I finally switched from hand trowel to power trowel for finish work

Been doing flatwork for 8 years in Charlotte. Always used a hand trowel for finish. Last month on a 4000 sq ft warehouse floor I borrowed a buddy's power trowel. Night and day difference. Smoother finish in half the time. My knees hurt way less too. Anyone else make the switch and never go back?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameron4267d ago

You mention "smoother finish in half the time" but I gotta push back a little. I've been doing flatwork for about 12 years now and power trowels have their place (big open slabs like warehouse floors sure) but they can actually burn the surface if you're not careful with the speed. Hand troweling gives you way more feel for what the concrete is doing, especially on smaller jobs or tricky mixes. I've seen guys ruin a nice slab by getting too aggressive with a power trowel too early, locking in surface water that later turns into a dusty mess. Plus on something like a driveway with tight corners or steps you're still gonna be on your knees with a hand trowel anyway so why not just stay consistent with your technique.

karen_hart7d ago

Gotta love watching someone learn that lesson the hard way about burning a slab with a power trowel, right? I've seen it happen twice on jobs where the guys thought they were hot stuff with their fancy machines. Hand troweling might take longer, but at least you can feel the concrete starting to set instead of just blasting along like you're in a race. Those tight corners near steps or edges? Yeah, you're still crawling around with a manual trowel anyway, so why drag out two sets of tools for the same job? Funny how some folks think buying a power tool makes them faster until they spend twice as long fixing the mess it made.