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Am I the only one who hates these new fiberglass finishing tools?
I picked up a set of those expensive fiberglass hand floats last month at a supply house in Denver. The guy at the counter swore they'd last forever and never rust. Well three jobs later and the edges are already chipping off and leaving little glass strands in my finish. Had to go back over a whole 30 yard driveway with a steel float just to smooth out the marks. My old magnesium float that I've had for 8 years still works perfect. These new materials companies keep pushing feel like they're solving problems nobody actually had. Anyone else run into this with fiberglass tools or am I just getting bad ones?
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ramirez.vera4d ago
Hold up, I gotta say something here. Those fiberglass tools aren't actually meant for finishing concrete like you're using them. They're for drywall mud and stucco work, not for pushing wet concrete around. The glass fibers in the blade are way too soft to handle the abrasion from sand and aggregate in a concrete mix. That's why your magnesium float worked fine for 8 years it's made for the job. You're not getting bad tools, you just bought the wrong kind for what you're doing. Return that set and stick with what works, don't let the guy at the counter upsell you on something that doesn't fit the application.
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pat_murray534d ago
@ramirez.vera nailed it. I made the same mistake a few years back when I tried using a fiberglass trowel for a garage slab. It wore down in about twenty minutes and left rough spots everywhere. Switched back to my old magnesium float and it finished smooth as glass. Stick with what the job calls for, not what looks shiny on the shelf.
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