Had to pick between a $600 trowel machine or going back to hand tools for a 3000 sq ft slab

I was smoothing out a warehouse floor last month and my old walk-behind trowel started vibrating so bad it shook my teeth loose, so I had to choose between rental costs or finishing it by hand. I went with the rental since the slab was already setting up fast and I figured I'd save my knees, but the machine felt different than mine and I left some chatter marks near the edges. Has anyone else had a machine throw off their finish on a tight schedule like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_lane4d ago

Yeah that chatter mark thing is the worst, I had a similar issue and ended up just going back to hand tools halfway through.

burns.brooke4d ago

My buddy had that exact problem last summer on a garage floor. He rented a machine he'd never used before and ended up with marks all over one section, had to grind it down and redo it the next day. He said the rental place didn't warn him it had a different blade pitch than his usual one.