ¿Te entró cemento al ojo? Directo a la estación lavaojos, no te lo talles. |
| Stay clear of the swing radius while the boom is working. | Aléjate del radio de giro mientras trabaja la pluma. |
| It’s over 100 degrees — take a water break. | Hace más de 100 grados — tómate un descanso para tomar agua. |
| Where does it hurt? | ¿Dónde te duele? |
Every line here is in the free glossary at app.chambatalk.com/glossary, with audio, so you can hear revenimiento before the driver asks.