Switched from hand troweling to power troweling on a big slab and I'm never going back

For like 5 years I was dead set on hand finishing everything. Thought power trowels were for lazy guys who didn't care about quality. But last month I had a 4,000 square foot warehouse floor in Denver and I was looking at 14 hours of hand work by myself. My buddy loaned me his ride-on trowel and told me to just try it on a test patch. Man, after one pass I could see the finish was actually better. Way more consistent and I finished the whole job in 6 hours instead of 14. My knees didn't scream at me for three days either. Has anyone else fought against using a tool for years then finally caved?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_coleman872d ago

Did you get any ridge lines or washboarding on the first few passes or did that just disappear once you got the hang of it?

noah9172d ago

Did you get that feeling of pure RELIEF when you realized you could stand upright instead of crawling around? @felix_coleman87 that washboarding thing is real, but it's WAY less than hand troweling. My first pass I panicked and left some marks, but once you learn to keep it moving it's actually MORE forgiving than hand work.