I thought the old-timer's trick of using a potato to stop a core box leak was a joke until my foreman in Toledo actually did it during a pour last Thursday.

Has anyone else actually had to use a weird kitchen item to fix something on the floor, or was our shop just that desperate?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_williams691d ago

Nah, that's not desperate at all, that's just smart. A potato is basically a wet plug that holds until the concrete sets, it's genius. We've used a whole raw onion to pack a gap in a form before it hardened. Sometimes the simple fix right in front of you is the best one. Calling it a kitchen item misses the point, it's just a tool that works.

adams.taylor1d ago

Wait, you used a whole onion? Did it start to smell as the concrete cured, or did it just get sealed in there forever? I can picture the onion skin and juice mixing into the wet mix and it seems like it would cause a weird reaction. A potato makes some sense because it's mostly starch and water, but an onion has those strong oils.