That time a subcontractor saved my whole crew 3 hours with one question

I was running a commercial concrete pour downtown Austin about 2 months ago and we had this new guy from a subcontractor show up. He walked up to me and asked why we were using the old style of form release when the newer synthetic stuff would break down faster on the edges. I almost snapped at him because I was stressed about the timeline but then I realized he had a point. He pulled out his phone and showed me a comparison from his last job where they saved over $400 in labor because the forms came apart cleaner. Now I switched every crew over to that stuff and we're cutting our stripping time by almost 20 percent. Has anyone else run into a sub or vendor who actually made you rethink your whole process just by speaking up about something small?

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maxpalmer6d ago

That new guy sounds like a wizard in work boots. Next thing you know he'll be telling us to mix the concrete with Gatorade for faster curing.