Remember when we used to finish concrete by hand with wooden floats?

I've been doing concrete work since 1998 and I swear back then we did everything with wooden floats and hand trowels. Now days every young guy on site wants to use those magnesium bull floats and power trowels for everything. Last week I was on a job in Frederick and watched a kid try to use a power trowel on a small patio. He ended up burning the surface and we had to grind it down the next morning. I get that power tools save time on big slabs, but for anything under 500 square feet I still grab my old wooden float. The finish just comes out smoother and I can feel the surface changing under my hand. Anyone else stick with the old ways on smaller residential jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliotw3712d ago

Man I've done the same thing with a hand trowel before, so at least that kid had a machine to blame instead of just his own bad timing like me.

corad8413d ago

Man that thing about burning the surface... I've seen it happen more times than I can count with the young guys and their power trowels. It's like they don't get that you gotta read the concrete, not just run a machine over it.