Swore I'd never use a power trowel but got talked into renting one

Spent $85 to rent a power trowel for a 1,200 square foot garage floor last weekend after the boss kept pushing it. Figured it would mess up the finish but it actually saved me three hours of hand work and the surface came out flatter than anything I've done by hand. Anybody here still do all their finishing by hand or has everyone made the switch?

2 comments

2 Comments

lunah124d ago

My uncle runs a crew that still does everything hand trowel on big commercial slabs. He says the issue with power trowels isn't the finish, it's that you lose the feel for when the concrete is ready. He had a helper burn a 5,000 square foot warehouse floor a few years back because the guy started the power trowel too early while the surface was still soft. That one mistake cost them a whole day of grinding and patching. So maybe it's not about whether power trowels work, but about knowing the timing better than the machine does. I'd stick with hand work for anything under 500 feet just to keep that skill sharp.

logan6584d ago

I've been there too, had a green guy on a power trowel ruin a pour because he didn't wait long enough. We switched to hand finishing any smaller jobs just to keep the crew's timing sharp, and it's paid off big time.