It is rarely necessary to wet down newly installed concrete in most residential applications. In some cases, the purpose of wetting down concrete is to cool it down, and slow evaporation of water. This in turn slows the curing process of hardening concrete, making for a better, stronger end-product. Today, most available ready-mix concrete contains a precise mixture of accelerants and or retardants carefully batched in to control the cure and hydration rates of setting concrete — making the process of manually wetting the concrete unnecessary.