Realized I was overworking my finish on every pour for years

I was on a big garage slab job in Spokane last fall, and the homeowner's kid, maybe 10, asked why I kept going over the same spot. I told him it had to be perfect, but he just said 'it looks wetter there now.' That was it. I was pulling up cream and adding water back by over-troweling. Anyone else have a simple moment that changed a bad habit?

3 comments

3 Comments

violay272mo ago

Kids have a way of cutting right to the truth, don't they? My own wake-up call came from my wife watching me frame a wall. She asked why I was fighting a board so hard, and I realized I was trying to force a piece that was just plain bowed. I was adding work instead of picking a better stud. It's funny how a simple question from someone not in the trade can make you see your own mistake clear as day.

the_kai2mo ago

Good point, @violay27, though I'd argue your wife was in the trade the second she started watching. A fresh set of eyes is a tool, just like a level. We get so locked into the process we forget the goal, which is a straight wall, not winning a fight with a bad board.

betty_barnes18d ago

Did you ask him what he meant by that, or did it just hit you later? Sometimes kids see stuff we miss because they don't have the jargon or the muscle memory blocking it. That 'wetter there' comment seems like something you'd need to sit with for a minute to really unpack, not just brush off as a kid talking. Was it a slow dawn or did it hit you like a brick right when he said it?