I swear my slab finish went from garbage to solid in just 3 months

I started using a power trowel with a float shoe instead of hand floating on a 2000 sq ft warehouse floor in Dallas. The difference was night and day after about 50 man hours of practice. Anyone else see that much improvement just from swapping one tool?

2 comments

2 Comments

seth_martinez2111d ago

The float shoe is definitely a game changer, but you gotta be careful with that power trowel speed. I've seen guys burn the surface by going too fast right after the pour, even with a float shoe. Your 3 month improvement is probably more about your body getting used to the tool and learning how to read the slab better than just the tool swap itself. In my experience, the float shoe helps spread the cream more evenly, but if your mix design or water content is off, that nice finish can still turn into a mess real quick. Take this with a grain of salt, but I'd bet your technique improved alongside the tool. How is the warehouse floor holding up now after a few years?

aaronf405d ago

Respectfully, @seth_martinez21, I gotta push back on that a bit (and hey, I respect your experience). The tool swap was a bigger deal than you're giving it credit for, at least in my book. I've been running the same mix design for years and never changed my water content, so when I switched to the float shoe, the finish was noticeably better from the first pour (no joke, night and day difference). You're right that technique improves with time, but that float shoe lets me work the slab slower and catch the cream before it dries out, which is huge. A power trowel going too fast can burn any finish, sure, but the float shoe actually forces me to slow down (you know, like a governor on a truck). The warehouse floor still looks solid after three winters, no scaling or crazing, so I'm sticking with the shoe.