Power trowel vs hand floating, I'll take the hand float every time

Been finishing concrete for about 12 years now, mostly driveways and patios in the Phoenix area. Everyone I work with swears by the power trowel for anything over 200 square feet, but I still hand float my big pours. Last month I did a 900 square foot garage slab in Mesa and my partner brought his 36 inch trowel machine, we split the slab down the middle to see who finished faster. He beat me by maybe 20 minutes but I had way fewer trowel marks and the surface took the sealer better, no dark spots. The machine wants to pull moisture too fast if you aren't careful, and once you get those burn lines you're grinding for half a day. Hand floating lets me feel the slab talking to me, I know exactly when to hit it. Maybe I'm just old school but has anyone else had better luck skipping the power trowel on residential work?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

taylorhunt4d ago

You said "I know exactly when to hit it" and that is the part the machine guys never want to hear. On that Mesa slab, what was your window between when the bleed water cleared and when you started floating? I run into the same thing here in Tucson and the crew always wants to jump on it too early because the machine covers ground so fast. If you wait for the sheen to go away and the thumb print holds shape, you have maybe 15 minutes to work with and the trowel guys are already spinning. Do you use a magnesium float or a wood one for that first pass, because that changes when you can come back over it. And when your partner got those burn lines, was he running the machine too dry or just pushing the rpm too high early? That makes the difference more than the tool itself.

-1