Concrete cured for at least seven days
Applies only if your house has an RCC spread footing foundation.
Why — act while you have leverage
Concrete gains its strength from water, not from time. A footing that dried out in its first week is permanently weaker than the number on the design, and no later curing recovers it.
What to look at
- Gunny bags or curing compound in place and actually wet
- Someone named as responsible for wetting, including Sundays
- The cement type on the bag — PPC needs the longer period
How to check it yourself
Exposed surfaces are kept continuously damp for a minimum of seven days where ordinary Portland cement is used, and ten days for blended cements (PPC/PSC), which is what most Kerala sites are actually buying. Continuously damp means wet, not sprinkled once a morning.
Where this comes from: IS 456:2000 cl. 13.5 — curing (indian standard or building code)
More foundation checks
- Photograph before this is covered
- Cover blocks in place — 50 mm to footing reinforcement
- Steel matches the grade and diameter on the drawing
- Rubble foundation: through bond stones at every course band
- Rubble foundation: hearting solid, chips under a fifth of the volume
- RCC footing: size and depth as designed, on the correct stratum
- Raft foundation: reinforcement laid in the order the drawing gives and not walked flat
- Pile foundation: pile records kept for every pile, not a sample
- Under-reamed piles: bulb formed at the designed depth
- Plinth beam continuous and tied into the foundation
- Column starter bars plumb, with 40 mm cover and correct laps
- Backfill compacted in layers, not tipped in
- Damp proof course laid unbroken at plinth level