Guides
Curing (tarai) after casting
Four of the cement makers whose bags stand in this godown publish a curing period on their own sites, and they do not publish one number: Nuvoco says 7 days, UltraTech and MP Birla say 7 to 14, and Shree Cement says 7 days for OPC, 10 to 14 for PPC or PSC, and 14 to 21 for a slab.
- Guides
- 1 table of figures
- Own delivery, 34 blocks
- Open all 7 days
Tarai is the water a fresh dhalai gets once the mixer has stopped, and it is the one part of a slab that never goes on a vehicle. Jay Shree Infra stacks cement at its Saharsa godown under six maker names, ACC, UltraTech, Nuvoco, Ambuja, Shree and MP Birla, and supplies Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura from that one counter. Four of those six publish a curing period a buyer can go and read, and the four figures in the line above are theirs, copied off nothing else. Which bag is standing on a given morning is a phone call. How many days it wants after the pour is settled before you leave the shop.
Seven days and twenty one days both sit on that list. What narrows it for one particular slab is the statutory type printed under the brand name, and only one of those four makers divides its own figure that way. So the first thing to do with a fresh bori is turn it round and read the small letters.
The four figures
What each maker on this rack publishes
The curing period four cement makers publish on their own sites, for concrete generally and for a roof slab.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
| Maker | Concretedays | Roof slabdays |
|---|---|---|
| Nuvoco | 7 | 7 |
| UltraTech | 7-14 | 7-14 |
| MP Birla | 7-14 | 7-14 |
| Shree Cement | 7 / 10-14 | 14-21 |
Every figure is off that maker's own site and nothing here is averaged or rounded. Nuvoco's 7 days covers concrete and mortar together, and its slab entry is ponding inside mortar bunds of about one metre by one metre. UltraTech's sits on its ponding article, which holds 25 to 50 mm of water on the slab and says the length turns on the cement type without printing the split. MP Birla publishes 7 to 14 days and names cement type, weather and the structure as what moves it. Shree Cement's are on its Bangur site, and its concrete cell carries the two figures it publishes rather than one number spanning them: 7 days where the sack reads OPC, 10 to 14 where it reads PPC or PSC. The 14 to 21 in its slab column is a slab in hot or dry weather. ACC and Ambuja bags stand on the same rack and have no row here, because we could not read a curing period off either maker's own site.
Read down the slab column and the spread is 7 days to 21. All four are minimums, so none of them contradicts another: a slab watered for 21 days has met every figure in the table and a slab watered for 7 has met one of them. The figure to work to is the one belonging to the sack you actually bought, and above that, the one your engineer wrote.
The method behind the four numbers is the same in all four places. Bunds of mud or mortar go up on the slab, water goes inside them and stays there. For columns and beams, where water will not stand, the same pages wrap wet gunny bags around the section, and walls get sprinkled twice a day. Nuvoco puts 7 days on all three.
The deciding word
Why two slabs on one street get different figures
The cement type is the variable, and a brand name does not fix it. All eighteen cement product rows on our own cement rack carry the same instruction against themselves, and the rows naming a real sack record the type as SKU specific. The Shree bag and the MP Birla bag are two names on one rack here; what follows either of them for tarai is decided by the small print underneath the name.
That makes the two ends of the table useful. Where the sack reads OPC, 7 days is a floor somebody has actually written down and published. Where it reads PPC or PSC, the same maker that wrote the 7 wrote 10 to 14 instead, and gives the slower strength gain of blended cement as its reason. A plain UltraTech sack and a plain Nuvoco sack can each come out either way, so the word to hunt for is on the bag and never in the order you placed.
The first day
When tarai starts, and what is still standing under the slab
Shree Cement puts the start inside 6 to 10 hours of the pour, and inside 6 hours for a roof slab. UltraTech starts it the moment the surface is firm enough to walk on. MP Birla starts it the moment the concrete is hard enough not to be marked. Three ways of saying one thing, and only one of them carries an hour you can write down.
The days that follow are not idle days on a site. Nuvoco publishes formwork removal against the same job: 16 to 24 hours for the vertical shuttering of columns, walls and beam sides, 3 days for the bottom of a slab with the props refixed straight away, and 7 days for the bottom of a beam, all of it above 15 degrees. So the props are still in while the water is still on top, and the sariya for whatever goes up next has to reach a site that is working rather than waiting. Fix that delivery on the same call as the dhalai order and it lands on the right day.
