Overheard a GC trash talking power trowels on a high rise pour

Standing at the edge of a 14th floor deck last month, I caught the general contractor telling his intern that anyone using a power trowel instead of hand floating is just lazy. That really got under my skin, especially since I've run a 36 inch machine on 5000 psi mixes for years. Hand floating that slab would've taken us 3 extra hours and still wouldn't have matched the density we got. Has anyone else had to bite their tongue when some office guy who's never held a bull float lectures the crew?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

hugoj129d ago

Sounds like the GC just wanted to hear himself talk. A guy who's never been on the business end of a trowel doesn't get a vote on how the finishing crew runs the pour. Lots of old timers say hand floating is the only "real" way, but that's mostly nostalgia for how things used to be done, not some proven science. Worrying about every jab from the office is a fast way to burn yourself out.

2