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I think we talk up the power trowel too much for small patios
Had a 12x14 patio pour last week in Springfield where the homeowner insisted on a broom finish. I figured I'd save time and just use my walk behind power trowel for the whole thing. Wrong. Getting a consistent broom pattern on the edges and around the step down was a nightmare with that machine. I spent over an hour trying to feather it in by hand after the fact, and the whole job took nearly 4 hours instead of the 2 I quoted. Sometimes the old hand tools are just faster for the tricky bits. Anyone else find power trowels can slow you down on smaller, detailed work?
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leebrown6mo ago
Wait, you used a walk behind on a 12x14 patio? That's wild, I can't even picture that fitting in the space without constantly bumping edges. No wonder the broom finish was a nightmare, those things are meant for big open slabs. I'd have just used a hand trowel and a broom from the start for something that size, the setup time alone for the machine would kill your speed.
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terry_hayes186mo ago
Hot take: Machines make simple jobs hard sometimes.
Totally agree with leebrown. That machine was way too big for the space. You end up fighting it more than you're working. On a pad that small, you're just moving the thing around more than you're finishing the concrete. A hand trowel and a broom would have had you done in half the time without all the stress. The right tool for the job, you know?
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