Stopped by an old jobsite downtown and noticed nobody uses wooden floats anymore

I was driving through Portland last weekend and took a detour past a hotel foundation we poured back in 2003. That job was a nightmare with the rebar schedule changes but man we finished that slab by hand with wooden floats and mags. Every crew now is using those resin composite floats and I get it they last longer but the feel is different. You can't get that same tight finish without the wood grain pulling just right on the cream. Has anyone else noticed the old tools just disappearing from vans or am I just getting old?

3 comments

3 Comments

margareto265d ago

Honestly, are we sure the wood float was actually better or just what we learned on? Composites don't warp in the humidity and they keep a consistent edge way longer than any cedar plank I've ever used. Ngl if you're chasing that "perfect skin" you're probably just remembering the good parts of the job and forgetting how many times you had to sand down a wood float or deal with splinters.

wendy1315d agoMost Upvoted

Noticed the same thing at a supply house last month. The old guys swapping stories about how wood floats would leave that perfect skin while the young bucks just grab whatever resin handle is cheapest. There's something about the natural moisture in cedar or pine that actually helps the finish, those composites just don't breathe the same way.

piper_kim5d ago

Oh totally, that's spot on. Had a job last summer where I was using this brand new magnesium float and it just kept sticking and tearing up the surface, swapped to an old cedar one my dad gave me and it glided right through. There's something about how the wood actually absorbs a tiny bit of water and creates that slick, creamy finish that these synthetic materials just can't mimic. The grain pattern in a good pine float leaves this subtle texture that feels right, not like the plasticky smoothness you get from the resin handles.