Old school hand finishing vs. power trowels on a garage slab I did yesterday

I used to swear by hand finishing for everything, but I finally tried a power trowel on a 30x40 garage floor in Akron yesterday. It cut my time in half and the surface came out way flatter than I ever got by hand. Has anyone else gone back to hand tools for something specific or am I the only one?

3 comments

3 Comments

colescott10h ago

Man I had the exact same experience on a 40x50 shop floor last fall. Switched to a power trowel and could not believe how much flatter it was compared to my hand work. I still hand finish small patches like around posts and corners but for anything over maybe 200 square feet the machine wins every time now.

thomasgonzalez5h ago

You ever had a buddy who swore by his hand trowel until he tried a power one on a driveway? @colescott hit it right, my friend Tom rented a power trowel for his garage slab and said it turned out way better than all his hand-finished jobs.

corah755h agoProlific Poster

Yeah it's funny how that works @colescott. Once you use the right tool for a big flat space you just can't go back. I notice the same thing with all kinds of stuff around the house now. You buy a cheap hand tool, struggle for a while, then finally get the powered version and wonder why you waited so long. My circular saw was like that, and even my drill driver.