What we sell for it
The one stage of a house we sell nothing for
We stock forty six product lines, and not one of them is a gunny bag, a hessian sheet, a curing compound or a length of hose. Tarai costs a household nothing but attention, and all four maker pages agree on what that attention buys: concrete that keeps gaining strength instead of stopping where it was on the second morning.
What we do carry that touches it comes on the same bill anyway. The sack sets the number of days. Cover blocks hold the steel off the shuttering, so the concrete being watered is actually sitting over it. Waterproofing liquid is a separate decision for the terrace: follow the maker's own technical data sheet and application system, which is what sets what curing the product itself asks for.
Sources
Four makers, four figures
Each number in the table is on the maker's own site, under its own name.
- Shree Cement's curing guide, with the OPC and blended periods written separatelyShree Cement (Bangur)
- UltraTech's ponding article, with the water depth and the period it runs forUltraTech Cement
- Nuvoco's answers on curing method, bund size and formwork removalNuvoco Vistas
- MP Birla's curing article and the 7 to 14 days it publishesMP Birla Cement
Questions
Chhat ki tarai par sawal
Dhalai ke baad kitne din tarai karni hai?
Somewhere between 7 and 21 days, and which end applies depends on the sack. Nuvoco publishes 7 days, UltraTech and MP Birla publish 7 to 14, and Shree Cement publishes 7 for OPC, 10 to 14 for PPC or PSC, and 14 to 21 on a slab. All four are minimums, so the longest of them satisfies every other, and an engineer's drawing beats all four.
PPC ki bori hai to tarai lambi karni padegi?
On Shree Cement's own published figures, yes: 7 days for OPC against 10 to 14 days for PPC or PSC, with the slower strength gain of blended cement given as the reason. UltraTech says the period turns on the cement type without printing the split. Nuvoco and MP Birla publish one figure each and do not divide it. Read the type off the sack first, because the brand name does not settle it.
Chhat par pani bhar kar tarai karein ya bori dhak kar?
Water on a flat roof slab, in all four sources. Ponding is water held on the slab inside mud or mortar bunds; Nuvoco puts those bunds at about one metre by one metre and UltraTech holds 25 to 50 mm of water inside them. Wet gunny bags are what the same pages use on columns and beams, where water will not stand, and walls get sprinkled twice a day for 7 days.
Tarai kab se shuru ki jaye?
Inside 6 hours of finishing a roof slab, which is the only published hour among the four. Shree Cement puts general curing at 6 to 10 hours after pouring. UltraTech begins as soon as the surface is firm enough to walk on, MP Birla as soon as the concrete is hard enough not to be marked. Either way the count runs from the pour and not from the next morning.
Tarai ka saman aapke yahan milta hai?
No. We stock forty six product lines and not one of them is a gunny bag, a hessian sheet or a curing compound, so there is nothing on our rack to sell you for this stage. What we do carry beside it is the cement whose type sets the number of days, cover blocks, and waterproofing liquid for the terrace afterwards. Ring +91 6202 967 218 and we will tell you what is standing for the pour itself.
Before you ring
What decides the figure for your own slab
Does the sack read OPC, PPC or PSC?
That word is what picks a row off the table. It sits in the statutory block in small letters and it varies sack to sack, so read it out on the call if the print is hard to place.
Has the engineer written a curing period?
A drawing beats all four maker pages linked above. Where no drawing exists, the mistri's instruction stands in its place.
Which day is the pour, and what time does the mixer stop?
The clock starts there. Shree Cement wants a roof slab under water inside 6 hours of finishing, so the hour is part of the plan for the day and not an afterthought.
What has to reach the site while the slab is still under water?
Nuvoco puts 3 days on the bottom shuttering of a slab and 7 on a beam, so the site keeps working through the tarai days. Book the next delivery on the same call and it arrives where it is wanted.
Is a waterproofing product going into this job?
Check the waterproofing liquid's own technical data sheet and application system. That sheet says what curing the product itself wants.
Contact
Tarai is the part that does not arrive on our vehicle
Everything ahead of it can be settled on the phone: which type is standing this morning, how many bori, and which day the mixer runs. Tarai itself is yours, and the only part of it this shop touches is getting the next load onto a site that is still under water. One call on +91 6202 967 218 fixes the pour date, the bori count and the delivery that follows the props out.
Shop hours: All 7 days, 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM