Loading…
17
My lead finisher asked me why I still float by hand on garage slabs and it got under my skin
I was pouring a 24x30 garage slab last Tuesday with a guy who has been finishing for 22 years, and when I grabbed the magnesium float he asked why I don't just hit it with the power trowel after the bull float. I said that's how my first boss out of Odessa trained me, hand float then edge then trowel, and he just kind of laughed and said that's 3 extra hours on a slab that doesn't need it. We did the next two slabs his way, bull float straight to the rider, and I'll admit the finish looked just as tight and we were packing up by 2 instead of 5. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I've been costing myself time on res jobs for no reason, or if hand floating actually matters on anything that's going to see weather. Is there a real reason to hand float a slab before the power trowel or is it just old habit passed down? For you guys doing flatwork every day, where's the line between doing it right and doing it slow?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
reese_taylor691d ago
Man, I used to swear by hand floating everything until a oldtimer showed me the same thing on a shop slab last year. If it's getting a good machine finish and not exposed to freeze thaw right away, the rider does the same job in half the time.
7